10 Years

by Bethany Lopez

  10 Years

  Time for Love Series

  Book 5

  By

  Bethany Lopez

  10 Years

  Copyright 2015 Bethany Lopez

  Published Feb 15

  ISBN: 978-1506128054

  Amazon Edition

  Cover Design by B Design

  Editing by Red Road Editing / Kristina Circelli

  Ebook Formatting by White Hot Formatting

  Amazon Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. All rights reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please don’t participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

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

  This ebook is also available in print at most online retailers.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Other Titles

  Note to Reader

  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

  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

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Excerpt Indelible Chapter One

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Books by Bethany Lopez

  Young Adult:

  Stories about Melissa – series

  Ta Ta for Now!

  xoxoxo

  Ciao

  TTYL

  With Love

  Nissa: a contemporary fairy tale

  New Adult:

  Friends & Lovers Trilogy

  Make it Last

  I Choose You

  Trust in Me

  Indelible

  A Time for Love Series

  8 Weeks

  21 Days

  42 Hours

  15 Minutes

  10 Years

  Christmas Come Early

  Dear Reader,

  I have written about many sensitive subjects over the last few years, but 10 Years may contain the most emotionally difficult scene I’ve ever written. It may be difficult for some people to read, so I wanted to put a warning here and let you know that this story contains some strong sexual situations, and details the way the characters cope with those situations.

  Thank you for giving Gwen and Craig’s story a chance.

  I hope you find beauty in their journey.

  Bethany

  Prologue ~ Gwen

  (7 years old)

  “I’m sorry, Gwennie,” my daddy said as he held my writhing body a couple inches away from him. “You’ll still see me on weekends and holidays, but I can’t live here anymore.”

  “No, Daddy, please, take me with you,” I pleaded, tears and snot mingling as they ran down my face.

  Our parents had just told Gaby and me that they were getting a divorce. Gaby said that she already knew they were going to. She explained that they were always fighting, and Daddy had been staying in the room behind the house lately, so she knew this would happen.

  But I hadn’t.

  I believed that my mommy and daddy would be together always. Like they were supposed to be.

  And I was going to live with them forever.

  Now, Daddy was ruining everything by saying he was moving away. I didn’t understand.

  “Don’t you love us anymore?” I asked as I tried to wiggle free of his hands so I could latch on to his waist.

  “Of course I do, honey,” my daddy replied, his big eyes filling with tears. “You have to calm down, baby.”

  I heard him, but I couldn’t calm down. I’d been trying to talk him into staying all morning, and he wouldn’t listen. I tried laying down and crying, stomping my feet and crying, and then just holding on to him as hard as I could, but nothing was working.

  Mommy was waiting inside the house. Every once in a while she would look out the door, and I could tell she’d been crying too.

  Why didn’t she tell him not to go?

  Eventually, Gaby came out and took me away, leading me to her room and shutting the door. She was thirteen and didn’t usually let me in her room, so I felt a little thrill when she sat me on her bed, which helped calm the tears.

  “Gwennie, you have to stop,” she said. “You’re making this harder on everyone by carrying on the way you are. Mom’s about to have a breakdown.”

  I felt something sharp and indefinable at my sister’s words, but I still asked her, “When do you think Daddy will come home?”

  Gaby stood up quickly, then turned to me, her face filled with hurt and anger.

  “He’s not. Gwennie. He’s not coming home. It’s going to be me, you, and Mom from now on, so get used to it.” I didn’t like what she was saying to me, so I started to get up, but she pushed me back down and leaned in, bringing her face close to mine. “I’m sorry, I know it sucks.” I pulled in a sharp breath at that; we weren’t supposed to swear, but Gaby continued talking, “But that’s the way it is. We’ll go to Dad’s new house and see him sometimes, but things will never be the way they used to be.”

  “But…” I started to argue, my eyes filling again.

  “I’m sorry, Gwennie, but it’s time to grow up,” she said, her voice softer now.

  I took a deep breath and choked back the tears, then wiped my wet cheeks with the sleeve of my shirt. I looked around the room, then at my sister. Her face looked sad, but she wasn’t crying. I knew she was upset about what was happening too, but maybe she was keeping it inside.

  I decided to be more like my sister. I didn’t want to make my mommy sad, and I didn’t like feeling as horrible as I had all morning. I was going to hide my feelings from everyone. Maybe, if I didn’t think about him leaving, or the way our family used to be, I’d feel better. Maybe, if I pretended like he’d never left us, and like he’d always lived somewhere else, and we’d always visited him, I wouldn’t feel so sad…

  So that’s what I did.

