Page 18 of Reality With You (Arden Beach #1)

NINE YEARS AGO

A blanket of baby-blue unbroken by a single cloud. Crisp January air that smelled of possibility. Distant laughter and the crack of wood on leather—her comfort soundtrack.

L ennon sat in the empty bleachers, bundled in an oversized sweatshirt and shorts for a Florida winter.

Her high-tops were propped up on the faded blue seat ahead as she scribbled lyrics in a monogrammed notebook on her lap.

She’d had the notebook a month—a sweet sixteen birthday gift—and had already filled nearly half its pages.

She should slow down, preserve it longer.

But she didn’t want to. She loved it too much.

A sharp, clean whistle called her attention.

Dylan stood along the railing separating the field from the bleachers, away from the other players practicing behind him.

Even from her spot at the top, Lennon could make out the little tilt of his smile as he bit one side of his lower lip.

His cap shaded his eyes, but she felt their singular focus on her like a cool breeze shooting through a warm sunbeam.

Dylan raised his arm, holding the baseball up momentarily to communicate what he was about to do. Lennon dropped the pen in the crease of the journal before he pitched. The ball arced through the air straight toward her, and she caught it.

Black ink caught her eye between the red stitching. “WILL U BE MY GF?”

Her heart soared to her throat.

Lennon bit the inside of her cheeks to keep from grinning too hard. Opening her journal, she wrote her answer on a clean sheet of paper in big, bold letters and held it high.

“YES.”

Dylan beamed. The guys yelled at him, calling him back to the field. He rubbed a hand over the left side of his chest as he took a couple of slow steps backward, then turned to jog back to them. The other boys teased him with kissing sounds.

When Dylan took his place on the pitcher’s mound, he looked up at her again.

She should slow down, Lennon thought to herself, but she didn’t want to.