First Love

by G. L. Snodgrass

  Turning quickly, I double checked to make sure I’d come out in the right place. Yes, this was it. Where was Mom?

  As I turned to scan the parking lot, my insides turned to jelly as my heart practically jumped out of my chest.

  Grant was leaning up next to his car, his arms folded over his chest, looking at me with a strange stare.

  No, this couldn’t be happening. Not now. Why him? Where here? Why now?

  “Have you seen my mom?” I asked him.

  “I asked her if I could drive you home. She said she will talk to you there.”

  My insides rebelled. How could she do this to me? The ultimate betrayl. Leaving me here with him. How?

  Pushing up off of his car, he went around back and opened the trunk for my gear. As he did so, he shot me a nervous, almost frightened look.

  God, I must have really done a number on himI thought as I tossed my stuff into his trunk. Grant didn’t normally scare easily. But I swear he looked like he was facing a firing squad in the morning.

  “Why are you here?” I asked him, unable to just keep my mouth shut and pretend nothing happened last night.

  He frowned for a second then said, “We need to talk.”

  My stomach turned over, clenched up into a rock, then threatened to crumble into dust. Talk? What was there to talk about. I had made a collasle fool of myself. Couldn’t we just pretend it never happened. Couldn’t we just go back to the way we were before.

  “You were great, by the way,” Grant said giving me a quick little smile.

  “You saw?”

  “I watched it all from the right field fence. You killed it.”

  My brow furrowed. He had watched. He had come all the way down here to watch me tryout. Why?

  Because he wanted to talk, I yelled in my head. As if things could be fixed with a simple conversation.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  He frowned for a moment then laughed. “Tara, you did great. No way are they letting you go. That fifty-fifty chance has grown to Ninety eight percent chance that you made the team.”

  I looked up at him, unable to fully process his words. I could tell that he believed what he was saying. But still, I just couldn’t believe it. Besides, he shot me that smirk of his and all I could think about was how it felt to be in his arms. To have his lips caressing mine.

  Seeing my doubt, he shook his head and said, “you know that second pitcher they brought in is one of their best. You made her look like a rookie. Believe me. You did great.

  My heartbeat softened just a little. One thing I knew about Grant, he wouldn’t lie to me. Not about this stuff. He knew how important it was.

  Taking a deep breath, I started for the passenger door when he reached out and gently took my arm.

  “Hold up for a second, I need to say something.”

  Once again, my heart jumped into overdrive. Here it was. He was going to tell me how silly I was for being in love with him. How he didn’t feel for me that way. How I shouldn’t have risked our friendship like that.

  I looked down at his hand touching my arm and wondered if this would be the last time he ever touched me.

  Gritting my teeth, I looked up into his eyes and saw pain and fear. Not the normal cocky Grant expression.

  “About last night,” he began.

  Pull away, I thought. I needed to get away before he broke me in two.

  “I’m sorry,” he said as he sighed heavily. “So sorry.”

  My soul cracked right down the middle but I tried to shake it off. No way was I letting him see the pain flaring up inside of me. I’d already done enough damage. No need to make it worse.

  “That’s okay,” I said as I shrugged off his touch and stepped towards the car.

  He stepped in front of me, blocking me from the door. “No, Tara. I mean it. I am sorry. And I promise it won’t happen again. You know how important you are to me and I screwed up.”

  My forehead creased with confusion, what was he talking about? What had he done wrong?

  He saw my look and sighed again. “I just could’t help myself. But I promise, I won’t let it interfere with our friendship.”

  My world had tilted a little as I tried to figure out what was going on.

  “Why are you sorry. I saw the pain in your eyes. The terror really. I shouldn’t have put that there. I was the one who messed everything up.”

  He frowned for a second then said, “Fear? Of course I was terrified. I’d just realized that I was in love with you and I had just ruined our friendship. Of course I was terrified.”

  The world stopped “What?”

