The Nerdy Girl (White Oak Creek High Book 1)

by Lee Wardlow

  I nodded.

  If Delia didn’t plea soon there would be a trial and I would have to testify. The prosecutor kept reassuring my parents that it was open and shut. With my testimony and the video tapes from Johnny’s house if she didn’t take a plea deal, she would be convicted of Aggravated Assault.

  I should be angry. I should want her to rot in jail. She had taken time from me that I could never get back. She could have taken my life but something inside Delia was broken. I wasn’t sure how I felt about her life being ruined by going to juvenile until she turned eighteen then possibly being transferred to a women’s correctional facility to serve out her term.

  I had heard her dad was holding out for his pull to get her off with a slap on the wrist. The prosecutor had informed him he needed to watch the assault on me if he had any ideas about Delia getting a slap on the hand. They said he wasn’t too pleased.

  Mom and Dad said he approached them. Wanting their assistance in convincing the judge and prosecutor not to go after Delia. She was his baby. Mom had told me it was all she could do to hold Dad back.

  Speaking of broken things. They are trying but things are different. There is an underlying tension in my home. Like they are afraid at any moment one or the other is going to crack and say, I don’t love you anymore.

  Cal touched my shoulder startling me. I glanced up into his face. So handsome and strong. “I love you,” I told him.

  He bent down and kissed me. “I love you too. Ready?” He asked.

  I nodded. “What is Tyson doing after school?” I asked.

  He chuckled. “Trying out for the school play.”

  I glanced over my shoulder thinking that Cal was kidding. He wasn’t. “Why? I might do something like that, but he wouldn’t.”

  He grinned at me. “That girl from Math class, Sinead is trying out.”

  I burst out laughing. “He’s desperate then.”

  “Maybe,” Cal replied. “Mom and Dad home?” He asked.

  “Mom is. Dad is at work.”

  “Come home with me,” he said. “Nobody is home. I just want to hold you.”

  “Where is Blythe?” I asked.

  He continued to wheel me through the door to his car. At the Impala, he settled me in the front seat. I put my seat belt on and watched him collapse the chair before storing it in the trunk.

  Cal climbed behind the wheel and started up the beauty that was all his. His dad had signed the title over to Cal during this trip home.

  “Cal, where’s Blythe?” I asked.

  He shot me a look. “Mom kicked her out after Dad left.”

  “Oh no.”

  “It was bad. She and Dad had an argument about it over the phone but she’s sticking to her guns. Blythe is staying with some friends who insist that she get a job or go to school. She’s not laying around all day doing nothing like she did at home.”

  “Is everything okay now with your parents?”

  He chuckled at that statement. Then he rubbed his neck and steered with the other hand. “Kind of.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “That means I’m glad that Dad won’t be home for ten or eleven months. He’ll have time to cool off and see Mom was right.”

  “That bad?”

  “That bad,” he replied.

  In his driveway, Cal carried me to his house, so we didn’t have to deal with the wheelchair. The front door was always unlocked so I could open the door for him.

  “Where’s your Mom?”

  “She’s got a part time job,” he said.

  “Seriously.”

  He nodded at me as he carried me down the hall to his room. I opened the door there and he kicked it shut with his foot. I wasn’t small but he had no trouble carrying me in his arms.

  He laid me gently on the bed and kicked off his shoes. Cal always liked to be comfortable, so he went to the closet and changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt. “Want something to change into so you’re comfortable?” He asked.

  I really did but if his mom came home, she might not like that. I shook my head no. I kicked my shoes over the side of the bed, and he crawled across to me and laid down. I snuggled into his side and couldn’t stifle the sigh that escaped me.

  He laughed.

  “When do you think I’ll get my strength back?” I asked.

  “I don’t know Ab. You will though. We have lots of things to do together.”

  I glanced up at Cal and nodded. “I want to be with you forever like you promised me at the hospital when you put this ring on my finger,” I said.