  Chapter One ~ Craig

  (10 years old)

  All I wanted to do was go play baseball. My brother, Cal, had promise
d he’d take me to the cages and then go play catch, but first, he wanted to stop at the park.

  “The guys and I are meeting some girls there, but it won’t take long, I promise. Then we’ll head out to the cages, okay, bro?” Cal ruffled my hair, and I jerked away like I usually did, even though I secretly loved it when he did that.

  Cal was sixteen and the coolest brother a guy could have. He never treated me like I was annoying, like some of my friends’ brothers did, and he usually let me tag along when he was hanging out with Scott and TJ, his best friends.

  So, even though I really wanted to hit some balls, I didn’t mind hanging out with Cal and his friends for a little while.

  We pulled up to the park in Cal’s beat-up old Ford. He’d got it real cheap, because it didn’t run, but my brother and TJ could fix anything. They’d gotten the truck up and running in no time. I always loved it when Cal drove me around in it. A couple of times he’d even dropped me off and picked me up at school. The kids in my class thought I was the shit.

  Cal sauntered over to the merry go round, where three girls were standing with Scott and TJ. There was a pretty blonde, a redhead that made me feel things I only felt when I stole Cal’s Playboy magazines, and a brown-haired girl with a sweet smile aimed right at my brother.

  I watched as he took her hand in his and brought it to his lips.

  Yeah, my brother had all the moves.

  “Hey, Craig, come over here,” Cal said, waving his hand toward the group.

  I did my best to mimic Cal’s saunter. I’d been practicing in my room, but it never seemed quite right.

  “Shelly, this in my brother Craig. Bud, this is my girlfriend, Shelly.”

  I watched as Shelly’s eyes went wide when Cal called her his “girlfriend,” then she turned her smile on me. It was a real one… not like this other girl who had tried to talk to Cal at the last football game we went to. Her smile had been totally fake, and I knew she was trying to act like she liked me to impress Cal. He’d known too, and I’d never seen her again. I could tell Shelly wasn’t pretending, so I gave her a smile, took her hand in mine, and kissed it the way Cal just had.

  She giggled, causing TJ to turn to Scott and say, “Whoa, man. Craig’s already got more game than you.” Scott punched him in the arm, causing TJ to chuckle.

  “Nice to meet you, Craig,” Shelly said, and I noticed her eyes were a really pretty green, and her hair looked silky and soft. “These are my friends, Sasha and Gaby.”

  I nodded to the redhead, who she said was Sasha, and tried not to stare too long. She nodded back. Then I turned to the blonde, Gaby, and returned the smile that she gave me.

  “Hi, Craig,” Gaby said. “How old are you, about ten?”

  I was surprised she guessed right. I was tall for my age, and people always thought I was eleven or twelve. I nodded, and her smile grew wider.

  “Awesome,” she said, and I wondered why. I found out when she said, “My sister, Gwen, is ten too. I brought her along and she’s pretty bored. Would you mind talking to her? I’m sure she’d feel more comfortable with you around.”

  I looked around Gaby to the swings where she was pointing. There was a girl with long blonde hair, pumping her legs as fast as she could as she swung high up in the air.

  “Sure,” I said, happy to help. I didn’t have a problem being friends with girls like some of the guys from school did. Sure, I liked them, and thought a few were pretty, but I was more concerned with baseball than girls.

  I walked toward the swings watching Gwen’s hair fly out, then fall back, as she swung back and forth. She really had a lot of hair.

  When I got close enough I yelled, “Hey!”

  She looked at me, not smiling, but not mean either, then she stopped pumping her legs so she’d slow down.

  “Hey,” she said softly. I liked the sound of her voice.

  “I’m Craig. Your sister told me to come over and meet you. My brother, Cal, is going out with that girl, Shelly.”

  “I’ve seen you at school,” she admitted shyly.

  Her swing came to a stop, so I walked over and sat on the swing next to her.

  “You have?” I asked, not recognizing her from school. “Do we have any classes together?”

  Gwen shook her head, her hair flying around her face. Now that I was closer, I could see she had little freckles running across her nose. “We have the same lunch. I’ve seen you playing baseball during recess.”

  “Yeah?” I asked. I played baseball every day at recess, unless it was raining.

  She nodded again.

  “Do you play baseball?” I asked hopefully.

