Kyle’s best friend, Seth, rushes up and hugs me. “I hope you don’t mind…we just wanted to show you how excited we are.”
My eyes welling up with tears, I gaze around at the crowd I wasn’t expecting. Mom and Nick are here, along with Jeremiah. Vanessa, Rory, Kelsey, Colton, Jack, and Savannah. Coach Woods. Stephanie, my manager from the Roadhouse, and some other people who work there. My old principal, Dr. Salter. A bunch of guys from the Hundred Oaks track team. Men from the fire department. Even Liza and Andrew are here, beaming at me.
Kyle’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Crocker. His little brothers.
I swear, it’s like the entire town is here. To support me. To remember Kyle.
My heart lurches when his parents come over to me.
“We’re so proud of you,” Mrs. Crocker says, giving me a big hug.
His father says, “We’ll be there tomorrow at the finish line.”
“Daddy got us a fog horn to blow when you run by!” Kyle’s little brother Isaac says.
“I can’t wait,” I say with a laugh.
I introduce Jeremiah to Mr. and Mrs. Crocker as my boyfriend. Mr. Crocker slips a comforting arm around his wife and gazes at her until she nods as if to say, Yes, I’m all right. Then they both shake Jeremiah’s hand and ask how college is going. Mrs. Crocker makes me promise to drop by the house during Thanksgiving break next month.
Coach Woods is digging into a massive plate of spaghetti. I walk over to her table to thank her for coming. She swallows and lets out a loud groan. The guy she’s with says, “Don’t eat so fast or you’re gonna bust a lung.”
“Shut up, Henry.”
“Um, hi, Coach Woods, thanks for being here.”
She looks up with a smile. “Annie, hi. This is my boyfriend, Sam Henry. Henry, this is Annie, my former student.”
The picture of him on her desk at school doesn’t do him justice: her boyfriend is hot. Way to go, Coach Woods.
“Good luck tomorrow,” he says, grinning.
“I can’t wait to see you run,” Coach Woods says. “I’m so proud of you. Matt says you’re in really good shape to finish.”
“I am,” I say. I’ve never worked so hard in my life.
“Need any pointers?” Henry asks.
“She does not need pointers from you,” Coach Woods says.
“Sure she does. You know where the beer stops are, right?” he asks with a wicked gleam in his eye.
Coach Woods groans again. “You’re gonna get me fired one of these days, Henry.”
“I do know where the beer stops are,” I say. “Miles sixteen and twenty-two.”
“Matt’s got you trained up well, I see,” Henry replies, stretching his arms across the back of the booth. “I wish I could come to the race, but I have to work.”
“What do you do?” I ask.
“I just got on with the Titans as an SEC scout.”
“The best job ever,” Coach Woods says. “Basically he watches college football games all the time.”
“How can I get that job?” I ask, making them laugh.
After I’ve said hi and thank you to everybody, I join Jeremiah over at a big round table with my friends. Jack Goodwin and Savannah are down from Kentucky. Rory drove over from Knoxville and is currently kissing Vanessa’s neck. We all roll our eyes at that and tell them to get a room. Kelsey holds Colton’s hand and he’s so busy staring at her, he keeps missing the straw as he tries to take sips of his drink.
“Now that Colton’s pledging my fraternity, I can ask him to do anything,” Jeremiah whispers in my ear, playing with my braid. “I could make him feed you spaghetti.”
“Oh stop,” I say. “Don’t torture my friend.”
Later in the evening, Jeremiah comes back to my trailer with us. We sit at the kitchen table because he wants to go over the course maps with me for the gazillionth time. But I quickly learn that “go over the course maps” is code for making out, because he won’t stop stealing kisses. It’s fun, but I can’t get something out of my mind.
“I need to do something,” I say quietly.
“Let’s do it then.”
“Alone.”
He stares into my eyes, fiddling with his leather cord necklace. “Okay.”
“I’ll be back in a little while if you want to stay here. You and Nick can see what’s on TV.”
“Cool.”
“Die Hard’s on,” Nick announces.
“You watch that every day—”
“I love that movie,” Jeremiah interrupts me, flopping down on the couch beside my brother.
With a deep breath, I grab Mom’s keys and borrow her car.
It’s time.
I go to the drive-in. Our spot. I sit on the hood of the car and eat popcorn, watching Titanic. I’ll never forget all the moments we shared, good and bad, sad and funny. All the wonderful time we spent together. Every moment means the world.
I’ll never forget you.