  Cal frowned at me. I could tell he wasn’t sure how I had known what he said. I was still in a coma. “Cal, I heard the stories you read. I heard every whispered I love you, Abby.” I saw tears gather in his eyes. I caressed his rough cheek. “I heard your promise. I want to love you forever too.”

  His lips brushed across mine. So tenderly I melted into his warmth and his embrace. “Abby, it won’t be easy. We’re only sixteen and seventeen.”

  “I know,” I said. “But we’ll find a way. Promise me.”

  He kissed my temple. “I promise. I’m going to marry you someday Abigail Gardener.”

  Epilogue

  I was grateful, Abby didn’t have to testify. Delia took the plea deal. She’s in juvie until she turns eighteen. Then she has probation for five years. Drug and alcohol testing during probation. No leaving the state. College at Miami, her dream is out of the question now.

  I didn’t get a part in the play, but I got the girl just a different one. If there was one thing that loving my twin sister taught me is to not judge a book by its cover.

  Marty Halson and I built sets together for the play and that led to this relationship that I have now. The girl who is an athlete like me but more tomboyish, not the one I ever go for has piqued my interest.

  One who just might be able to kick my butt even if she’s only five feet six. Blonde, blue eyed and mouthy. That girl has got some mouth on her.

  Mom doesn’t like her. Dad likes her spunk but thinks I can do better. Abby minds her business because I interfered too much with her and Cal. I still want to because I don’t want to see my sister get hurt just like she doesn’t want to see me hurt, but this is different. I’m a grown man almost. Let’s see what happens with Marty. I’m ready for this whatever it is. Marty refuses to put a label on it. She doesn’t like labels.

  The End

  Until Tyson’s Story

  The Tomboy

  About the Author

  I’m a small-town girl who has always loved to read and write stories. I’ve been in the Information Technology field for a long time (translation Computer Geek/Project Manager). While laid off several years ago, I dusted off my manuscripts and self-published my first book which was Welcome to Hell: Rediscovering First Love about small town in Michigan known as Hell. It is a real town with my own special fictional twist. I wrote it in 1997-98.

  Then I wrote another novel, You Were Born for Me and I just kept writing. I absolutely love the Pointe Royal Series. I had a hard, time quitting them. Adam and Joy were my favorite couple and I’ve grown and gotten better as I’ve written more books.

  I had always wanted to be a writer, but I kept letting things get in the way. I’m artistic as well as having a love of reading other author’s Romance novels. Other genres of books such as Stephen King and John Grisham are often favorite authors of mine too. A good Sandra Brown novel will get me every time too.

  I have one daughter with 5 grandchildren and a son-in-law I love to pieces. Life is never boring with them around. I’ve been with my husband Bill for years. We have two dogs, Dixie and Koda. Dixie hasn’t forgiven us for bringing home Koda. She was top dog until he came around.

  The Traveling Woman

  Have you ever wanted to run away?

  I did.

  I mean I did want to, and I did do it.

  When Marco cheated on me, I thought my entire world would crash around me. The next morning, I picked myself up by m
y bootstraps, had my cousin Tony, our lawyer draw up some dissolution papers and presented to them to Marco.

  It wasn’t that easy.

  We were best friends. Lovers. My only one. What I learned is that sometimes, you lose your way and you need to find it again before you make some big decisions like divorce.

  He let me go. I ran.

  I met some amazing people on my journey.

  Before I Lose You

  Gracie has always been the rebel in a family of conservative, well-educated people. Her parents, her brothers. They don’t know how to take her tattooed, single-mother, self. In their eyes, the best thing she’s ever done is probably Jet, her son. She finds love in the most unexpected places just as she’s losing her first love…her father, Alex.

  Butterflies Should Be Free

  She was too young for him. He wanted a family. Something he had wanted for a long time. After three failed marriages Jagger Braun wanted to give Mychael and Kaya the life that he could afford. A life they had never known.

  Beautiful butterflies are meant to be looked at not captured and held in a jar. He couldn’t keep her. She couldn’t belong to one man. He was ready to set her free. Then she disappeared.

