Read Whatever Life Throws at You Online
Authors: Julie Cross
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Love & Romance, #Sports & Recreation, #General, #track, #Sports, #baseball, #Contemporary Romance, #teen romance
Whatever Life Throws at You (30 page)
Epilogue
BRODY: can you post this on FB for me? “I am no longer dating a high school girl”
ME: what happened? Underage girls not your type anymore?
BRODY: not if they aren’t you
ME: and I’m not in high school anymore. I get it :)
BRODY: see you at Lenny’s in 5
“Why is my name on that cake?” Brody’s forehead wrinkles as he stares at the giant graduation cap–shaped cake the Londons splurged for after convincing Dad the combo Annie/Lenny party would be so much fun.
“It was Lenny’s idea,” I say quickly.
Lenny shakes her head. “No way. Savannah did this.”
“Did what?” Dad and Savannah say from behind us.
Before we can point blame elsewhere, Jake London stands in front of the huge party-guest turnout (98 percent Lenny London guests) and raises his glass of champagne.
“Oh my God,” Lenny mutters, “he’s giving a speech. Why the hell is he giving a speech? Who does that at a graduation party?”
“Wishing you could go back to Spain?” I joke even though I know she missed her parents. A little.
Lenny grins. “You know me, I love drama.”
At least nobody is throwing a punch.
Jake London and Dad seem to tolerate each other these days. Which is a far cry from this time last year. Brody and Jake London…that relationship is even better than Dad and Jake’s.
Teammates becoming unlikely World Series Champions makes it way easier to put personal differences aside and bond.
“I would just like to thank my teammates for coming out here to celebrate two of the smartest and most athletic Royals’ kids,” Jake says. Lenny looks at me and rolls her eyes, but I can tell she’s surprised by the compliment. She always says her parents rarely mention the fact that she’s a straight-A honor student. “We’ve got a National Honor Society member and a two-time record-holding state champion in the one-mile run—”
“And the two mile!” Brody shouts.
I elbow him in the side, but I don’t hate that he brought that up. After handing over the two-mile race to Jackie last year, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get myself back up to the top. I did, and I even shaved a couple seconds from my time.
“And the two mile,” Jake says, nodding in Brody’s direction.
Brody’s arm snakes around my waist, and he tugs me closer. He was probably more excited about my state win than I was. He even made sure the pitching rotation allowed him to watch my meet.
And then there were negotiations with the head coach from University of Kansas—who offered me a full ride. The way Brody and Dad attacked that woman… Let’s just say I will never run out of clean towels in the locker room. And they have my favorite Gatorade flavors listed on letterhead.
“So why is my name on the cake?” Brody whispers into my ear while Jake London continues talking.
“I can’t tell you.” My face heats up, mostly from Brody’s mouth on my neck, but also because I’m now terrible at keeping secrets from him.
“Is it a couple’s thing? Or future planning? You know, if we were married, technically you’d be Annie Brody…”
Lenny overhears him and spins around to face us, pointing a finger. “If you propose at my graduation party, I’ll kill you.”
“You’d have to beat me to the job,” Dad chimes in.
Ignoring them, I glance over my shoulder at Brody and smile. “You would sound way better with my last name than the other way around. Don’t you think?”
Dad puts an arm around both of our shoulders, clapping his hands over Brody’s and my mouths. “Enough of this marriage talk. I need to get through sending Annie away to college first.”
“It’s forty minutes away, Dad.”
He shrugs, and we both return to listening to Jake London’s lengthy speech. “In addition to my Harvard-bound daughter and Jim’s daughter getting a full ride to University of Kansas, a top women’s track and field school…we have one more academic achievement to acknowledge.”
Mrs. London rushes forward and hands Jake the envelope Savannah must have given them earlier.
“My teammate and last season’s Rookie of the Year, probably the main reason we made it all the way to the World Series for the first time in decades, Jason Brody”—Jake holds up the certificate for everyone to see—“is now a high school graduate. And he completed his diploma while playing his first season in the major leagues. That’s quite an accomplishment. I don’t think many of us could have done both of those at once.”
I back away from Brody so I can see his face—he’s blushing, which is a rare thing for Brody, but he looks ecstatic. I reach out and squeeze his hand. Dad is the first to clap him on the back. But several of his teammates follow. My heart squeezes at how far he’s come in a year—from the kid no one would give the time of day to, to having players treat him like a valued member of the team. One of them.
A few minutes later, Jake is finally done with his speech and Brody is standing beside me, staring at his GED. I lean in close to get a look.
“Pretty cool, huh?” he says.
I take the certificate from him and set it on the table beside us before reaching up to bring his face closer to mine so I can kiss him. “It would be even cooler with my last name,” I say.
Brody laughs, but when his eyes meet mine, I can tell this idea isn’t so much of a joke to him—well, the name part is, because what would people do with all those Jason Brody Rookie of the Year cards?—but us being together forever…he’s pretty serious about that.
And so am I.
I glance over at Dad and catch him reaching for Savannah’s hand. I shake my head, hardly able to believe they’ve gone there. Life is funny sometimes…the worst possible things can get you to the best possible places.
If you just enjoy the game.
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my super star agent, Nicole Resciniti for being the first to listen to this book idea and keeping me sane while I worked through the editorial phase. My Entangled editorial team: Heather Howland, Kari Olson, and Liz
Pelletier for all the time and passion put into this story. Mark Perini and Gaby Navarro for helping with the Spanish translations.
My family, for their continued support, and all the readers who have stuck by me.
About the Author
Julie Cross lives in Central Illinois with her husband and three children. She’s a former gymnast and longtime gymnastics fan, coach, and former gymnastics program director with the YMCA. She’s a lover of books, devouring several novels a week, especially in the young adult and new adult genres. Outside of her reading and writing credentials, Julie is a committed—but not talented—long-distance runner, creator of imaginary beach vacations, Midwest bipolar-weather survivor, and expired CPR certification card holder, as well as a ponytail and gym-shoe addict. Visit her
website
.
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