  “No,” she replied, and I tried to hide my disappointment so she wouldn’t feel bad. “I like to take pictures though.” The way she said it, almost in a whisper, made me think it was a secret.

  “Cool,” I said. Even though I’d never taken pictures before, so I had no idea if it was actually cool or not. “I bet we’ll be seeing each other a lot more now. I like to hang out with the guys.” I nodded over to the teenagers. I wanted her to know that I was one of them.

  “I come out with Gaby and her friends sometimes, but I’ve never met those boys before today,” Gwen said, looking at the group that were now standing in a circle and laughing about something. She looked kind of nervous.

  “You don’t have to worry about those guys, they’re cool. And I don’t mean they act cool when parents are around and stuff, they’re cool all the time. They take me to the go-karts and stuff sometimes. Do you like go-karts? You should come.”

  “Okay,” she replied with a smile, and I could tell she was probably pretty shy.

  “Maybe we can hang out at school sometime. Have lunch,” I said, then I warned, “Not at recess, unless it’s raining. I gotta play baseball during recess.”

  “Why?” she asked curiously.

  “Because I want to be the best,” I admitted with a grin. “I’m going to play in school, get a scholarship to USC, then go pro.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “So I gotta practice whenever I can… But we can still have lunch and stuff.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “I’m sure you have friends that you sit with.”

  I looked at my brother, smiling, his arm around his new girlfriends shoulder, and I could tell he liked her. A lot. That meant our group of friends had just gotten bigger, to include the girls. And if my brother thought it was cool to hang with girls, then I did too.

  “You’re my friend too, okay?” I asked. She looked up at me, eyes wide, so I continued. “You don’t have to be afraid to come up to me at school, or sit with me at lunch. Anything you need, I got you.”

  Gwen smiled sweetly at me, so I took her hand in mine and started pumping my legs. She did the same, and soon we were swinging high, laughing as our stomachs dipped with each descent. We kept our hands locked, and I knew deep down that I’d just made a friend for life.

  I had no idea how much she was going to mean to me, and how close I’d come to losing her forever.

  Chapter Two ~ Gwen

  (10 years old)

  I sat, watching my favorite bench under a large tree on the outskirts of the playground. My long blonde hair hung over my face. I liked to think it was like a shield, hiding me from the other kids on the playground. It wasn’t that the other kids paid much attention to me in the first place, but I did whatever I could to make sure it stayed that way.

  It always made me nervous, the way girls acted, all loud and giggly, and the way the boys ran around, joking and yelling with each other. I didn’t understand the need to be the center of attention, and I worked very hard not to be.

  Craig wasn’t like the other boys in our grade, I thought as I watched him throwing a baseball toward another kid holding a bat. Craig wasn’t loud or obnoxious. He wasn’t always running around yelling, or hitting other kids; he was quiet. Focused.

  In Nike shorts and a shirt that said Throwin’ Smoke, he was the most handsome boy I’
d ever seen. His brown hair was in need of a cut, and he was a head taller than the kids he was talking to, but his smile… Wow! It made my tummy flutter and I finally realized why the girls in my class went gaga over those boy bands they loved so much.

  I’d seen him around school a few times since the day we officially met at the park, but I hadn’t worked up the nerve to talk to him yet. I spent my time during recess at my bench, either reading or taking pictures.

  My sister, Gabby, had given me a camera for my birthday this year. It wasn’t fancy or anything, but it was digital, and I could download the pictures on our computer at home, right after I took them.

  It was the best present I’d ever gotten in my life.

  I picked up the camera and looked through the viewfinder, scanning the sky for birds, when I heard a thump, then a shout, and lowered my camera. I watched as the baseball rolled toward me, slowing as it neared, before finally stopping at my foot. Once the ball tapped me, I looked up to see Craig jogging toward me, the happy smile on his face causing a weird sensation to run through me.

  Suddenly warm and nervous, I tried to smile back.

  “Hi, Gwen,” Craig said as he bent to pick up his baseball. “I’ve been looking for you.”

  “You have?” My voice barely above a whisper. I couldn’t believe he’d actually been looking for me.

  “Yeah, I thought we were going to sit together at lunch,” he answered, tossing the ball up and catching it in his bare hand.

  “Oh, I… ah… didn’t know you really wanted to do that.” I felt silly, stammering like I was nervous, but I was aware of the other boys looking over at us, as they waited for Craig to return with the ball.

  “I said I did, didn’t I?’ Craig asked, then looked over his shoulder and said, “I gotta get back, recess is almost over, but wait here and I’ll walk inside after… okay?”