  As her husband, he should have been the number one suspect, but he was caring for her daughter as he always was. He had an alibi. Why was his oldest brother being questioned though? When her body is found, her lies will reveal themselves through the journal she left behind.

  The Sherwood Series is my latest series. My books always seem to be centered around a small town. I love those little towns like I grew up in. They aren’t as exciting as I make them to be, but I love them all.

  Sherwood, Ohio is a small town where some residents live well below poverty. It’s a tobacco farming town near the Ohio River. Most residents need to drive far to find gainful employment. Most love the small town where they grew up or they hate it. It makes a man, or it breaks men’s spirits. They live here, and they die here, or they leave it all together and never look back.

  Danni Rose

  Jackson Hand was one of those men who left Sherwood and never looked back. It almost broke Danni but she’s fallen in love with someone unexpected but someone her family adores. Her oldest brother’s best friend, Walker Wild.

  Walker, ex-con, took the fall for a crime his brother committed. A crime, most who don’t know him will never let him forget. He loves his best friend’s sister.

  There’s lots in the way of these two getting together besides Walker’s own opinion that he isn’t good enough for her. The return of Jackson Hand to the town of Sherwood will be the biggest complication in Walker’s mind but not Danni’s. What Danni wants Danni will fight for. She’ll wear Walker down one way or another.

  Elijah

  I would be the first person to tell you that I’m an anxious guy. I have loved Jenny Hartfield since probably the day that she walked down the stairs to go to our Junior prom with me. She took my breath away. I have admired her since she knocked Tommy Ward’s teeth loose. That was in the first grade. I knew then that she was strong and didn’t need anybody until her parents died. Then she needed me, and I was there for her. I was there for her, a little too much after Don, her dad died. That is when we first had sex.

  I thought maybe I could keep her as my best friend, my sidekick. My lover too without complicating the relationship with marriage. What was I thinking? I was afraid of losing her before I even sealed the deal, as my grandfather said.

  He set me straight. I got over myself and well the rest is history. She had something she was hiding from me though because Jenny wanted to know that she was loved by me first and foremost.

  Boy talk about being anxious…

  Ben

  You know what happened?

  I have a daughter.

  You know that I held her in my arms at the hospital. What you don’t know is that I spent hours with her, giving her a bottle, holding her, hugging her, kissing her. Then I gave her back to a nurse and left the hospital.

  For the last six weeks, I’ve been missing her. Getting drunk, which isn’t like me at all, trying to figure out what I should do. I wanted to be her father, but you see I had messed up.

  I let the one woman I thought I could love, get away. I knew it the morning after I slept with her cousin. I’m not sure that she would ever forgive me. Now, I had a daughter to think of and she came first but I couldn’t stop thinking of Disa Riley.

  I’m not sure Disa can ever give me a second chance since the mother of my daughter is her cousin Jasmine Riley. I’ve lost the love of my life but gained a daughter.

  AJ

  I have a chip on my shoulder the size of a bolder. I know it. My brothers know it and my parents know it. I used to take out my frustrations at my parent’s discipline tactics on the football field. Then I became an adult. I could no longer use my athleticism to work out my anger issues, so I became an asshole.

  That’s me. A narcissistic shithead. I need anger management, I’m sure. I can admit to all my faults. This game that Heath and I played that Matt helped with planning from time to time was now out of control. We considered ourselves the vigilante for the weaker man or woman. We righted wrong. We served justice when none could be served by the proper authorities.

  We were just dumb shitheads from Sherwood, Ohio.

  We had never come across a man like Ron Parson before.

  In between all the fury and the game playing with Ron Parson I got back together with Daisy Clemmons. She was my kryptonite but was I putting her in danger too?

  Heath

  Mom was kidnapped by the man who wanted Disa Riley, Ben’s wife. Ron Parson wanted more than Disa. We had something or someone that he wanted to sell.