  His cheeks turned pink as he glanced down at the groud. “Like I said, I am sorry. Can’t we go back to being friends. I promise I won’t let the way I feel about you get in the way.”

  “What?” I asked again. I really was going to have to learn how to talk again.

  Every nerve in my body was jumping as I began to understand what he had just said.

  He looked down at me and shrugged his shoulders.

  “Did you say you were in love with me?” I asked.

  He grimaced and nodded. “You can’t really blame me. But like I said, I won’t …”

  Without thinking, I threw myself at him, knocking him into his car. “I love you Grant Metcalf,” I said as I brought my lips to his. Our souls meshed and the world began to spin again.

  Grant held me for a second then pulled back, double checking to make sure he had heard correctly. I smiled up at him and pulled him down for another kiss.

  He loved me. He was in love with me. My soul mate loved me.

  We stood there in each other’s arms, learning about each other. Exploring this brand new world until he broke off and gave me a quick smile.

  “I guess this sort of helps me decide what I’m going to do.”

  I frowned at him, upset that he was no longer kissing me. We could talk anytime.

  “About what?” I asked.

  “Baseball,” he said as he pulled me in tight for a delicious hug. “It looks like I’m going to take that scholarship.”

  “Are you sure? The university?” I asked, surprised at how happy the thought of Grant staying here made me feel.

  “It’s where my girlfriend will be going to school. So of course I’m going there. No way am I letting her get away. I’ll go out for the draft in a couple of years. In the meantime, we have a whole new life to explore together.”

  I laid my head on his chest and smiled. My heart mended itself as my soul soared into the stratospher. My best friend was in love with me.

  No one could aske for anything more.

  Epilogue

  Tara

  I held the baby on my hip as I put the groceries away. Grant would be home in three days and I hated to waste time with mundane tasks when he was home.

  Once I was finished, I stopped and looked around the small apartment for a second. It was ours. The sixth one in the last four years. Pictures of Mom and the baby, Grant’s parents and the baby. My Pac-12 softball championship team. Pictures of Grant getting drafted by the Angels.

  Home I realized. It wasn’t where we lived, but what we surrounded ourselves with, that made it a home. That and the fact that we were together. Us against the world.

  The phone made me jump when Grant’s ring tone interupted my thoughts. How did he do that? Always call when I was thinking about him.

  “It’s your daddy,” I said to little Carla. She smiled up at me. The girl adored her daddy.

  “How did it go?” I asked him as I held the phone under my ear while I started to changer her diaper.

  “I didn’t pitch,” he said.

  “What?” I exclaimed, “Why not? Are you injured.” I knew how important this was, every outing was graded and evalutated. If he was ever going to make the majors, each opportunity was critical.

  “I got the call,” he said with a boring tone that threw me for a second.

  “The call?” I said as I froze and waited for his
response.

  “Can you get Jenny to watch the baby tomorrow.”

  My heart froze in my chest, “why?”

  “Chicago is only four hours away. You should be able to get there in time.”

  “Why am I going to Chicago,” I asked as I held my breath.

  “To see me pitch,” he said with a smile in his voice. “That is what wives normally do when their husband makes his big league debut.”

  I screamed. Carla cried, I screamed again, Grant laughed.

  He’d done it. My best friend, my lover, my husand, had made it to the major leages just like I always knew he would.

  “I love you,” I said as a tear threatened to fall down my cheek.

  “I love you too,” he said. “I couldn’t have made it without you. Promise me you will be there tomorrow night.”

  The worry in his voice sent shivers down my spine. He really did love me.

  “I will be there. And so will Carla. She would never forgive me if she missed her daddy’s first game in the Majors.”

  “I love you both,” he said and I knew he was telling me the truth.

  The End

  Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading ‘First Love'. I would love to know what you think of it. My readers make it possible for me to do what I love. I am always grateful and excited to hear from you. Please stop by my website GLSnodgrass.com or send me an Email at GL@GLSnodgrass.com. Feel free to sign up for my newsletter. I use my newsletter to announce new releases and give away free books.

