Wearing: Tea-Stained Chiffon

Good evening, readers! As promised you all when I first told you about my upcoming book release, I've included a small excerpt from the first chapter of the book in this post. The process of publishing a book has seemed overwhelming and invasive some days and the publicity has been more involved than I would have ever imagined, but the anticipation of holding something so tangible in my hands keeps me strong.

(Sundance Chiffon dress, Claire's hemp belt, Nine West Wedges, AE watch)

The evening was filled with a million happy moments.

My parents and Nathaniel, along with my boyfriend, Scott, and I, had just finished eating out at a family-style restaurant and were headed home. The brilliant rays of the late evening sun were intense, whitewashing the colors as they poured through the window into the backseat of my father's car. The smell of boxed fried chicken lingered in the air and the conversation assumed the lazy tempo that often accompanies a satisfying meal. In a moment that seems suspended in time, my brother looked at me with eyes as wide and clear as the Texas sky--that oh, so familiar grin cutting a crooked line across his face.

"All I know, Kristina, is that I'd better die before you do, 'cuz I could never live without you", he said, matter-of-factly.

Some moments take your breath away, while others are so pure and beautiful in their simplicity, you don't recognize their significance until later. I will never know if my strong, strapping eighteen-year-old brother felt any insecurity in saying those words to me.

What matters most now, is that he said them.

--Excerpt from After Nathaniel