Reclaiming Us Read online

  Reclaiming Us

  Copyright © 2017 Nicole Richard

  Published by Nicole Richard

  First Edition

  ISBN: 978-1543076165

  Edited by: Ashley Williams, AW Editing

  Proofread by: Julie Deaton, Author Services by Julie Deaton

  Formatting by: Champagne Formats

  Cover design: John Pacheco

  Cover Photo: Sara Eirew

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form without written consent except for the use of brief quotations embodied in critical article and reviews.

  This is the work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are uses fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owner.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Playlist

  Part I

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Part II

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Books by Nicole Richard

  To anyone who has ever had a dream that didn’t come true.

  You might not understand why, but everything does happen for a reason.

  May you find your dream that is meant just for you.

  Just Gettin’ Started – Jason Aldean

  Hey Pretty Girl – Kip Moore

  One Hell of a Night – Dustin Lynch

  Goodbye Town—Lady Antebellum

  Another Try – Chris Stapleton

  The Truth – Jason Aldean

  Do You Wish it was Me – Jason Aldean

  I Drive your Truck – Lee Brice

  Drink a Beer – Luke Bryan

  ‘Til I See You Again - Whiz Khalifa

  She’s Everything – Brad Paisley

  H.O.L.Y. – Florida Georgia Line

  Freshman Year – Savannah High

  “Run! Run! Go! Yes!” I screamed and jumped up and down with my fists clenched so tightly the pressure started to cut off my circulation to my fingers. I was cheering like a crazy person when number thirty-eight leaped into the air and caught the football. He veered to the right, dodging his attackers, and half-spun, taking the ball down the field toward the goal line.

  The crowd cheered.

  They screamed and chanted.

  Hundreds of feet stomped against the bleachers.

  When thirty-eight crossed into the end zone, everyone went wild.

  When I turned back to face the stands, my heart thumped right along with them, but my feet became rooted to the track. Standing there in the middle of the steps that separated two sides of the metal bleachers was high-school heartthrob RJ Watson, the boy of my teenage dreams. He stood there, scanning the crowd as his best friend Tyler trotted down the stairs ahead of him.

  I wonder if he came here to see me?

  A girl could hope, right?

  I never expected to see him at a football game, let alone a junior varsity one. I’d actually never seen him at any of the sport events that I attended, but here he was, and he was definitely looking for someone.

  Stupefied by the boy that only Lilly knew I had a major crush on, I must have been daydreaming longer than I thought. Lilly elbowed me and then handed me my pompoms. “Come on,” she whisper-shouted as she pulled me by the arm toward the field. “What’s gotten into you?” I guess she didn’t see who was in the stands.

  That was when it hit me—they were here because of Lilly, who had been seeing Tyler for the last couple of weeks. My young and naive heart sank.

  I shook my head, downplaying my brief star-struck moment as I gripped the handles of my pompoms just a bit harder. I followed Lilly onto the track and climbed on to her and Piper for a thigh stand.

  “Make that point! Make that point!” I cheered my heart out and snuck a quick peek over my shoulder, wanting to know if he was still there.

  He was, but he wasn’t alone, and my heart sank a bit more, my smile losing a bit of its shine. Carla Jones sat so close to RJ that she was practically on his lap. She was the most popular girl in school, not to mention the sweetest. Seeing them there together was a simple reminder that RJ was way out of my league.

  I turned away and back to the game. Our next cheer was one of my favorites, and it was also one that I needed to focus on. I hated to admit it, but there was more than one occasion where I was almost dropped. I didn’t need to be carted off to the trainer’s room so I could ice an injury, or worse, to the ER.

  The sound of the kicker’s cleat connecting with the football got my attention. The ball sailed in a beautiful symmetrical fashion between the goal posts, making the extra point. We cheered for our boys and got back into formation, carrying on with our sideline cheers.

  My attention was never entirely focused on cheering, though. My eyes kept darting to where RJ and Tyler sat, and when I looked and didn’t see Carla next to RJ anymore, I didn’t try to hide the smile. What I hadn’t counted on was RJ’s smile back. I turned away, again, and faced the field.

  No, he wasn’t looking at me.

  That smile wasn’t for me.

  It was nothing but wishful thinking on my part that a boy like RJ would ever be interested in a brainy girl like me. Besides, there were eight other cheerleaders on the track, so I couldn’t be sure I was the one he was looking at.

  Belting out cheer after cheer, jumping around like crazy beans, time came for the half-time show and I knew I had to get over my infatuation. But not before getting one last dose of self-inflicted misery. I went against my better judgment and turned back one more time.

