the best man - Excerpt

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Andy and I spent our days together playing, planning grand adventures, and chasing his older brother around. Samuel.

Ah. Samuel Dalton.

Whereas Andy had yellow hair and blue eyes like his parents, Samuel was different. His hair was darker, like chocolate dusted with just a little cinnamon at the ends, thick and straight, and always sticking up in a way that dared his mother to try to tame it with licked fingertips. Long, dark lashes curtained his golden-brown eyes that never failed to light with a smile a second or two before his mouth caught on to the notion. He was almost five years older than Andy and me, and very tall for his age. He was also kind and sweet and smart…and the prettiest boy I’d ever seen. I asked Joy once, why Andy looked so much like her but Samuel did not. She told me then that Samuel had been adopted. When I asked her what that meant, Joy said, “It means that even if he doesn’t have my hair or my eyes…he most certainly has my heart.”

I guess I decided he could have my heart too. Samuel Dalton was my very first crush.