Come with Me

Shep Kelly is starting his senior year of college with so much going for him. But he doesn’t have the one thing he wants to graduate with: someone to share life with.

Bailey Holmes feels like she’s limping across the finish line of school, but looking ahead to the life of raising her daughter on her own. After her high school boyfriend left her pregnant and alone, she doesn’t allow anyone to get close to her.

When the two are paired up as lab partners, Shep begins to see a possibility, but Bailey keeps him at arms length. As their friendship progresses into something more, Bailey begins to open up. But when baseball threatens to take him away, she’s afraid she will be left alone and hurt all over again.

Bailey will have to decide between opening her heart to move forward, or closing herself off forever.

Shepherd Kelly slung his backpack over his shoulder as he began his walk across campus. He tugged his baseball cap down to keep the midmorning sun out of his eyes, his dark hair hung out the back, reminding him that he needed a haircut. The familiar walk would take him less than ten minutes. He trekked from his dorm where he lived with the rest of the baseball team, across campus to the science building. He’d had a few classes there in his five years at Southern State College, but he needed one more science credit to complete his degree. 

Final semester, he thought to himself. I can’t believe it’s gone by so fast. It felt like just yesterday he was finishing up high school and hoping he would get a scholarship to play baseball in college. His dreams had come true when he got his acceptance letter and a call from the baseball coach. A full-ride had helped his family tremendously. As he walked, he thought about his sisters, who had helped raise him. Paige and Peyton were now married and living lives of their own. Paige still looked out for their youngest two siblings with her husband Russell, and they had their own two kids. And Peyton had married Spencer, who she met at this same university. She was the one who introduced Shep to the baseball coach and encouraged him to attend school there. The two siblings had been at school together for two years before Peyton graduated. 

Shep sighed at the thought of still being single, both of his older sisters were married by the time they were his age.  Of course, Paige had taken her time after the death of their parents while she was caring for all five younger siblings. But she was still married at twenty-two. And Peyton had married her sophomore year of college when she was only twenty. Shep had thought that he would at least have met someone by now. I guess I’ve been busy being married to baseball, he thought. Although he knew that was only partly true. There had been girls he could have dated. Lots of girls came out to watch baseball games, “cleat chasers” they sometimes called them. But he hadn’t met any of them that he felt a connection with. And he didn’t want to waste time in meaningless relationships. So here he was, finishing college, playing baseball, and single. 

He shook off the depressing thoughts as he entered the building and headed to his class. He expected this to be an easy first day of biology and lab. Usually, the professors would just go over the syllabus and mention their expectations for the class. When Shep discovered he needed one more science credit to complete his degree, he was a little nervous since science hadn’t been his strong point. But it wasn’t a class for his major so it didn’t matter what he took as long as he got the hours to count. So, he had chosen a freshman-level biology class that he thought would be easy. He assured himself that this would be an uneventful class for his final semester. He walked in and took a seat near the back. When the professor entered, she called roll, and went over the syllabus as he expected. But then she launched into a lecture on the first chapter and didn’t stop for the next hour. Shep had pulled out a notebook and pencil when he realized he needed to take notes. Once she finished the lecture hour, he still assumed that she would let them out without the lab portion on the first day.

He assumed wrong. 

“We have a five-minute break before our lab begins,” the professor said. “I have paired you up with your lab partners, and this will be your assigned partner for the entire semester. Please listen as I call out your name with your partner’s name and look to see who it is so you know who to sit with when we meet in the lab.”