  I also post on my Facebook page at - https://www.facebook.com/G.L.Snodgrass/

  If you enjoyed ‘My Hidden Hero’ please tell a friend or two. And, please help out by rating this book at Amazon or Goodreads. Reviews from readers make a huge difference for a writer.

  As always, I would like to thank my friends and family for their help. I also owe a great debt to Anya Monroe, Eryn Scott, Kim Loraine, for their kind assistance. And of course, my great friend, Ms. Sheryl Turner.

  As a little extra, I’ve included the first chapter of my book 'My Best Friend’s Brother’ Enjoy.

  My Best Friend’s Brother

  Chapter One

  Luke

  The cold stares and whispers behind my back didn’t bother me. It was the noise, the crowd, the chaos, that sent a cold shiver down my spine.

  High school hadn’t changed. I had missed a lot of things in Juvie, but this hadn’t been one of them. There were a thousand kids going a thousand different directions. All of them looking at me like I was some kind of monster rising up out of the swamp.

  “You okay?” my sister Jenny asked as she shot me a concerned look. She’d been looking at me that way ever since I got home.

  I smiled back at her and nodded. This was nothing, I wanted to tell her. A paradise compared to where I had been for the last two years.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I told her. “I promise. I’m not going to lose it. I will be good. At least for today.”

  She looked at me sideways with a serious frown. I could tell she didn’t know if I was teasing or not. That was one of my many regrets. Jenny and I had spent the last two years in different worlds. And as a result, we’d grown apart. She had been the only person in this world on my side though. Mom, not so much. She had been too hurt and too disappointed. But not Jenny.

  Jenny had always just assumed that I was right and everyone else was wrong. She was incorrect. But I loved her for it.

  “Meet me at my locker at lunchtime,” she said. “It’s the same one as before. Do you remember?”

  I laughed, “I don’t need my handheld. I’m the big brother, remember?”

  She shook her head. “And I have more experience in this high school than you do. You don’t know. These people are vicious. So just do it. For me.”

  I almost barked out a laugh. Vicious? She had no idea. Instead, I sighed and nodded. Like I said, I owed her.

  She gave me one last weak smile then turned and disappeared into the stream of bodies.

  Hefting my backpack onto my shoulder I headed off for Mr. Crawley’s Trigonometry class. The stares and whispers followed me as people made a point of getting out of my way. I could tell what they were thinking so easily. Criminal. Lowlife. Thug.

  What made it worse was that it was true. I had done the crime and did the time. That made me different. An outsider. Well, I could deal with that until I graduated in eight months. The one thing I had learned was how to do time.

  I still thought I should have just gotten my GED and avoided all of this. I could have done it on the inside. But Mom insisted. She wanted me to get that diploma.

  She said Dad would have wanted it that way. How could I argue with that? I’d failed her enough. It was the least I could do.

  As I stood outside Crawley’s class, I took a deep breath and prepared myself. Stepping in, I was hit once again with the strangeness. The differences. Things like the hint of perfume, a soft laugh from a girl in the corner. The lack of bars on the windows. Little things.

  Shaking my head, I handed Mr. Crawley my transfer slip. He gave me a quick smile and nodded for me to take a seat. He knew all about me ahead of time. They all did. The guy from Juvenile Detention.

  Slipping into a desk, I ignored the open stares and questioning looks. And more than a few sneers. Wow, things were different. Inside Juvie, those looks would have gotten a guy’s head knocked off.

  These people just had no idea. They never would.

  Taking a deep breath, I slumped in my chair, folded my arms across my chest and tried to calm the anger that constantly bubbled just below the surface.

  I made it through that first class by keeping my mouth shut and my eyes forward.

  The second class, Art history, was pretty much the same. It was coming out afterward when things changed.

