Stealing Second: Sam's Story: Book 4 in the Clarksonville Series

Young Adult Books

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The characters, incidents and dialogue herein are fictional and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

ISBN 978-1-61929-111-9 (eBook)

eBook Conversion June 2013

First Printing 2013

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover design by Donna Pawlowski

Published by:

Regal Crest Enterprises, LLC

229 Sheridan Loop

Belton, TX 76513

Find us on the World Wide Web at http://www.regalcrest.biz

Published in the United
States of America

I’d like to thank Sheri Milburn and J Robin Whitley for taking time from their own writing to help me with mine. I’d also like to thank Maureen May and her Strings classes for letting me observe and absorb. Thanks, once again, go out to my Regal Crest family – Cathy Bryerose, Mary Phillips, and Donna Pawlowski. I am also ever grateful to my friends and family who give me continual inspiration and support. And thanks, finally, to Jackie Weathers, my life partner in all aspects of being.

For Patricia Gengo whose love of music and life has inspired me throughout my own lifetime.

Young Adult Books

Falling in Love

SAMANTHA ROSE PAYTON sat in the East Valley dugout next to her best friend Susie Torres. They were ultra-early for their summer softball game and, except for them, the field and dugouts were empty. Even though she should have been getting ready for the game, Sam leaned back against the cement block wall and sighed.

Susie shot Sam a sidelong glance. “
¿Que pasó, chica
?”

“Nothing.” Sam sighed again.

“
Aay
,” Susie spoke to the field as if Sam wasn’t there, “she says, ‘nothing,’ but drags me out here early, sighing every two minutes. Dizzy blonde.” She got a whack on the arm for her comment. “Hey!” She rubbed her arm where Sam had hit her.

“I’m not dizzy.”

“But you are blonde.”

“So’s your girlfriend,” Sam teased back.

“But Marlee’s not dizzy.”

Sam crossed her eyes at her best friend. Susie had always been a true friend, her only friend until recently, ever since ninth grade.

“C’mon, what’s wrong?” Susie’s tone was more serious. She pulled her cleats out of her bag.

“Nothing. Everything.” Sam had been restless at home waiting around to go to the game. Her parents were due home later that evening after a long weekend of political schmoozing downstate in Albany. Politicians were constantly trying to woo her parents into making generous contributions to their campaigns. Sam could care less about that sort of thing. Her nanny, Helene, had left early that morning for a shopping trip to meet her sister just over the border in Cornwall, Canada for the day and wouldn’t be back until later that evening. That left Sam bouncing around the mansion all by herself. Even practicing the violin for her mother’s luncheon in two days couldn’t hold her interest. Thank God Susie didn’t mind heading to the field super early.

“Did your parents find out you were a big ole lesbian?” Susie teased.

“Shhh.” Sam’s eyes grew big. Thank God no one was around to hear. “That is never going to happen, and you know it.”

“You’re so far in the closet you’ve decorated.” Susie rolled her eyes.

“I like the curtains in there, okay?” Sam growled.

“
Dios mio
, okay, okay.” Susie put her hands up in defense. “So what’s wrong? Your black eye got you down?”

Sam reached up and touched her eye. It wasn’t sore anymore, and the swelling had gone down days before. She knew from a last look in the mirror before leaving the house that it wasn’t black anymore, either. It was more greenish-yellow. Sam swirled a finger around her ear. “Bree was one screwed up chick, wasn’t she?”

Susie nodded. “I can’t believe she took a swing at you.”

“And connected.” Sam touched her eye again.

“You should have hit her back, but enough stalling. What’s up with you?”

Sam looked down, not sure how to talk to her best friend about her girlfriend, or if she even should. Some things should remain private. And there was that other thing. Susie was her ex.

As if reading Sam’s mind, Susie pressed on. “Are you and Lisa okay?”

“Yeah.” Sam’s heart clenched at the lie. “Well, no. I don’t know. I’m not sure.” Sam felt her cheeks get red as she watched confusion and compassion mix on Susie’s face.

“Spill it.”

“Spill what?”

Sam and Susie both jumped at the sound of Coach Gellar’s voice.

“You two are here early.” Coach Gellar looked at her watch. “It’s not even close to five o’clock.” She put her coach’s bag down on the bench.

“I wanted to stretch and throw early.” Sam gestured to her eye. That wasn’t the real reason, but since it was her first game back after getting punched, she figured her coach would buy it.

“Understandable,” Coach Gellar said and then went about her business getting ready for the game.

Susie stood up. “C’mon, let’s go stretch.”

“Okay.” Sam grabbed her cleats and glove and followed Susie to left field.

Once they plopped on the ground, Sam tossed off her sandals, put her socks on, and then her right shoe.

Susie tightened the laces on her own cleats and then put her feet together for a butterfly stretch. “So? What’s the problem?”

