Playing for Kinley (Cruz Brothers Book 1) by Melanie Munton Page B

probably been the most influential person in my life when it came to choosing my career path.
    I would like to think that I still would have discovered my passion without him. But I could also admit that he had certainly been instrumental in my ambitions to become a photographer.
    After dinner, I needed a break from him and everything he reminded me of, so I ran up to my old bedroom and locked myself in it for a few minutes.
    But it only took those few minutes to recall the first time I realized that I liked Parker as more than my big brother’s best friend. I had been eight years old and Parker twelve.
    Judy Bloom was so funny. She reminded me of Lucy from “I Love Lucy.” Mom liked that show and Judy Bloom got herself into as much trouble as Lucy did.
    I was in my room, reading my new Judy Bloom book, when I heard the front door open downstairs and the sound of boys’ voices carried up to my open door.
    I smiled.
    That was probably Clay and Parker. Parker came over all the time now. Had dinner with us a lot and often stayed the night. I liked Parker. He teased me like Clay sometimes, but he was never really mean about it. Plus, I liked his smile. I decided to go down there and see what they were doing. They would probably tell me to go away, that I was being an annoying little sister, always trying to tag along with them.
    I walked downstairs and found them running around the first floor, Parker with a Nerf football in his hands and Clay chasing him.
    “I touched you!” Clay shouted.
    “Two hands!” Parker yelled back. “You only got me with one!”
    I watched them as they laughed and then started throwing the ball around the room. Next to all of Mom’s picture frames and vases and all of the other breakable stuff.
    “Hey! Mom said you can’t play ball in the house,” I told them.
    Both of their heads whipped around in my direction, and it was the first time they even noticed I was in the room. “What are you going to do about it?” Clay asked with a sneer. “Tell on us? Are you a tattle tale?”
    “Mom will be mad if you break something. You’ll get in big trouble.”
    “And where is Mom?”
    “She’s down the street, talking to Mrs. Hannah. Mom wanted to check in on her after she fell last week.”
    Clay smiled and went back to throwing the ball. “See? She’s not here so she won’t know.”
    “Yeah, stop being such a party pooper, Kinley,” Parker said as he caught the ball, stepped back a little, and threw it back at Clay.
    He was getting really close to my jewelry kit that I had laying out on the dining room table. Mom and Dad got it for me as a birthday present, and I had a lot of necklaces and bracelets on the table that I was still working on. It was the kit I wanted. Everything in it was so pretty. All the colors and the stones that looked like Mom’s diamonds, thought I knew they weren’t.
    I wanted to make pretty jewelry like the kind Mom wore.
    And maybe I could make her something for her birthday.
    “Watch out!” I told Parker. “Don’t knock over my jewelry kit. Those necklaces took a while to make and I’m still not done.”
    Parker looked behind him and turned back to Clay. “It’s fine. We’re being careful, Kinley, so stop being a pest.”
    That hurt my feelings.
    He was starting to sound more and more like Clay.
    “Yeah, Kinley,” Clay teased. “Why don’t do you go back upstairs and play with your Barbies? I know you make them kiss each other.” He puckered his lips and started making kissing noises, which made Parker howl in laughter.
    Mad, but also a little embarrassed, I scrunched up my face and started running back up the stairs so I could hide in my room. Then, I heard a crash, followed by hundreds of ticks and clicks as my jewelry kit clattered to the floor and all the little pieces scattered across the hardwood. I ran over to it in a panic, already knowing that everything I made the other day was now gone.
    “Parker! What did you do?”
    I was scrambling