Kate Not So Great

Chapter 24 of How the Chicken Little Nuggets Won It All is out! Iykyk, and I am so sorry.
          
          Just a quick note for those who read the previous version of this book, chapter 24 is pretty much exactly the same, so for any repeat readers, I totally won't blame you if you decide to skip this one. Same for new readers, if the content warnings seem like too much, there is no shame in skipping. I love you all, thank you for sticking around while I retell this story <3
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/story/387773429-how-the-chicken-little-nuggets-won-it-all
          
          
          ****
          
          I could have imagined an entire lifetime in those next few seconds. Peter, Taylor, and I would probably have to spend a day in the hospital. Maybe two. But we would make it out. We would visit each other’s rooms, figure out how to pop wheelies in wheelchairs, and generally wreak havoc on the nursing staff. My mom would yell at me for being so disrespectful, but I wouldn’t care, because I would be with the people I loved most. We would live to see another day together. And another. And another. We could go on to play at whatever universities we wanted to, even if Taylor wanted to go somewhere else. Hell, I would even entertain the idea of going to Mizzou and give up Saint Helena entirely if it meant being with Peter. 
          
          We’d go pro together, end up on rival teams in the Majors, and we’d put on a show every time we played each other. We would stand up at each other’s weddings. Have families. Share a lakehouse and go on vacations together. Introduce our kids to the best sport on the planet and let them fall in love with the game and each other. We’d joke about the horrors of being in-laws, but deep down, it would be what we’d been dreaming of our entire lives. To be a legitimate family.
          
          We would celebrate our careers together when we retire. Golf every Tuesday morning because that's what you do when you're old and gray. Just us in tacky polo shirts, driving around golf carts all day. Peter, Taylor, Cameron. One, two, three.

Surprise! Chapters 22 AND 23 (parts 1 and 2) of How the Chicken Little Nuggets Won It All are up! We are around the halfway point now, so it's time to start playing my favorite game, something I like to call "how much can I torture Cam in the amount of time we have left?".  
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/story/387773429-how-the-chicken-little-nuggets-won-it-all
          
          ****
          
          In other news, thank you to @newlywrittenbooks for featuring an excerpt of the Chicken Little Nuggets!
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/1589159164-share-your-story-quotes-2-quote-58
          
          AND the first few lines of The Womanhood Theory were shared on the @chicklit account today, too! Words cannot express how happy it makes me when my girls get a moment to shine <3
          
          I hope everyone's writing marathon month is going well, and wishing everyone an amazing weekend. Happy Friday!

Hey, I'm looking for judges for my awards and I'd be super grateful if you could sign up!

Chapter 20 of How the Chicken Little Nuggets Won It All is up! Foreshadowing? What foreshadowing?
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/story/387773429-how-the-chicken-little-nuggets-won-it-all
          
          ****
          
          That night, we packed into my old, rusted pickup truck, which I had named after my childhood hero. There was no way to describe the truck’s interior other than saggy. The three-seater bench sank in the middle. The fabric ceiling was torn in places and dipped in others, making the space seem more cramped than it actually was. The air conditioner only blew hot air, so I had one hand on the steering wheel while the other struggled to roll down my window with the sticky crank on the side of the door.
          
          “This was not a smart purchase,” Peter said, earning him another one of my eyerolls. We had only been together for a few hours, and I’d already lost track of how many I’d aimed at him. “Is this thing even street-legal?”
          
          I grimaced against the handle, which got stuck more frequently than it should have.
          
          “Don’t speak about Derek Jeter like that,” I said.
          
          “It’s a death trap.”
          
          “It is not,” I snapped. “Taylor’s survived this long. Haven’t you, buddy?”
          
          “Leave me out of this.”

Chapter 19 of How the Chicken Little Nuggets Won It All is up! Cam panics, as per usual, and our favorite pitcher/catcher couple makes an appearance for pizza. 
          
          There may or may not be an additional chapter later this weekend or early next week, depending on how long it takes me to edit it! 
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/story/387773429-how-the-chicken-little-nuggets-won-it-all
          
          ****
          
          There was no question in my mind anymore about what I wanted. I was done fighting the need to be with Norah beyond what I had restricted us to. After seeing Taylor’s mom just a few hours ago, I was reminded too much that everything I loved could be taken from me in an instant. I couldn’t let someone so incredibly alive slip away from me again.
          
