The Distance from A to Z by Natalie Blitt

My need to get to Merritt, New Hampshire, to Huntington University, is all I focus on for the next hour. But still, my anxiety has now been replaced by a singular thought. Jed who’s twenty-eight and Si who’s twenty-five, guffawing like a couple of cartoon characters. It’s Mandarin she wants to learn.Īnd then they’re both laughing. Simon speaks up from the backseat, a yawn distorting his words.

He pauses for effect and bites the corner of his lip. You’ll learn all the things you want to learn and totally geek out on. We’re stopped at a red light and he turns to look at me head on. But if we can just get to Merritt, get me on campus, I’ll be able to breathe. Your anxiety is written all over your face. It’s a good thing you don’t play poker, he’d laugh. He said once he could tell by the way my blinks slowed, like I was using the movement of my eyes to quiet my breathing. Perfect games don’t matter, he’d say, his knees bent so he could find my eyes under the brim of my baseball cap.

Back when he’d coach my little league team, I’d be up on the mound, breathing unevenly, trying to silently talk myself into not freaking out. If his eyes meet mine, he’ll know how terrified I am. My brother turns briefly to check my face, but I know his tricks so I copy his movement, rotating to look out the window. Fresh air to replace the recycled air I’ve been breathing for the last three days. My whole body is bouncing, just tiny movements but enough that I debate telling Jed to pull over. It’s probably because the stupid minivan is so damn old. My legs shake, my stomach turns, and there doesn’t seem to be enough oxygen in the minivan. IT STARTS WHEN JED MAKES the final turn off I-495.

As Abby begins to suspect that Zeke is hiding something, she has to decide if bridging the gap between who she is and who he is is worth the risk.Įpic Reads Impulse is a digital imprint with new releases each month. And Abby can’t help but fall for him, hard. 80 hours of conversation practice with someone who seems to wear baseball caps and jerseys every day.īut Zeke in French is a different person than Zeke in English. That turns out to be impossible, though, because her French partner is the exact kind of boy she was hoping to avoid. A summer of culture and language, with no sports in sight. Seventeen-year-old Abby has only one goal for her summer: to make sure she is fluent in French-well, that, and to get as far away from baseball and her Cubs-obsessed family as possible. This full-length novel by debut author Natalie Blitt is a pitch-perfect blend of Stephanie Perkins and Miranda Kenneally that proves the age-old adage: opposites attract.

The Distance from A to Z by Natalie Blitt