  “There he is,” a deep voice rumbled behind me. My gut clenched up as I turned to find Willie Dawson standing there with a welcoming grin.

  “Luke Prescott, returned from the dead,” he proclaimed as he grabbed my hand and pulled me into a quick bro hug. Behind him, a gaggle of hangers-on stood waiting. Both boys and girls about my age, more than a few cousins, I realized.

  The Dawson clan had always been bigger than most.

  “How you doing?” Willie asked, his face taking on a concerned look that I knew was hiding a big dose of guilt.

  Willie was the reason I did the two years. He’d been driving the stolen car, but I was the one they caught. When he plowed into that tree, we’d both run like our butts were on fire. Of course, I was the one they caught.

  When I refused to rat him out, they threw the book at me. Well, my previous record might have helped.

  “Fine,” I answered as my insides continued to turn over.

  “Hey bro,” he said as he leaned in to whisper. “Thanks.”

  All I could do was nod. This was not the time nor the place. But deep down I knew that at some point I’d have to deal with it. The anger inside of me had to come out somewhere and it would probably be him. If he’d come forward and told them the truth. I’d have done ninety days at the most.

  “So,” he said stepping back and waving his arm. “Seniors? Who would have thought we’d make it this far?” He smiled then said, “I’ve got this place locked down. You need anything. Anyone gives you a hard time. You let me know.”

  I laughed, big bad Willie. He thought because he had a bunch of punk high schoolers intimidated, he was big stuff. I stared into his eyes and saw the truth, he wouldn’t have lasted two days where I had been.

  The reality hit me like a two by four upside the head, he was nothing more than a bully and a bastard.

  “Thanks,” I said, knowing full well that he would always be the last person I ever came to for help. It would be a good way to end up with a knife in my back.

  “Listen,” he said as he draped an arm over my shoulder and started walking with me towards my next class. I was surprised to realize that I had two inches and forty pounds of
muscle on the guy. Willie had always been the bigger, tougher one. Not so much anymore. It seemed more than a few things had changed.

  “Two years?” he said with a shake of his head. “Wow, that’s a long time. If you want. I can set you up with some girls. You know, the willing kind. Believe me, it won’t be a problem.”

  I fought to hold back a shudder. No way was I letting him know what he could do with his offer. Instead, I just smiled and shook my head. “No thanks, I’ll find my own.”

  He studied me for a moment then nodded in acceptance.

  “This is me,” I said, pointing to Mrs. McNeil’s biology class.

  He nodded as he let his arm slip from my shoulder. “Sure. We’ll get together later. I can fill you in on how things are working around here. There are a ton of opportunities for a guy like you.”

  My stomach lurched. Taking a deep breath, I looked out at the six or seven people following us. Things hadn’t changed. A different generation, but still the Dawson clan.

  Knowing them, it was drugs, chop shops, fencing stolen goods, and a dozen other things. None of them legal. And Willie was offering me a way in. He already knew I could keep my mouth shut.

  I smiled and slowly shook my head. “Thanks, but I’m going to keep it cool for a while.”

  His eyebrow raised slightly as he tried to understand. It was as if I had just turned down a winning lottery ticket. Something inconceivable in his world. He held my gaze for a long moment then, at last, he shrugged.

  “Sure,” he said, “Your call.” But I could see some disappointment in his eyes. I knew Willie Dawson. He hadn’t changed. He hated when things didn’t go the way he wanted.

  “I’ll see you later,” I said, fighting to keep the coldness out of my voice. I didn’t need to get into a war with the Dawson clan. Not now. One of the many lessons I had learned inside was not to make enemies when you didn’t have to. The world would provide more than enough as it was.

  Stepping into the classroom, I once again ignored the stares and whispers. The anger inside of me made me grind my teeth. But I buried it. ‘Water off a duck’s back,” Dad used to say. Instead, I found an empty stool at a lab station and kept my focus forward.