Trouble From the Start Read online

  I went a little slower. “So how are you liking work?”

  “I like Smiley. He seems like a good guy. But the manager, Don Johnson, seems to think I’m a kid playing around or something. He keeps narrowing his eyes at me.”

  “I think he just has narrow eyes.”

  Fletcher grinned. “Maybe.”

  “Smiley’s impressed with your work.”

  He dug his spoon into the ice cream a couple of times without scooping anything out. “Like I told you, I learned a lot about cars from my dad. The way he was last night . . . he’s not always like that.”

  “He should never be like that.”

  “Like what?” Tyler asked.

  How could I forget that little ears were listening? “Like nosey,” I said, reaching out and pinching his nose.

  “I’m done,” he said, shoving his bowl at me.

  “How can you be done? You had three bites.”

  “I want to play on the slide.”

  “Go on.”

  Rather than asking Fletcher to move, Tyler slid off the bench and waddled under the table until he came up on the other side and straightened. He shoved open the door and went into the play area. It was enclosed. I could see him and the three other kids in there. He was safe. And feeling independent.

  “He’s a handful,” Fletcher said.

  “Yeah, but what else am I going to do with my day?” My cell phone dinged. “Excuse me.”

  I had a text from Kendall.

  Honey getting tickets 4 baseball game Thurs. U in?

  I loved baseball, loved Kendall, but I was so tired of being the third wheel. I looked up to find Fletcher studying me as though he was afraid I was getting bad news.

  “Hey, would you like to go to a baseball game Thursday night? Kendall has four tickets. She and Jeremy are going. She hates for the others to go to waste.”

  It was a little lie, but I didn’t want him paying for the tickets. I also really wanted him to go with me. I could see the battle playing across his face.

  “About last night,” he said quietly, “the kiss. It was adrenaline-induced. After everything that happened . . . I just reacted.”

  “I figured that,” I lied as calmly as I could, while disappointment zinged through me. I held up the cell phone. “This isn’t a date. Just a ticket that needs to be used.”

  He studied me for a moment, a long moment that seemed to stretch into eternity. “Okay,” he finally said. “I’m in.”

  Great. I texted back.

  Me and Fletcher.

  Ding.

  Kendall: Seriously?

  Me: Yes. NBD

  Kendall: We need to talk.

  Me: L8r

  I shoved my phone into my shorts pocket. “We’re on.”

  “I need to get back to work.”

  “You should probably go ahead. It’ll take me a while to pry the munchkin off the slide.”

  “Okay, then, I’ll see you later.”

  Watching him walk away, I wished the baseball game was a date. I wished the kiss had meant something. I wished Fletcher wanted to be more than friends.

  For someone who was so smart, I was suddenly being incredibly dumb.

  “You invited Fletcher,” Kendall said as she flopped across the comforter on my bed.

  She must have been watching out the window to see me go by because she was ringing the doorbell two minutes after I put Tyler down for his nap.

  “He’s living with us,” I told her. “I couldn’t not invite him. It would be rude.”

  “You didn’t invite your parents or Tyler,” she said.

  “Kendall, don’t be difficult.” I was sitting in the slider rocker that I’d inherited from my grandmother. Even though it wasn’t cold, I’d draped an afghan she’d crocheted over my legs. The chair and afghan always calmed me, and I could tell that Kendall was in a mood to be uncalming. “Oh, and if he should ask, you already had four tickets. I’ll pay for his and mine. I just don’t want him to know I’m paying for them.”

  “Oooh.” She pursed her lips. “A relationship should not be built on deception.”

  Her mother’s words no doubt. “It’s not deception. I wanted him to go and I knew he probably wouldn’t if he thought you didn’t already have the tickets.”

  “So do you like him?” she asked.

  “Sure. He’s nice.”

  “Nice.” She picked up her phone and began tapping keys. “Let me look that word up in my dictionary because I’m not sure it means what you think it does.”

  “He’s a nice guy.”

  She tossed her phone down. “Well, if you’re thinking of liking him, I mean really liking him, you better take him to the public health center and have him tested. Do you know how many girls he’s been with?”

  “Probably not as many as you think.” So much about him wasn’t as we’d thought.

  “A bunch. Get him tested.”

  “Are you having Jeremy tested?”

  “No, he’s not a player. I can’t even get him to play with me.”

  I stopped rocking. “What are you talking about?”

  She sat up, then stretched across my bed. “He’s the definition of nice. He and Fletcher are complete opposites. Jeremy is a virgin. And he wants our first time together to be special, so we haven’t”—she flung out her hand—“you know.”

  “But that’s good. That he recognizes that it’s an important step.”

  “I know, I know. I just . . . I don’t know.”

  “You still love him, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do. More than ever, but sometimes I think a little bad boy might not be so horrible. I mean Fletcher dominated the booth the other night and he didn’t even have to do anything. It’s just his presence.”

  “It’s him. It’s not because he’s bad.”

  “Has he kissed you?”

  I felt my face grow warm.

  Kendall sat up. “He has. What was it like? Is he a slobberer? No, he wouldn’t slobber. But I bet it’s intense.”

  “Focused,” I admitted. “Very focused.”

  “Has he tried more than kissing you?”

  “No. He’s very much aware of what my dad does for a living.”

  “But you’re of age.”

  “Yeah,” I said sarcastically. “Like that’s going to matter to my dad. Besides, Jeremy is right. Something more than kissing should be special. And we’re not there yet.”

  “So where are you?”

  “Edging toward friends.” Maybe more. I didn’t know why I couldn’t tell her that. I shared everything with her, but my feelings for Fletcher seemed too new, too raw. Too confusing. Sometimes I liked him, sometimes he irritated me. Sometimes the like went to a whole new scary level—straight into the stratosphere.

  “Well, I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “I’m not going to get hurt.”

  I wondered if I sounded as unconvincing to her as I did to myself.

  Chapter 23

  AVERY

  Thursday night, Jeremy drove us to the stadium. Kendall was in the front seat, of course. Fletcher and I in the back.

  When we arrived, the place was already teeming with people. Fortunately we found a spot near the back of the lot. We began the long trek to the stadium. Jeremy and Kendall held hands and walked so closely together that their shadow appeared to be some creature with two heads. Not touching, Fletcher and I sauntered along behind. I hadn’t seen much of him this week. Apparently we were both honoring the “it was just adrenaline” position regarding the kiss.

  Yet I was so aware of him. A worn baseball cap shadowed his face. His sunglasses shielded his eyes from the sun. With both of those, his fading bruises were barely visible. His lip was almost healed. His stride was relaxed, unhurried. I was paying so much attention to him that I lost sight of Kendall. I hadn’t noticed that we’d hit the mash of people as they funneled into the entrances.

  “I should give you your ticket,” I said to Fletcher, “in case we get separat