Sam lay back on the grass and stared at the late afternoon sky so she wouldn’t have to look directly at Susie. It was a brilliant mid-August blue. A few lazy clouds dallied overhead. She took a deep breath for courage and went for it. “I know I keep bugging you about this, and you can tell me to shuddup, but—”

“Yes, we did,” Susie answered the unasked question.

Sam’s head whipped around. “You did? When?” She sat up.

Susie scowled at her friend.

Sam put her hands up. “Okay, sorry. TMI. I know. Are you, like, on cloud nine?”

A blush crept up Susie’s neck to her face tingeing her dark cheeks even darker. Susie was Puerto Rican and seemed to have a perpetual tan, one that got even darker during the summer, but the blush was more than obvious. She hid her face in her hands and then pushed them up on her head, mussing her usually perfect auburn hair. “You’re so nosy, Sam.”

“Sorry.” Sam felt her own face flush. “But, c’mon, I have no one to talk to about this stuff. I can’t talk to Helene about sex.”

“Most people don’t have nannies after age five, you know.”

“Shuddup.” Sam felt her own blush intensifying. Susie was right, though. Most people she knew didn’t have nannies at all. Her family, the East Valley Paytons, had an image to uphold and servants were part of that image. Changing diapers, potty training, and general child-rearing were beneath her parents, of course, so that’s why they had obtained Helene’s services when Sam was born. Sam frowned. Susie was right. No one had a nanny when they were seventeen. She wondered, not for the first time, when Helene was going to leave.

Susie cleared her throat. “So?” The one word held an interesting mixture of sympathy and curiosity.

Sam wasn’t sure how to phrase what she wanted to say. She found courage when Susie sat quietly waiting. Sam whispered, “Lisa and I are stuck at second base, if you know what I mean. Shouldn’t Lisa and I have already, you know, moved on?” Sam waved her hands around, desperately not wanting to say the words, hoping Susie would figure out what she meant.

“Are you shy about it?”

“No, I don’t think so. I mean, you remember how you and I almost—” Sam gestured with her hands again.

“Yep, and then Helene walked in on us.” Susie laughed. “
Aay
, it was probably better that she did, ‘cuz we both know we make better friends than girlfriends. I think we got together last summer because we were both lonely.”

Sam nodded.

“You know,” Susie said, “Lisa’s a whole year younger than you are.”

“I know.”

“Maybe she’s not ready. I shouldn’t be saying this, but,” Susie looked around, presumably to make sure no one was within ear shot, “I was ready to—” Susie gestured with her hands the same way Sam had done, “way before Marlee was. I had to be patient and take things at her speed.”

“Yeah? Maybe that’s all it is then. So I shouldn’t worry?”

“Nah. Lisa will let you know when she’s ready. And believe me, when she’s ready, you’ll know.”

Sam blew out a long sigh. “God, I feel so much better. I thought there was something wrong with me.”

“I think Lisa needs to feel safe and secure. That way she can relax. So both of you can relax.”

Sam nodded in agreement. Hopefully Susie was right. Movement behind her caught her attention, and she looked toward the parking lot. A few of her teammates were trickling in, but so far there was no sign of Lisa with her catcher’s gear slung over one shoulder. “Maybe I kept sensing that she wasn’t quite ready or something and I didn’t want to push. I mean, we got to second base really fast. Too fast, probably.” She chuckled. “I think it’s the only time I’ve stolen second base on Lisa Brown.”

“
Aay, Santo
. It’s probably the only time Lisa has ever let anybody steal second.”

“Oh, God, Susie. Please don’t say anything to Marlee. Okay? I’d be mortified if she knew we were talking about this.”

“I won’t.”

“Cool.”

Susie cleared her throat. “So, uh, after you were done stealing second, why didn’t you go for third?”

Sam burst out laughing and buried her face in her hands. “I don’t know.”

Susie smiled sympathetically. “Just relax chica. It’ll happen when she’s ready. When you’re both ready.”

Sam hadn’t even considered that maybe she wasn’t ready either. She vowed not to put any more pressure on herself. She had been getting herself worked up over nothing. It would happen when it would happen.

Susie gestured toward the parking lot. Lisa and Marlee were walking up to the fields and were laughing about something. Lisa’s happy face and sexy dimples sent a shiver of anticipation through Sam’s body. She watched her tall girlfriend open the gate to let Marlee in first. That was so like Lisa, to put other people first. That probably came from being the big sister to three much younger siblings.

Lisa pushed her long black braid behind her back, and Sam immediately wanted to unbraid it and run her fingers through the long tresses. Sam’s body was turning to mush as she watched.

“What’s that sound?” Susie asked as she stood up.

“What sound?”

“You. Planning to steal third.” Susie grinned and then smacked her friend on the shoulder before running toward the dugout.

Sam leaped up to chase her friend, but fell back down with a laugh. She only had one shoe on. She quickly threw the other one on, grabbed her sandals and glove, and headed toward the dugout on the run.