•••
A noise jolts me awake. My eyes blink open to find Jeremiah sneaking into my room at home. He crawls onto my bed, laughing, and touches his nose to mine.
“I thought you went home?” I hiss. “You can’t sleep over. My mom’ll kill me.”
“I forgot to give you something before the race.”
He clasps something around my neck. I gaze down to see it’s his lucky leather necklace. Our eyes meet, then he kisses my fingers.
“Love you,” he says. “Sweet dreams.”
“Love you too.”
He scrambles off the bed and tiptoes out into the hallway. Then I hear him getting in trouble.
“I sent you home an hour ago, young man,” Mom says.
“I forgot to give Annie something.”
A loud snort. Nick. “She needs her sleep for the race!”
“Okay, okay, I’m going,” Jeremiah says.
“I better not see you again tonight, Jeremiah Brown,” Mom says.
“You’re as bad as Annie!”
I laugh myself to sleep.
But I don’t sleep well. I keep waking up every hour because I’m scared my alarm clock won’t go off. When it finally rings, Mom and Nick rush into my room.
“Just wanted to make sure you’re awake,” she says, and it nearly makes me cry because she believes I can really do this.
I grab a shower to wake myself up, pull on the clothes I laid out the night before: my favorite pink shorts and the panties that never ride up. I safety pin my race number to my white tank.
I ride to Nashville with my family, just the three of us. Nick drives and Mom mans the radio. They both took off work. My knee shakes the entire drive.
After getting good-luck hugs from my mom and brother, I join my team under the tree with Matt’s blue flag. Andrew has an arm around Liza’s waist, and they both hug me.
Matt smiles around at those of us who made it to today. “I’ll see you all at the finish line,” he says without a trace of doubt in his voice. And then it’s time for us to head to our corrals.
But I have one final thing to do: I slather Vaseline all over my thighs.
“Another Vaseline convert,” Matt says, chuckling. “Told you it’d help with the chafing.”
“I don’t think I’m comfortable with you talking to my girl about chafing,” Jeremiah says as he walks up to our team.
“I’m her coach. It’s well within my bounds.”
“And I’m your brother. It’s well within my bounds to knock you upside the head.”
And of course, the brothers start in on each other. Jeremiah grabs Matt in a headlock and Matt jabs at his brother’s stomach. I roll my eyes.
An announcer’s booming voice tells us to report to our corrals. The cool air seems to still. I begin to follow Andrew, but Jeremiah takes my elbow.
“Good luc
k,” he says, quickly pecking my lips. He tweaks my braid, then walks off with his brother, waving at me over his shoulder.
I weave through the crowd to my corral.
I check my shoelaces one last time.
Make sure my official timer is attached to my shoe.
Shake out my legs.
Slip Kyle’s red Nike headband on.
A gun fires in the distance. The crowd inches forward. Cheers echo in the park. And I’m off.
And as I cross the starting line, I picture Kyle’s face and say thank you for helping me get through this. Thank you for all you’ve given me.
And when I look up at the gray sky, light breaks through a cloud and I feel the sun on my face.
Marathon Training Schedule~Brown’s Race Co.
Name Annie Winters
Saturday
Distance
Notes
April 20
3 miles
I’m really doing this! Finish time 34:00
April 27
5 miles
Stupid Running Backwords Boy!!
May 4
6 miles
Blister from HELL
May 11
5 miles
Ran downtown Nashville
May 18
7 miles
Tripped on rock. Fell on my butt
May 25
8 miles
Came in 5 min. quicker than usual!
June 1
10 miles
Let’s just pretend this day never happened…
June 8
9 miles
Evil suicide sprint things. Ran w/ Liza. Got sick.
June 15
7 miles
Skipped Saturday’s run…had to make it up Sunday.
June 22
8 miles
Stomach hurt again. Matt said eat granola instead of oatmeal.
June 29
9 miles
Matt says it’s time for new tennis shoes.
July 6
10 miles
Jere got hurt.
July 13
12 miles
Finished in 2:14! Only had to use bathroom once
July 20
13 miles
Halfway there!
July 27
15 miles
Humidity just about finished me off. Time 3:06.
August 3
14 miles
Hurt knee. Overdosed on Pepto.
August 10
11 miles
Wore new knee brace—it messes with my gait.
August 17
16 miles
Didn’t get enough sleep in dorms.
August 24
20 miles
Need lifetime supply of Pepto & ice packs. Stat!