          There were still rules, boundaries I couldn’t cross, like making sure we kept this a secret to protect both of us. I wasn’t saying “to hell” with them. I was still in control, but Coach’s praise had led me to do unthinkable things. I was on track to doing what I’d always wanted to do, and getting closer to Norah in the last month hadn’t derailed a single step in my plan.
          
          I already had my career in the palm of my hands. Maybe, just maybe, I could have Norah, too.

Chapter 16 of How the Chicken Little Nuggets Won It All is up in 2 parts! These silly kids reunite in the most unexpected place, and they don't know it yet, but they are just getting started ;)
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/story/387773429-how-the-chicken-little-nuggets-won-it-all
          
          ****
          
          Sober Norah may have wanted the same things as Drunk Norah, but she at least had an inkling of self-control.
          
          I showed him my smile. Not too big and stalker-y, but not small, either. Just the right amount to tell him, Hey, I acknowledge you. You haven’t scared me away. I’m here.
          
          Perfect. Self-control. Drunk Norah and her lack of impulse control were nowhere to be found, and she wasn’t coming out again for a long time. Sober Norah was in charge, and frankly, she wasn’t doing half bad.
          
          Then, the unexpected happened. Pigs must have learned to fly, or the cows came home, or whatever it was that country folks said to express the impossible, because Cameron smiled. At me. Not the big, toothy smile he had as a kid in the photographs on his wall, but a small one, like he couldn’t help himself.
          
          I didn’t think Cameron even knew how to smile.

Chapter 15 of How the Chicken Little Nuggets Won It All is up! Baby Cam is up to his regular antics and makes an absolute fool of himself.
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/story/387773429-how-the-chicken-little-nuggets-won-it-all
          
          ****
          
          We ran until our lungs burned and our chests tightened around our pounding hearts, until our legs ached, and then we kept on going until it was gone. No more burning or sore muscles. Just our shoes against the pavement in rhythmic, thumping steps like a single heartbeat, our even breaths cast into the wind as it blew past our ears.
          
          Pushing through was what we did. Pain was temporary, merely a stepping stone to get to where we wanted to go, which was nowhere and everywhere. It made us free. It made us enviable baseball players. It made us, us.

The 2025 Astania awards are open, and I have the privilege of judging the romance category!
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/story/401053594-moonlight-trove-astania-awards-2025-open

Surprise! Chapters 12 AND 13 of How the Chicken Little Nuggets Won It All are up! I like to consider these two sister chapters, and honestly, I'm an impatient woman and didn't want to wait until next week for the next one to go up. ;) 
          
          Cam pushes himself a little too far this time, and there may or may not be two people who come to his rescue.
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/story/387773429-how-the-chicken-little-nuggets-won-it-all
          
          ****
          
          I couldn’t help but lament the player I used to be, and what I wouldn’t give to get a taste of who I could have become.
          
          This was where I belonged now, whether I liked it or not. My place wasn’t out on the field with the rest of the team running, hitting, or throwing. It was here, alone, taking care of nobody but my glass self. And that was where I had to stay.

Chapter 11 of How the Chicken Little Nuggets Won It All is up, and it's time for their first coaching session! Norah tries yoga for the first time, and Cam is totally not chill about it.
          
          https://www.wattpad.com/story/387773429-how-the-chicken-little-nuggets-won-it-all
          
          ****
          
          “Press your hips back,” I said. A long breath pushed out of her chest before she obeyed. I didn’t watch her; I watched the mat where her hands were. There felt something inherently wrong about looking at her in such a vulnerable position. One that I’d put her in, and that she still wasn’t doing right.
          
          I walked up to her, trying not to think about what I had to do. My hands rested against her hips again. The same area I’d held on the dance floor, which felt like it was made for me. Like wearing my oldest, most broken-in glove or sliding on my hat that perfectly fit the curve of my head.
          
          Keeping my touch as light as possible, I pulled her hips back until her torso was a straight line all the way down to her hands. I resisted the overwhelming urge to grab her and press the pads of my fingers against her hip bone. My palms were two pressure points of clammy heat against her clothes. Two reminders that my hands did not belong there.
          
          I lifted my hands so they hovered over her, just barely enough that she wouldn’t feel their pressure anymore. I didn’t want her to feel that way, that I was pressuring her to do something she didn’t want to do. 
          
          “This,” I said, “is downward dog.”