We pulled up to the park in Cal’s beat-up old Ford. He’d got it real cheap, because didn’t run, but my brother and TJ could fix anything, and they’d gotten that car up and running in no time. I always loved it when Cal drove me around in it. A couple of times he’d even dropped me off and picked me up at school. The kids in my class thought I was the shit.
Cal sauntered over to the merry-go-round, where three girls were standing with Scott and TJ. There was a pretty blonde, a redhead that made me feel things I only felt when I stole Cal’s Playboy magazines, and a brown-haired girl with a sweet smile aimed right at my brother.
I watched as he took her hand in his and brought it to his lips.
Yeah, my brother had all the moves.
“Hey, Craig, come over here,” Cal said, waving his hand toward his group.
I did my best to mimic Cal’s saunter. I’d been practicing in my room, but it never seemed quite right.
“Shelly, this in my brother Craig. Bud, this is my girlfriend, Shelly.”
I watched as Shelly’s eyes went wide when Cal called her his “girlfriend,” then she turned her smile on me. It was a real one … not like this other girl who had tried to talk to Cal at the last football game we went to. Her smile had been totally fake, and I knew she was trying to act like she liked me to impress Cal. He’d known too, and I’d never seen her again. I could tell Shelly wasn’t pretending, so I gave her a smile, took her hand in mine, and kissed it the way Cal just had.
She giggled, and TJ said, “Whoa, man. Craig’s already got more game than you.” Talking to Scott, who punched him in the arm.
“Nice to meet you, Craig,” Shelly said, and I noticed her eyes were a really pretty green, and her hair looked silky and soft. “These are my friends, Sasha and Gaby.”
I nodded to the redhead, who she said was Sasha, and tried not to stare too long. She nodded back. Then I turned to the blonde, Gaby, and returned the smile that she gave me.
“Hi, Craig,” Gaby said. “How old are you, about ten?”
I was surprised she guessed right. I was tall for my age, and people always thought I was eleven or twelve. I nodded, and her smile grew wider.
“Awesome,” she said, and I wondered why. I found out when she said, “My sister, Gwen, is ten too. I brought her along and she’s pretty bored. Would you mind talking to her? I’m sure she’d feel more comfortable with you around.”
I looked around Gaby to the swings where she was pointing. There was a girl with long blonde hair, pumping her legs as fast as she could as she swung high up in the air.
“Sure,” I said, happy to help. I didn’t have a problem being friends with girls like some of the guys from school did. Sure, I liked them, and thought a few were pretty, but I was more concerned with baseball than girls.
I walked toward the swings, watching Gwen’s hair fly out, then fall back, as she swung back and forth. She really had a lot of hair.
When I got close enough I yelled, “Hey!”
She looked at me, not smiling, but not mean either, then she stopped pumping her legs, so she’d slow down.
“Hey,” she said softly. I liked the sound of her voice.
“I’m Craig. Your sister told me to come over and meet you. My brother, Cal, is going out with that girl, Shelly.”
“I’ve seen you at school,” she admitted shyly.
Her swing came to a stop, so I walked over and sat on the swing next to her.
“You have?” I asked, not recognizing her from school. “Do we have any classes together?”
Gwen shook her head, her hair flying around her face. Now that I was closer, I could see she had little freckles running across her nose. “We have the same lunch. I’ve seen you playing baseball during recess.”
“Yeah?” I asked. I played baseball every day at recess, unless it was raining.
She nodded again.
“Do you play baseball?” I asked hopefully.
“No,” she replied, and I tried to hide my disappointment so she wouldn’t feel bad. “I like to take pictures though.” The way she said it, almost in a whisper, made me think it was a secret.
“Cool,” I said. Even though I’d never taken pictures before, so I had no idea if it was actually cool or not. “I bet we’ll be seeing each other a lot more now. I like to hang out with the guys.” I wanted her to know that I was one of them.
“I come out with Gaby and her friends sometimes, but I’ve never met those boys before today,” Gwen said, looking at the group who were now standing in a circle and laughing about something. She looked kind of nervous.
“You don’t have to worry about those guys, they’re cool. And I don’t mean they act cool when parents are around and stuff, they’re cool all the time. They take me to the go-karts and stuff sometimes. Do you like go-karts? You should come.”
“Okay,” she replied with a smile, and I could tell she was probably pretty shy.
“Maybe we can hang out at school sometime. Have lunch,” I said, then I added, “Not at recess, unless it’s raining. I gotta play baseball during recess.”
“Why?” she asked curiously.
“Because I want to be the best,” I admitted with a grin. “I’m going to play in school, get a scholarship to USC, then go pro.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “So I gotta practice whenever I can … But we can still have lunch and stuff.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “I’m sure you have friends that you sit with.”
I looked at my brother, smiling, his arm around his new girlfriend’s shoulder, and I could tell he liked her. A lot. That meant our group of friends had just gotten bigger, to include the girls. And if my brother thought it was cool to hang with girls, then I did too.
“You’re my friend too, okay?” I asked. She looked up at me, eyes wide, so I continued. “You don’t have to be afraid to come up to me at school, or sit with me at school. Anything you need, I got you.”
Gwen smiled sweetly at me. I took her hand in mine and started pumping my legs. She did the same, and soon we were swinging high, laughing as our stomachs dipped with each descent. We kept out hands locked, and I knew, deep down, that I’d just made a friend for life.
I just had no idea how much she was going to mean to me, and how close I’d come to losing her forever.
Acknowledgements
Thank You to the readers, for staying with me and reading my stories.
Thanks to my lovely Beta Readers enough: Marilyn Almodovar, Jennifer Snyder, Megan Toffoli, Erin Danzer, Christy Townzen, and Autumn from the Autumn Review.
To the people I couldn’t do this without: Kristina Circelli for editing, Kelsey Kukal-Keeton for the photograph, to Karen at White Hot Formatting, and to the always magnificent, Allie at B Design for the making the perfect cover for this book!
Thanks to Raine, for her wonderful insight and advice.
My Street Team, Bethany’s Bombshells: Thanks, Kristi Strong, Danielle LeFave, J.I Clark, Laurie Treacy, Khloee Meyer, Megan Toffoli, Lulu Vega, Stefani Hetland, Natasha Vahora, Debbie Prins, Fiza Halliwell, and last but never least, Michelle Hart.
Finally, to my family for all the love and support, Thank you!
About the Author
Award-Winning Author Bethany Lopez began self-publishing in June 2011. She's a lover of all things romance: books, movies, music, and life, and she incorporates that into the books she writes. When she isn't reading or writing, she loves spending time with her husband and children, traveling whenever possible. Some of her favorite things are: Kristen Ashley Books, coffee in the morning, and In N Out burgers.
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Table of Contents
&n
bsp; Title Page
Copyright
Other Titles
Dedication
Chapter 1
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
Excerpt
Acknowledgements
About the Author
15 Minutes Page 16