  My heart burst like a firework. The sparks tingled through me, and my breath took a short pause as our eyes connected. RJ was looking at me for sure this time, but as soon as it happened, it was gone. RJ dipped his chin, hiding a smile. Then Piper ruined the moment by practically dragging me out onto the field.

  Knock it off, Ads. You need to concentrate. If I were going to pull off my first-time-ever basket toss and wanted to walk away alive, focus was of the utmost importance.

  Surrounded by green turf and painted white lines, I got in formation and sucked in two extremely deep breaths. The setting sun near blinding, and a mixture of fear and exhilaration ripped through me. Here went nothing
.

  The loud music beat out of the stadium speakers and after the first eight counts, my arms effortlessly flew into a high “V”, my hips swayed and approximately four minutes later, I had given a near flawless performance, the highlight being my awesome basket toss. I felt high, even with my feet on the ground. Excited, I faced our fans and did a short series of jumps. Then I picked up my pompoms and jogged back to the track.

  The Savannah Blue Jackets’ fans cheered from the stands, clearly in agreement with the ref’s last call. The boys made a few more great plays, and just as the buzzer sounded, scored the winning touchdown, sending everyone into a wave of deafening cheers. The whole time, I had avoided looking toward RJ. There was no need to torture myself, but as we finished the winning cheer and everyone else headed to collect their stuff, I broke and peeked over my shoulder.

  He was already gone.

  With a little extra force, I stuffed my pompoms into my duffel bag, threw it over my shoulder, grabbed my water bottle, and searched for Lilly.

  Turning from left to right, I muttered, “Lilly” but didn’t see her anywhere. I looked behind me, but she wasn’t there either. When I turned again, my eyes settled on a pair of dark brown ones staring back at me. For a the second time that night, my knees screamed at my brain, warning that they were not prepared to carry all the weight if I decided to faint.

  Leaning against the chain link fence with his hands tucked deep into his front pockets was RJ.

  I stood speechless.

  I blinked, and he straightened.

  I blinked again, harder this time, thinking he was just a figment of my imagination, but that was far from the truth. RJ was very real and slowly sauntering in my direction.

  I glanced over my shoulder to check if there was someone next to me I hadn’t seen before, but it was just empty bleachers. When I turned back around, he stood a footstep just outside my personal space.

  A smirk pulled at the left corner of his mouth, and just that tiny movement had me looking away so I could control the flutters taking over my stomach. I was freaking nervous.

  “Hey,” he finally said. The smooth sound of his deep voice almost cracking had me biting back a smile. I stopped myself from looking over my shoulder again. The last thing I wanted was to look like I had some strange tic and scare him off if he were actually talking to me. He scuffed his foot back and forth, shifting and looking nervous. I wondered why. What did RJ freaking Watson have to be nervous about? Then it hit me. He was talking to me, and there I was like a weirdo, just staring at him. I opened my mouth to say something . . . anything . . . but he beat me to it.

  “Are you waiting for someone?” He cleared his throat, and his brows pinched.

  All I could manage was a small shake of my head. Why wouldn’t my brain tell my mouth to actually say anything? I’d never been scared to talk to boys. But most of those conversations revolved around academics. The focus on whatever topic we were talking about. This was something totally different.

  He nodded once, and we fell quiet as his eyes locked onto mine. The intensity of his stare caused a wave of warmth to flush through me. I dropped my chin, a nervous reaction, and watched his feet shuffle forward an inch.

  When I looked at him again, he was biting his lower lip, as if to hold himself back from saying anything else. Maybe he was uncomfortable. After all, I hadn’t said a single word to him yet. Chastising myself for being such a coward around him, I finally forced words past my lips. “So, do you come to the games often?”

  He did that one eyebrow raise thing again, a smile bending his lips into a smirk as he shook his head.

  “Umm.” I uncurled and curled my toes inside my sneakers, rocking back on my heels. He was so handsome that I couldn’t help but smile.

  “So . . .” was all he said. For the life of me, I could not understand why he appeared to be as nervous as I was.

  “What’s up, fucker?” Tyler said, rounding the corner with Lilly walking next to him. RJ gave me one last long look and then turned toward him. If I had to guess, he looked almost . . . disappointed. I brushed it off, though. There was no way RJ was disappointed by whatever awkward exchange just happened. Had he just been waiting here for Tyler and felt obligated to talk to me? Probably. Feeling a bit disappointed myself, I smiled at Lilly when she stopped next to me.

  “Hey. You guys wanna come with?” Lilly asked, but her facial expression ordered me to say yes.

  RJ cleared his throat. “Yeah . . . so you . . . you wanna come and hang out with us?”

