Timing Is Everything

By May Hawthorne

Kimberly isn't interested in a lot of the cliches of college life. She likes to study, write, read, and draw. When the boy she and her roommate call "the lumberjack" takes an interest in her, she realizes that romance might be a part of her college experience.

 

However, "the lumberjack" is called away to take care of his family's business. It is not until years later that Kimberly understands the opportunity she missed. By the time they reconnect, both of them are at the ends of relationships gone wrong. 

 

Their timing was terrible in college, but it just might work out now if they are smart enough to take a chance on themselves and each other. They both learn that timing is everything.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Western Southern Tier Books
• Release date: Aug 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201875428

May Hawthorne

May Hawthorne lives on the banks of Lake Chautauqua just outside Jamestown, New York with her husband. She has three dogs named Fabio, Sparks, and Nora, and three cats named Austen, Danielle, and Deveraux. She loves hiking through nature and cooking with fresh local food. Her husband thinks she is the best writer in the world.

Book preview

Chapter One

Kimberly sat on the bench outside her classroom on a crisp October afternoon with a pad of drawing paper on her right thigh and a maple leaf that had turned orange and yellow on her left. Next to her, her best friend, Laura leaned over, poked her, and said, Pretty good, but I hope you’re not going to bury yourself in that drawing pad again.

Kimberly felt a smile grow on her face. She felt herself blush too. I might.

Laura groaned. Come on, class is over for the week.

It was funny. Before Laura poked her, Kimberly had lost herself in the drawing. She was inside it, totally focused, thinking about composition with one side of her mind. The other side was lost in a daydream of walking through the woods. She was in the dorms now, but back home she would be tromping through the forests of Pennsylvania. She loved the smells of autumn and the colors too. Well, what do you want to do then? Kimberly asked, but she already knew the answer.

We’re in college. We should be going to parties once in a while, meeting guys.

I don’t know, she said.

You’re not still hung up on your ex are you?

Kimberly started to shade with an ochre pencil and shook her head. No, it’s not that. Big parties just aren’t my thing.

But when she heard Laura groan again, she knew she was going to one tonight.

It’s not that Kimberly hated the people in the dorm. It’s not that she didn’t want to spend time with them. It was just that parties could be so loud, everyone talking and no one connecting. Sometimes it felt like they were just a cliche, everyone trying to capture something they’d seen in a movie about college life.

The party tonight was no different. The entire dorm decided that this was a night for celebration with the weekend just starting. When Kimberly and Laura’s door was shut, the music still bled through the walls, so Kimberly was a part of the party whether she wanted to be or not.

Kimberly and Laura wandered the halls a little, looking into this room or that. In one, the beds had been upended against the wall and people were doing a bouncing dance to techno. In another, a long-haired math major was juggling and telling jokes and not doing either very well. The audience of six people must have been on something because they were laughing at everything he said. In a third, a small group had formed and seemed to be reciting poetry to each other.

Laura clutched Kimberly’s arm. Oooh.

Go get some poems, Kimberly said.

Should I?

Definitely. Your poems deserve to be heard by more people than just me.

Laura bounced a little and ran off in the direction of their room. By the time she got back, Kimberly had made her a seat on the ground out of some pillows and blankets and had gotten her a red cup full of cheap red wine.

Laura came in and dropped down next to her and waited for her moment to read.

Kimberly might have been a little biased, but Laura’s poems were great; however, poetry wasn’t exactly her thing. Kimberly listened for a while, and got up and wandered outside with her pad.

Someone had lit a little fire, and she sat down at the edge of it where she could see the illuminated lower branches of a gingko tree. She pulled her drawing pad out of her bag and began to sketch.

The gingko leaves glowed yellow during the day. Now, in the firelight and in a gentle breeze, they flashed gold here and there. She sketched, page after page, but she just wasn’t able to capture the magical quality that was so simple in nature.

Finally, she slammed her pencil down. Damn it, she said.

Damn what? a guy asked. In the time that she’d lost herself in her drawing the way Laura knew she would, most of the people who’d been gathered around the fire had wandered off somewhere. Now the only one left was a guy she’d seen around a bit. Noticed. He was big, muscular, and usually wore flannel. She and Laura had called him the lumberjack and had laughed, but there was something about him. He had self-confidence when he moved.

His voice had startled her, and now she let out a long breath and laughed. Oh, it’s nothing.

He smiled. "No, please tell me. All my friends left me to watch the fire and make sure that it didn’t