Brandy Boyer

I have one more year of baseball eligibility left. One more year to show the major league scouts that I’m worth it. That I’m good enough to play professional baseball for them. But honestly, I’m not sure that I am. So far, not a single scout has approached me.

Four years have passed since I left home, my parents, and my brother Asher behind - since I shut out my past. And Erin. Four years since I last saw her, since I heard her voice and held her in my arms. I've spent my time forging a path from woman to woman, from bed to bed, trying to find an answer. But I think I've lost my way. There's no light at the end of the dark. No big surprise. I carry the dark inside me. I'm a bastard - branded as such from the start. I never give my phone number and address. I take my pleasure, and don't come back for seconds. No commitments, no promises.

In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all - beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn.

Getting fired and dumped in the same 30 seconds makes for a pretty bad Tuesday. But by Thursday, I'll be in Vegas celebrating my brother's wedding. Since I could use a fresh start, he offers me a place to stay with a buddy of his. At the bachelorette party, a raunchy game results in a quest to find me a one-night stand. When a hunk with dark blue eyes and perfect bone structure hits me with a silly line at the bar, my mission is complete.