  I looked from RJ to Tyler to Lilly and back to RJ. Was he for real? My heart fluttered, a giddy feeling had me curling my toes one more time. What the heck just happened?

  “Sure, where are you guys headed to?”

  Tyler smacked RJ on his arm. “Cool. Meet you guys at the truck.”

  RJ nodded, but they were already walking away. When he looked back at me, he held his hand out. “Let me carry that for you.” His voice was gentle, but his words were clearly a request and not a question.

  RJ slid the duffel strap from my shoulder and when his hand brushed against my bare arm, I swore all the air rushed out of my lungs.

  “You looked really good out there tonight.” He held his hand out, ushering me out of the stadium. “Were you afraid at all of being thrown in the air that high?” he asked, and we turned at the same time to look at one another.

  “Not really.” I paused, realizing that was a lie. “Well, maybe a teensy bit.” I pinched my thumb and index finger close together, barely leaving an open space. RJ chuckled softly, and my heart melted.

  “So you don’t have a boyfriend or anything, right?” He rushed out and then cussed under his breath. “Shoot. My bad—”

  “Hey, don’t worry about it. And no”—I shook my head, biting the inside of my cheek to stop myself from grinning like an idiot—“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “That’s good.” He nodded. “That’s real good.” He smirked, and I went from an infatuated, dreamy-eyed teenager to a borderline love-at-first ball of mush.

  If this were any indication of what the next three and a half years of high school were going to be like, I wanted to make sure I enjoyed every single second of it—preferably with RJ Watson next to me.

  Three and a half years later . . .

  I mindlessly brushed my thumb back and forth across my name written in calligraphy, letting the reality of it all set in.

  Addilyn Mae Montgomery

  I’d graduated at the top of my class and was given the highest honor a high school senior could ever accomplish—valedictorian. Yet, it all felt so surreal.

  It had been four years of studying, tests, presentations, Friday night games, and endless practices. I had built everything about myself around school, and all it took was seven short days for me to feel like high school was a mere thing of the past. Seven days for the fear and exhilaration to collide head on. It was over. What was I going to do now? The question sent my mind spinning for an answer.

  Once summer was over, I would be starting a new chapter in my life. I would go to college. I would devote myself to school just like I had always done. I looked to the framed picture on my nightstand—me and RJ smiling like lunatics. RJ wasn’t coming with me. The thought sent my stomach to the bottom of my feet.

  Things were great between the two of us.

  I loved him.

  He loved me.

  But where would that leave us once August rolled around? I set my diploma to the side and moved to lay down, closing my eyes and resting one arm across my face.

  Since RJ graduated last year, he had been working for his father’s construction company, but he never spoke of furthering his career. He never mentioned going to college, which wasn’t something I was surprised by. He wasn’t really the college type. It wasn’t because he wasn’t smart enough, because he was. He just never even brought it up. He and Tyler had a fascination with the Air Force, but he had never voiced his plans to enlist, either. We never actua
lly talked about what he was going to do once I left. I had a very strong hunch that whatever plan he had going on in his head revolved around me. I always thought he was waiting for me to . . . I wasn’t sure.

  “Hey, honey.” Mama stood in the doorway of my bedroom. “Lilly’s here.”

  I got up from my bed, grabbed my purse, and made my way toward my mother. Before letting me pass, she pulled me in for a hug. Somehow, she always knew when I needed her comfort. Never having to say a word, her hugs calmed me.

  “Thanks, Mama, I better get going.”

  “Of course.” She kissed the top of my head. “Good luck job hunting. Remember to give them your award winning smile.”

  I smiled big. “Will do.” I reached up and kissed her cheek. “See you later.”

  I rushed out of the house, knowing any minute Lilly would be texting me, riding my ass, and grumbling about my taking too long. I think the patience gene passed her by at conception.

  “Hey, Lils.” I slid into the front seat.

  “Hey, girlie.” I shut the car door and she took off.

  “Did you check the ads to see if there were any jobs we could apply for?” she asked, slowly rolling toward the end of my driveway. She put her blinker on, looked from left to right, and then left again before turning.

  “No. I hate to think I have to work in retail—or worse at a fast food restaurant. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just not me. I was really hoping I would have gotten that summer leader position.”

  “I hear you. I have no idea why I need to work in the first place. I have a trust fund waiting with my name on it, but Daddy keeps telling me that I need to learn responsibility and the value of hard-earned money.” She mocked her daddy the best she could. I giggled, shaking my head.

  “I’m totally for making my own money. I just wish I could get a job along the lines of my career path. If I am going to be an elementary school principal one day, what good will flipping burgers or price-checking clothes and accessories do?”