Description:
LUCY
There is a love so fierce it cannot be measured.
A heart so strong it will never slow.
There is a promise so sure it can never lie.
He promised me that love forever.
Even when it wasn't enough.
CAMERON
Forever. Everlasting. Eternal.
There is no measure of time.
No sounds of the ticking of a clock.
Just the rising and falling of the sun.
And our own sense of forever.
But our forever isn't always.
EXCERPT
Mom says that there’s absolutely no pain worse than labor. For sixteen hours, so she says, she went through absolute hell. She jokes that sometimes she wonders if it was worth it. I call bullshit. I say that nothing, absolutely nothing, can feel worse than being hit in the junk with a baseball bat. Lincoln’s eyes are huge as he grimaces. “I’m so sorry, Cam.”
I’m folded over myself, too preoccupied with the ache below my stomach. Sometimes, there’s a delay with the pain. But not this time. This time it was instant. I try to speak, but nothing comes out. He looks like he wants to cry and I want to assure him that it’s all good—but I can’t. Liam, Lincoln’s twin brother, is laughing. The little punk. I’ll be sure to make him do extra shit next practice. “Cam, are you okay?”
I try to straighten, but it just makes the pain worse. “Yeah, bud. I just gotta let it settle.”
“I swear I didn’t see you behind me.” There’s panic clear in his voice and for a second I want to tell myself to suck it up and quit being a little bitch, but I can’t do that either. The pain’s too overwhelming. Liam’s still laughing his ass off. My eyes narrow at him and Lincoln must notice, because he turns to his brother and pushes him hard enough that he falls to the ground. That makes Liam stop. He gets up and dusts the dirt of his uniform. “We should go, Linc, we’re the last ones here.”
Lincoln looks around. So do I. Liam’s right, everyone’s gone.
“I’m just gonna help Cam pack up,” Lincoln replies, picking up the team equipment bag and chucking in the helmets and bats sitting by my feet. He looks up at me again, and I can see how sorry he really is.
Standing to full height, I do my best to ignore the pain. “It’s okay, Linc. Seriously, it’s passed now.” It hasn’t, but he doesn’t need to know that. He finishes packing anyway and hands me the bag, it’s bigger than he is.
I take it from his hands and look around again. “Your mom or dad late to pick you up?”
“Nah,” Liam says, the laughter and amusement now gone. “Lucy’s here.”
“Lucy?”
“Our sister,” Lincoln explains.
They both turn to the bleachers and so do I. A lone girl sits at the bottom bench. Something flat, black and rectangular in her hand, kinda like a tablet, I guess. Her foot’s rocking a stroller back and forth. It strikes me as strange, because the girl looks familiar. She’s in my class, I think. She’s a freshman and she has a baby? Stuff like that doesn’t happen in our town and if it did, I’d know. Everyone would know.
“Lucy!” Liam shouts.
She doesn’t look up.
“Lucy!” Lincoln this time.
She still doesn’t look up, but her foot continues to rock the stroller.
“Luce!” Liam yells again.
Nothing.
My eyes narrow before looking down at the boys. “Is your sister…uh…hearing impaired?”
They both let out simultaneous snorts. “No,” Lincoln answers, pulling his cap further down his head and looking up at me. His eyes roll as he says, “She’s just reading.”
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Jay Mclean is the author of the successful, mature YA and new adult contemporary novels in the More Series which include More Than This, More Than Her, and More Than Him, as well as, the upcoming standalone novel The Road. Her goal is to write books that make you FEEL, whether it’s swooning over a book boyfriend, laughing, crying or throwing your kindle across the room, her goal is to take you on an emotional journey that will leave you craving MORE. When she isn’t locked away in her cave writing, she can be found spending time with her two adorable little boys, reading, and getting to know her readers. She has a love for red gummy bears and a hatred of creepy moths. She attempts to avoid housework at all cost…often by distracting herself with an old school One Tree Hill marathon.
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