Did you see the feature on Monday highlighting Krista's favorite reviews from Standing in Shadows? Or download your a copy of the banner to share your love for her story? Never fear, you can still do that here! Today we're featuring the excerpt Krista has picked to share with readers.

Krista says... I picked this scene because the story really begins to take shape and the characters are settled in nicely. If the Excerpt needs a title it would be, "The First True Meeting".

 

Not having many options in town I stopped in at a ice cream shop, it was owned by this husband and wife. They served good milkshakes, but I hadn’t had one in a few years. Now they were letting their daughter run the place for them. I ordered a strawberry shake and walked over to the empty picnic tables to drink it.

 

Like before there wasn’t a breeze, but the shade trees did cool the air under them. Hornets and other insects buzzed around the picnic tables looking for trash that still had the sweet leftovers for them to eat. I had to wave my hand constantly to keep them from landing on my cup, the cast acting like a battering ram, knocking them onto the picnic table. They would crawl around disoriented for a few seconds before they would fly away.

 

I heard someone else stop at the store, but didn’t turn my head to see who it was. I was concentrating on not getting stung. The milkshake was just as good as I remembered, even if I was just a little boy when I had my last one.

 

“I thought that was you,” a voice said as he plopped down beside me on the picnic table. He instantly had to start waving his hand around swatting. “How can you stand to sit here?”

 

I looked across the table at Clinton, he was too engrossed with the hornets to see me frown, “I have a weapon.” He didn’t understand at first, but I reached up and knocked a hornet down with my cast. He smiled momentarily, then frowned remembering that he was partly the reason I had to wear it.

 

“Sorry about the cast,” he said and I waved my good hand, shrugging.

 

“I think it was Cj’s big ass that broke it,” I said and he smirked, his eyes brighter now that he wasn’t worried about my arm.

 

“Your old man probably gives you hell every time he sees it,” Clinton said leaning forward, the smirk still spreading across his face.

 

“Yeah, along with everything else,” I answer wanting to take back what I said. I didn’t trust Clinton, he could use anything I say against me later. Cj seemed like the mastermind behind the taunts and teasing though.

 

“Everyone knows you have it bad when football season comes around,” Clinton said then he took a few drinks from his straw.
“Well this year it’s Cam’s ass,” I said and he glanced down at my green cast before he smiled and held up his milkshake.

 

“To Cam’s ass,” he said and I couldn’t hold back my laughter as I hit my cup lightly against his. “So you can’t play at all?”

 

“Probably not until January,” I shrugged, “If Cam is just as good as me he can have the job all year.”

 

“I thought you liked football no matter how bad your dad is,” Clinton said and I looked over my shoulder to make sure Cj wasn’t sneaking around behind me ready to dump something over my head or coax a hornet down the back of my shirt. Of all the years I knew Clinton this is the longest we’ve ever talked to one another. He was the quiet follower behind Cj’s boisterous personality that reeled everyone in.

 

“I liked football before Dad got serious about it,” I answered swatting another hornet away from my face.

 

“Do you want to go somewhere less dangerous?” Clinton asked, dodging the hornet that I swatted. It buzzed around him and I swung at it again, knocking it to the table.

 

“I probably should get back,” I said, not really wanting to go anywhere with Clinton. Although he had been nice to me, I couldn’t stop wondering when it would end. I knew he wouldn’t be nice to me if Cj was anywhere around.

 

“Oh, okay,” he said shrugging as he stood and we backed away from the picnic table. We tossed our empty milkshake cups into the trash, swarming with even more wasps and hornets. When we were both back to where we parked, he hesitated at the front of his truck.

 

“What?” I asked when I thought he was about to turn around and not tell me what was on his mind.

 

“My Dad lets me take the boat out,” Clinton said turning to fidget with an invisible smudge on his black truck. I had always wondered if being one of the more financially spoiled people in town that Clinton and Cj would naturally be friends. They lived on the richest corner of the small town, where everything good about the town was built around. “Do you want to try a little fishing?”

 

“You’re not going to dump me overboard are you?” I asked trying not to smile, but he didn’t return a smile. He looked more apprehensive, possibly feeling stupid about asking.

 

“Not on purpose,” he answered, his voice a harder than it was a little while ago.

 

“Ok, I’ll come,” I said, pretending not to notice the way Clinton seemed to relax.

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