August 31
14 miles
Ran w/ Liza & Andrew
September 7
22 miles
Holy crap! Time 4:35. I ran for 1/2 a school day!
September 14
20 miles
Knee brace is The Devil.
September 21
The Bluegrass Half Marathon
Finished in 2:26! Won a medal!
September 28
12 miles
Tapering off.
October 5
10 miles
Almost there!
October 12
Country Music Marathon in Nashville
Signed up for San Francisco Marathon!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’m a lot like Annie. When I was little, I used every excuse I knew to get out of running in gym class. I’d say I had a cold. A sprained arm. “My asthma is acting up and I forgot my inhaler today.” I just didn’t like running. It made me tired and sweaty and out of breath, and all the other kids were so much faster than me. It felt like it would never end.
Even when I got to high school and started playing varsity soccer, I never wanted to run laps before and after practice. “You mean to tell me after we’ve been kicking a ball around for an hour, you want me to run two miles?!” Again, even in high school, I had excuses. “My ankle hurts.” “My asthma is bothering me.”
It wasn’t until after college that I decided to really get in shape. I started eating right, started exercising several days a week, and I bought some books that taught me how to run. Running is something that humans are designed to do. Like talking, eating, and sleeping, running is a part of the human experience. But as you probably saw from Annie’s story, learning to run long distances is not an easy feat. The book I read gave tips on how to build up my mileage over time, much like Annie does in the book. It took me about a year to train, but I was eventually able to work up to 26.2 miles. I am of the opinion that if you want to run a marathon, you can—you just have to work hard and read magazines and books to learn how to train correctly.
I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 2005. And it was the toughest thing I have ever done in my entire life. Some people think running is something you do on your own, but it requires a support team—people to keep you hydrated and fed, and to cheer you on.
Writing a book is a lot like training for a marathon. It takes lots of focus and practice. And I couldn’t do it without a lot of help from family and friends.
My husband, Don, helps me through every book I write—with his knack for understanding human character and pointing out my wordiness, I couldn’t do this without him. He’s always great at getting me out of the house when I have writer’s block and need to clear my mind. Thanks for being my biggest fan.
Thank you to the Longstreths, Kenneallys, and Beggans for always supporting me.
A huge thanks to Julie Romeis Sanders, who helped me take this book from a shell of a story to something much bigger and stronger. I am in awe of how you recognize the important threads of a plot and know how to pull them out and enhance them.
To my beta readers, your feedback and insights were, as always, super helpful: Jessica Spotswood, Tiffany Smith, Trish Doller, Sarah Skilton, Natalie Bahm, Lena Thomsen, Kari Olson, Jen Fisher, Andrea Soule, Mickey Reed, Jessica Wallace, and Robin Talley (you finally got your Ping-Pong book).
The personal thoughts and feelings about extreme sports given to me by Hannah Maier and Scott Vetere were invaluable. Darryl Jones, trainer extraordinaire, taught me so much about working out in the gym and the human body in general. All of you helped me to understand Jeremiah Brown’s character.
> To Duffy Winters, one of the biggest YA fans I know, thanks for letting me use your last name! And to Bob Nardo, you probably don’t remember them, but a lot of the conversations we had in college about life and death helped me shape this book.
Sara Megibow, you have always been my biggest advocate—I couldn’t ask for a more committed agent. Thank you to Aubrey Poole and Todd Stocke for your thoughtful edits and tireless advocacy on behalf of this book. I continue to be amazed by the team at Sourcebooks: Dominique Raccah, Sean Murray, Derry Wilkens, and Jillian Bergsma. Thank you to Leah Hultenschmidt for launching my career.
Many thanks to my fans—none of this would be possible if not for you. Keep working hard and believing in yourselves and going after what you want.
SEVEN FACTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW
about Miranda Kenneally
Photo by Rebekah J. Murray
1. Once while running a half marathon, I was passed by an old woman who claimed to have bronchitis. I still had a respectable time though—2:13.
2. I am obsessed with regency historical romance novels set in London featuring lords, ladies, butlers, and maids.
3. When I met George Lucas, he was wearing white jeans. Yes. White jeans.
4. One time at a Red Sox game, I dropped a foul ball, and then everyone booed me—including my husband and his family.
5. I have, in fact, attempted to learn how to speak Klingon.
6. If I have writer’s block, I immediately go out for Mexican food.
7. I love chatting on Twitter, so come say hi to me! @MirandaKennealy
Miranda Kenneally, Breathe, Annie, Breathe
(Series: Hundred Oaks # 5)
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