Whitney (4 page)

Chuckling, he shook his head. “No. When you earn a certain number of points, you get tickets. Then you take them over to the redemption counter and trade them in for a prize.”

“Oh! That sounds like fun.” I’d never done anything like this before. Maybe this was part of the real world that my dad wanted to expose me to.

“There are a lot of things you haven’t done, aren’t there?” he asked.

“Yeah, but I’ve also done a lot of things. I mean, the possibilities are limitless, so how can anyone do it all?”

“I guess. It’s just that it seems like some things you haven’t done are normal things that most people do.” He shrugged. “That almost sounded like an insult. And that’s not what I meant. I guess our worlds are just a little different.”

He picked up a ball and rolled it between his hands, as though he was trying to figure it out, or maybe he was feeling awkward about what he’d said. “I’ll go first so you can see how it works. You want to roll the ball along the incline and try to get it into one of the holes — the higher the points the more tickets you get.”

“Obviously.”

“Sorry. I spend too much time talking to kids — explaining ice-cream choices.”

There were five holes valued from ten to fifty points. Each hole was smaller than the one before it. In both top corners was a hole valued at a hundred points.

Standing off to the side, I watched as Jake swung his arm back, then forward. He released the ball. It sped up the incline and bounced up to land in the fifty-point hole.

“Oh!” I squealed and clapped. “You’re good.”

He was grinning broadly. “Probably just lucky. You try.”

“Okay.” I picked up a ball. It was a lot heavier than I expected. I rolled it between my hands, just like Jake had. I imitated Jake’s previous stance, one foot in front of the other. I brought my arm back, swung it forward, released the ball, watched it roll … and fall into a trough-looking thing before it ever went up into the area where the holes were.

I looked at Jake. “I’m guessing that I didn’t get any points for that.”

“You guessed right. You need to roll it a little harder.” He picked up a ball, put it in my hand, and stood behind me.

My breath caught. He put his hand beneath mine, so his formed a cocoon around mine.

“Okay, just relax,” he ordered.

I nodded, took a breath, and forced myself to relax.

Jake swung my stiff arm back and forth. “Relax, Whitney.”

“I
am
relaxed.”

“If this is you relaxed, you need to visit a spa or something.”

I shook my body, took another deep breath. “Okay.”

“Release the ball when I say.” He guided my arm back, swung it forward. “Release.”

I let go of the ball, it hurtled up the incline and jumped into the target area. It landed off to the side and rolled down into
the ten-point area. I released another squeal. “I did it!”

I spun around and would have hugged Jake, but he’d moved back. He slid one hand in the back pocket of his jeans, like he was embarrassed or feeling uncomfortable being around me. He tilted his head forward, indicating the lane. “Try again.”

I couldn’t deny that I was disappointed that he’d moved away so quickly. It was like he suddenly decided I had cooties or something.

“Okay.” I picked up another ball, trying not to feel the sting of rejection. We were just friends out having fun. Nothing more than that.

Maybe it was because I was trying not to think about him, or maybe it was because I was hurt, but I put all my confusion into the swing. The ball raced up the incline, ricocheted off the forty-point target and landed in a hundred.

“Yes!” I did a little dance in a circle, and caught sight of Jake watching me as though
he liked me. But maybe he just liked me as a friend. Or maybe Robyn was right — he was just shy. I decided to believe he was shy. It hurt less. It also meant that it was up to me to take charge of the relationship or whatever was going to happen between us.

He went next and earned us another fifty points. We went back and forth after that, taking turns. Mostly I earned ten points. He was good at getting fifty and a hundred. Obviously, he’d played this game a lot.

We ended up spending twenty of his dollars and when we were finished we had sixteen hundred points, which gave us thirty-two tickets. When we got to the prize counter, Jake let me select the prize. My choices were a plastic ring with a lady bug on it or a keychain with purple synthetic fur that I think represented a rabbit’s foot.

“Geez, this is really hard,” I muttered.

“I’ve heard lady bugs are lucky,” Jake said.

“The ring it is.” I handed over the hard-earned tickets and slid the ring onto my
pinky. It made me feel a little silly. I’d never worn plastic jewelry before.

We moved away from the counter with two tickets left. Jake handed them to a kid who was on his way to trade his own tickets in.

“Maybe they’ll give him what he needs for something awesome,” Jake said, grinning.

“I feel so bad,” I told him. “You spent twenty dollars and I don’t think this ring cost them a dollar.”

