Puppy Love? Maybe Not

Time again for Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday!

Last week you met three of the four main characters in True Blue, the first book in my True Blue Trilogy releasing next month. (If you missed it, you can catch up on the earlier excerpts here.) Jeana, Wade and Billy Joe live on the same street and grew up together, but why would two ten-year-old boys hang out with a girl who usually has her nose in a book, hates sports and is pretty bossy? Here's why.

When they left the shed in Wade’s back yard a few minutes later, they blinked as their eyes adjusted to the brightness of the late afternoon sun that was still warm enough for all of them to be wearing shorts in the middle of October—business as usual in Chickasaw, Alabama. The three of them said goodbye at the privacy fence that separated Wade’s yard from Jeana’s. Wade swung the loose board aside so Jeana could slip through, then he and Billy Joe watched until she was safely on her back porch.

They'd been looking out for Jeana all their lives, and neither of them planned to stop anytime soon. Sure, she was bossy and kind of a know-it-all, but she also wasn’t silly and giggly like most of the other girls at school. She was so smart it was scary sometimes, and she’d been making up cool games for the three of them to play for as long as either boy could remember.

Of course, neither of them would ever consider admitting to anyone—including each other—the real reasons they would always look out for Jeana. That was a secret they kept hidden deep in their ten-year-old hearts and only thought about when they were lying awake at night, remembering the way Jeana's eyes looked when she smiled and the way it made her face glow like the strands of her curly red hair in the sunlight. Her smile made them want to be smarter, nicer, braver—someone who deserved the admiration of a girl as special as Jeana.

Those were the things that kept both boys willing to do anything she wanted as long as it meant they got to see that smile again.

Next week you'll meet the fourth main character—another ten-year-old boy named Mickey who's obsessed with baseball, but for a reason you might not expect. And he doesn't know it yet, but he's gonna end up feeling the same way about Jeana. I also hope I'll be able to share the cover art next week too! Please do also check out the other Snippet Sunday folks and the Weekend Writing Warriors. Something for everyone among these talented writers!

~Stay true to yourself and your dreams will come true!

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