Rules in Love

Copyright © 2022 by Bindi Kennedy All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. All artwork is copyright by author. Edited by Evans Editing Copyeditor by Jenn Lockwood Cover design by Haya in design Formatting by Champagne Book Design Published by Bindi K Publishing. This novel’s story and characters are wholly fictitious creations of my imagination. Details of the cities mentioned are not geographically accurate. Certain long-standing institutions, public offices & agencies, celebrities, works of literature, film, T.V. & songs are mentioned. TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page Epigraph Dedication The Romantic Rules—no, Ideologies of Scarlett Grant. ♥️ Chapter 1 Chapter 1.5 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Epilogue Acknowledgments “It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.”—Sense & Sensibility, Jane Austen. Author’s Note In the interests of a good tale, the locations in, and geographical features of Byron Bay, London, New York City and State, have been fictionalised. To my Markie and to my girls. I adore you. Dream big. Love big. To the voice in my head, screw you. I did it anyway. THE ROMANTIC RULES—NO, IDEOLOGIES OF SCARLETT GRANT. 1 Ben ALWAYS comes first. ALWAYS. 2 NEVER date a man more than twice your level of hotness. It’s inequitable, unsustainable, and undeniably doomed. 3 ️ DO NOT date men you work with. It’s just asking for trouble. 4 ️ DO NOT discuss male ‘friends’ in front of Ben, and ABSOLUTELY no ‘friends’ are to sleep over. This is made easier by #7. 5 ️ Sweet words and empty promises are just that. Empty. 6 ️Never, no matter how desperate you become, sleep with Brett. 7 ️ NEVER settle. Like Lizzie Bennett, “Only the deepest of love will induce me into matrimony.” Morally, the same goes for sex, but that’s flexible. 8 ️ NEVER, no matter how hot or sweet or fuckable, or how intensely he may stare at me across a room as I play piano, will I become any man’s fool. Jane Austen quote for reference: “I may have lost my heart, but not my self-control.” 9 Purposely left blank, allowing me to make rash decisions justifiable on the spot. 10 ️ ALWAYS REMEMBER, these are ideals, not rules. Rules are made to be broken. Ideals are made to make you a better person. Finn My world changed when I was seventeen. The hand of fate delivered lessons I would never forget and wounds that may never heal. I became a dad. I lost my parents and my girlfriend, and some days, when the hole was so deep and dark that I could see no light at the end, I feared my mind too. One thing saved me. My daughter. At twenty-four, life changed again. Though, thankfully, it was by choice. My seven-year-old daughter, Iris; my sister, Evie; my Aunt Jocelyn, and I had recently left our home in Australia and taken a twenty-two-hour flight to New York City to begin a fresh life. That was how I found myself in Manhattan, on Sixth Avenue, walking into the intimidating office of Wise, Bernstein, and Wright. It was my first day on the job as a junior architect. It had been a shit morning, and I felt like I was about to chuck. Iris had given me hell because I couldn’t braid her hair like a twenty-two-year-old influencer named Tatiana. Then, I almost killed myself by turning onto the wrong side of the road when leaving the daycare. Apologies had been issued to the 6,785 people I bumped into on the sidewalk, and I only made it to my office with one minute and thirty-nine seconds to spare. I was a fucking mess. And not just today. There were too many moving pieces in my life recently, and I was not a fan. My dislike—almost distrust—of change could not be underestimated. I was a routine man, and over the last few years, that routine had been set in concrete. My life consisted of monotonous days alone in Sydney, at university, my first job, and road trips to and from my family’s farm in Byron Bay. When at home, my days were filled with doing what I could to ensure my family’s happiness, regular dad stuff, and, if I could swing it, a bit of time on the waves with my best mate, Nate. Suddenly, I was waiting for an elevator, sweating in a suit that felt like a straitjacket, while being sneezed and coughed on by some weird lady who smelled like pizza. “You look nervous. Let me guess, job interview or first day?” My apprehension must have stuck out like a sore thumb for her to guess on the first go. “First day. It’s that obvious, huh?” Pizza Lady and I entered the elevator. She tried to console me with a tale of her sister and how she was fired five minutes into her last job. For whatever reason, that failed, and the stupid breathing techniques Evie had taught me after a meltdown on the flight from Sydney came to mind. “Close your mouth. Inhale through your nose for seven counts. Hold your breath for a count of four. Exhale through your mouth, making a whoosh sound for eight.” I only realized I was reciting