“It’s not about the prize, Whitney. It’s about the fun. I had fun playing with you.” He was looking at me with those dark brown eyes of his. They made my stomach feel all funny, like butterflies — or maybe ladybugs — were fluttering inside me.

“I had fun, too.”

He studied me for a minute. “So did you come with Robyn or Caitlin?”

“No. Someone dropped me off. I’m supposed to call when I’m ready to go.”

“I can take you home. If you want.”

Was he kidding? If I
want
? Of course I wanted. Who wouldn’t?

“Oh, thanks. Let me call my aunt and let her know.”

I moved away from him and took out my cell phone, but I wasn’t calling my aunt. I was calling David who was waiting in the limo in the parking lot. I explained that someone else was giving me a ride home.

“That’s fine, Miss Whitney, but I’ll be watching.”

I snapped my phone closed.
Great. Just great
.

Then I looked over to where Jake was standing. He grinned at me.

Yeah, I thought, it
was
great.

Jake and I said good-bye to the others. Caitlin winked at me. Robyn grinned. I really hoped that Jake didn’t notice. He might wonder what was going on. How would I explain it?

We walked out to the parking lot and to his black truck. I had seen him driving it before. He opened the passenger door and I scrambled up into the seat. I buckled up while he walked around. When he got inside, I said, “I’ve never ridden in a truck before.”

Even with only the parking lot lights filtering in I could see his eyes go round. “You’re kidding.”

Riding in a truck was probably another one of those things that everyone does that I’d never done.

“Nope,” I said. “Dad has a couple of sports cars and a sedan, but no truck. We’re really up high.”

“Yeah. I like it, because it gives me a good view of everything.” He started the engine, shifted into gear, and headed out.

“So what does your dad do?” he asked.

“Oh, you know. Business. How about yours?”

“He’s a cop.”

“Really?”

He peered over at me really quickly before turning his attention back to the road. “You sound shocked.”

“I just never met anyone whose dad was a cop. It’s a dangerous job. Do you worry about him?”

“I try not to think about it much, you know?”

“Yeah, I guess so. So what kind of cop is he?”

“What do you mean? Crooked cop?”

I laughed. “No. I mean does he work undercover, cold cases, that sort of thing.”

“He worked undercover when he was younger. He’d look so different when he dressed for undercover work that sometimes I didn’t recognize him. He’d be all scrungy looking.”

“Do you want to be a cop?”

“Maybe. Probably.”

I thought about how he always seemed to be looking for trouble, keeping an eye out. I thought he’d make a good police officer.

“What about you?” he asked. “What do you want to do?”

I thought about what would probably happen on Sunday and without planning to, I said, “Survive the summer.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I guess we do have to do that, don’t we?”

“Most definitely.”

We rode in silence for a while. I didn’t bother giving Jake directions because he’d been to my house before. It wasn’t too difficult
to find once someone had been there. It was down a country road, away from the main part of the city. There weren’t many houses out where we lived, mostly because each house had been built on several acres of land and each was surrounded by a gated fence with a security monitor. The area was designed for people who really valued their privacy, which made it a little difficult to meet the neighbors. As a matter of fact, I’d never played with anyone in our neighborhood. I didn’t even know if any kids my age lived in the immediate area.

Jake took an exit off the expressway. So much for my theory that he remembered the way and knew where he was going.

“You exited too soon,” I told him.

“I know. I think someone’s following us.”

“What?” I twisted around in the seat and looked out the rear window. I could see the limo. Did David
have
to be so obvious? Couldn’t he have taken another route home? Or stopped off at a sports bar to catch a baseball game?

Jake suddenly gunned the truck. I released a tiny shriek and jerked around in time to watch him race through a yellow light.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“If he’s following us, he’ll go through the red light.”

I heard cars honk.

“Shoot! He did.” Jake reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

“Jake —”

“It’s okay. The police station is a few blocks over. I’m calling my dad.”

This situation was just getting worse. It didn’t help that my cell phone started ringing.

“Jake, I know who it is. It’s my chauffeur.”

He snapped his phone closed, then gave me a hard look that even the shadows couldn’t hide. “What?”

“Yeah, I know. Wait a minute.” I answered my phone. “Hi, David.”

“What’s going on, Miss Whitney? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. We just took the wrong exit.”

“Your father wouldn’t approve of the lad’s reckless driving. He ran through a red light —”

“No, he didn’t. The light was still yellow.”

“That’s not safe driving. Your father wouldn’t be pleased.”

“We’re not going to tell Daddy.”

“Not gonna tell Daddy what?” Jake asked, and I heard the panic in his voice.