  AJ is angry and I’m the crazy brother. The two make for a deadly combination. We started a war with Ron Parson that has consequences we couldn’t possibly have imagined.

  The fall out is unthinkable. People we love will get hurt. We were just dumb shitheads from Sherwood, Ohio. We had never come across a man like Ron Parson before. He has our mother.

  He has Jacey. When will it end? Who will be left standing when the smoke clears? Will I still have the love of my life, Jacey May

  Seth and Matt will be coming soon.

  My Point Royal series is about a small Ohio fictional town based very, very loosely on my own experience growing up in small town Ohio. They are about family with a hint of romance, all with happy endings.

  Pointe Royal Series Books

  You Were Born for Me- Declan Moore and Stevie Bond

  Never Leave Me – Noah Moore and Lexi Michael

  I Knew I Love You When – Codi Moore and Jessie Gatlin

  For Always – Scarlett O’Halloran and Ben Murdoch

  I Will Always Love You – Tegan O’Halloran and Rhett Martin

  At Last – Shawn Martin and Bronagh Riley

  I Told You So –Delany O’Halloran and Ian Black

  The Beginning and The End- Pointe Royal - The Final Book

  What She Wanted - Part 1 of Joy’s Story

  What She Got- Part 2 – Joy’s Story

  Pointe Royal Series – 3rd Generation

  Promise Me – Ronan Moore and Skylar O’Halloran

  A Guarded Heart – Jamie Moore and Dia Clifton

  A Guilty Heart – Liam Moore conclusion to A Guarded Heart

  Club Amor Series

  One Wild Ride – Mia and Jaxson part 1

  Coming Undone - Mia and Jaxson part 2

  Dantea’s Hell – Sebastian and Dantea’s Story

  Ruby Lake Series

  Second Chances

  My Sweet Bobbie

  Goose Creek Series- The Daughtry Family

  Jorga

  In My Dreams

  Home is Where You Are

  Breathless

  I’ll Always Catch You

  Smoky Mountain Series

  Forever- Deacon and Sierra

  Never – Sasha and Julius

  Wild – Baker an
d Mac

  Dangerous – Sierra and Nikolai

  BloodWar – The Kings

  Trouble – Alexi Bessonov

  Coming Soon – Creed King

  The Summer of Sins

  McGuire Family Saga

  Killing in God’s Name

  Maya Michael’s story of struggle against oppression in America.

  The Timekeeper

  A man who saves souls from damnation by helping them alter tragedies in their future by changing their past lives.

  Cannons and Corsets, A Civil War Novel

  Follows Raven Truth and her family through their lives surviving the Civil War. Espionage, love and babies always trying to do the right thing while keeping themselves alive during the bitter, bloody war.

  Sons of Vengeance – Sequel to Cannons and Corsets

  The year is 1880, the Civil War has been over for fifteen years, but the South is still splintered by race and violence. The Klan is lawless. Freedom isn’t what is should be for the black community. The chains of slavery aren’t left behind. The children of the Truth family have grown. Ash Justice is waiting to hear from West Point. Jace Grant faces an uncertain future. Not knowing what he wants to do with his life; only that he doesn’t want to follow in his brother’s footsteps.

  Jack Truth witnesses a hate crime by the Klan against his aunt’s close family friend and employee and his life’s path changes dramatically. The appearance of Kristoff, William’s nephew explains his disappearance for Raven and throws Layla Truth’s life into turmoil.

  The sins of the past come back to haunt the Truths, the Grants and Maxwell Pleasance. Somebody is out for vengeance. The sins of the father will be placed on the heads of the sons.

  Dark Secrets of the Craft

  Ana’s Disappeared

  Waking Promise

  Stella’s Sorrow

  A story about 5 powerful witches and the 5 brothers who are their guardians. The witches discover the strength of their powers and their true destiny.

  The Naughty Librarian

  A story about two writers who knew each other in childhood living next door to each other. Both working on their next novels while lusting after each other. Lots of fantasies being played out here.