“Just a minute,” I said to Jake, then spoke again to David. “I didn’t realize you were going to follow so closely. We’re fine. We’re getting back on the expressway now. I’ll see you at home.”

I closed my cell phone and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry about that.”

Jake pulled back onto the expressway. “About what exactly? What is going on?”

I wanted to die, right then and there. It was so embarrassing.

“You know I arrive at work in a limo, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ve seen it. This guy drives you everywhere … oh. He’s the
someone
who drove you to the Pizza Palace.”

I grimaced, even though he couldn’t see me squirming in the passenger seat. “Yeah.”

“So he was there? You didn’t need a ride home?”

I shook my head. He looked at me and I realized he couldn’t see me shaking my head. It was harder to say the truth out loud, even though the darkness provided a slight shield. “No, not really.”

“Then why didn’t you say that at the pizza place?”

Gosh, how was I supposed to answer that? With the truth, no matter how ridiculous or desperate it sounded.

“I like you way more than I like David.”

I could see his grin forming in the shadows.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I know taking me home was way out of your way and I had another ride —”

“It’s okay.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

He was smiling broadly now. He wasn’t mad at all, but I felt so silly. And maybe a little disappointed that he didn’t say he liked me, too. Should he have? I just didn’t know.

He took the correct exit this time, drove down a ways, and then turned onto the road that would lead us out to the country. I looked in the side-view mirror. David was still following behind us.

“You seem a lot more confident at work,” Jake said.

“Can I be honest?”

“Have you been dishonest?”

I groaned. “Well, I didn’t tell you about the limo, so I guess I have been, but I was just using a figure of speech.”

“Yeah, but it makes you sound like you’re not usually honest.”

I
was
honest. I just didn’t tell people a lot of things. Omission wasn’t dishonesty, was it?

“The thing is,” I said, not wanting to get into the whole honesty issue, “I’m a little confused about us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Can we discuss it when you’re not driving?”

“Sure.”

We drove in silence while I tried to figure out how to handle this situation, how to explain it exactly. Jake pulled into the drive and stopped by the gate. I gave him the code, and he punched it in. The gates slowly swung open. He drove through and continued down the long drive to the house. He turned onto the circular drive and pulled to a stop in front of the steps leading up to the door. He put the truck in park, then twisted around to face me. His features were illuminated by the lights from the dashboard and those of the limo that pulled to a stop behind us. They were shining on us like a spotlight, like we were two felons who’d escaped from prison.

Thanks, David. Thanks a lot
.

“You’re confused …?” he asked, prompting me, as though I’d forgotten what we’d been talking about and the answer was a simple fill-in-the-blank.

“Yeah. I mean, we sorta seem to hang out together, but I’m not sure if it means anything.”

“Means I like you.” He opened his door and got out of the truck before I could think about that or respond.

I was a little stunned. He liked me? But how much did he like me?

I saw him wave at David. Then Jake came around and opened my door. He waited for me to do something. Get out, I guess, but I was still dumbfounded.

“You like me?” I asked.

“Yeah, is that a problem?”

“No, not at all.” I grabbed my tote and climbed out of the truck.

We walked to the front door. I turned to him and waited. Was this it? Was this the moment that he kissed me?

Not with David watching. I thought
about calling David on my cell and telling him to go park the limo in the garage.

“See you tomorrow,” Jake said.

Before I could say anything, he was hurrying down the steps. I stayed where I was until he was in his truck and driving off. He passed the test with an A-minus. He liked me, but he hadn’t kissed me, and even though I understood why he probably hadn’t, I couldn’t give him points he hadn’t earned.

I opened the door and went inside.

“So how was your evening?” Aunt Sophie asked. She was standing in the doorway to the living room. I figured that David had called her and told her we were home. Or maybe she heard the truck arrive.

“It was fun.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not really.” As far as I knew my dad’s sister had never had a boyfriend. I didn’t think she was the one to go to for advice. “I’m tired and I have work tomorrow.”

“Okay. Sweet dreams.”

She went back into the living room, and I went upstairs to my bedroom. After I closed my door, I touched the ladybug ring. It was a silly thing: a child’s toy, a pretend bit of jewelry. Still, when I took it off, I put it carefully in my jewelry box along with jewelry that cost a good deal more.

Then I changed into my pajamas, climbed into bed, and curled around one of my pillows. Jake said he liked me.

But I still didn’t know if he meant he liked me the way you like a friend or a dog or if he meant that he liked me the way you like someone that you want to be with all the time.