Aw, man, what time is it?” Liam asked groggily.
Carter was sitting on his front porch with his laptop in front of him. He glanced at the computer’s clock. “Ten o’clock,” he answered.
Liam scrubbed his face with his hands and groaned. “You dork! That means it’s seven o’clock here. I was sound asleep!”
Carter laughed. “I wouldn’t have called except I saw you were online. Sorry if I woke you up.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yeah, I’m not.”
Liam peered at him. “What are you eating?”
Carter held up a chocolate-glazed doughnut. Liam groaned again. “Tell me that’s not from Hendrick’s!” he whined plaintively, naming his favorite bakery in Pennsylvania.
“I would, but then I’d be lying.” He leaned forward and took a big bite. “Mmmm, this is the best doughnut in the world.”
“I hate you,” Liam said. Then he told Carter to hang on so he could get his own breakfast. When he reappeared, he looked grumpy. “No doughnuts, no bagels, no nothing good, so guess what I’m having for breakfast?” He lifted up a spoon filled with brown flakes of cereal. “Bran. And it’s already turning to wallpaper paste.”
He tilted the spoon slowly. Carter heard a plop as the mushy lump hit the bowl. He grimaced and put his doughnut aside. “Appetite gone, thanks.”
“Serves you right. Now you can tell me about your game without a mouth full of food. I know you won.”
Carter leaned back and assumed a posture of nonchalance. “Oh, let’s see. I threw a no-hitter and—”
“What!?” Liam exclaimed. “No way!”
“Way!”
“No!”
“Yes—hang on, why is that so hard for you to believe?”
Liam cracked up. “Not hard to believe—unbelievable! Congrats, dork, really. Now, give me the details.”
Carter told him everything. When he came to Peter’s amazing catch, Liam pointed a finger at him. “You tell Peter that Liam says he’s the man.”
“He was,” Carter agreed. “And you should have seen Ash!” He started listing off everything the catcher had done—his home run, his triple, the crucial double play in the final inning. After a moment, though, Liam cut him off.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah, enough about Forest Park already!” Liam cut in. “Aren’t you going to ask about my game?”
“Fine,” Carter said, rolling his eyes. “I know most of what happened thanks to Sean. But tell me how it ended.”
The tone of Liam’s voice changed then, from joking to wonderment. “It ended with Phillip and me as friends. Look.” He fumbled for his cell phone, hit a few buttons, and then held it up for Carter to see. “Sean took this.”
Carter found himself staring at a picture of Liam and Phillip, fists touching and wide grins on their faces. If he hadn’t seen it for himself, he would never have believed it was real—or would have assumed the picture had been edited. As it was, the image hit him like a punch in the gut.
“How?” he managed to ask. “Last I knew, he was driving you up the wall.”
Liam shook his head as if bewildered and then told Carter about his rant. “I think I hit a nerve or something. I don’t know. I guess I can ask him later. He’s coming here so Melanie can interview us together.”
“Oh. That’s nice.” Carter tried but failed to keep sarcasm from creeping into his tone.
“Carter—”
“Sorry, sorry. It’s just, you know. Phillip.” He shook his head. “It’s going to take me awhile to wrap my head around you getting along with him.” He scrunched up his eyes in concentration and then opened them. “Okay, there. Done.”
Liam held his fist up to the screen. “States, dork.”
“Southern California South Sub-Divisionals, doofus.” They both cracked up at the tournament’s long title and then said their good-byes. Before they signed off, Carter punched his screen in time with Liam’s taps. Then Liam’s image was replaced with an automated video-chat message.
Call ended, the message read.
Carter logged off, closed his laptop, and tucked it under his arm. As he stood to go inside, he noticed his half-eaten doughnut on the paper napkin where he’d left it. He wadded it up, carried it to the kitchen, and threw it away.
Suddenly antsy, Carter went up to his room, wondering what to do with his free time. Lucky Boy seemed to have an idea. The black-and-tan dog rescued the pink rubber ball from under the bunk beds and dropped it at Carter’s feet with a hopeful bark.
But Coach Harrison had cautioned him to give his arm a complete rest—“Not even a game of fetch with that dog of yours!”—so Carter ignored the ball and went to get Lucky Boy’s leash from the hallway instead.
There he saw his mother had already hung the photo of him arm in arm with Ash. He stared at it for a long moment and then whistled for Lucky Boy.
“Come on, fella, let’s go to the hideout.”
The hideout was Liam and Carter’s secret place. Hidden deep in the woods behind their houses, it was a natural shelter made of boulders and surrounded by brush and trees. The cousins had discovered it when they were younger. They’d made a solemn vow never to share its location with anyone else. True to his word, Carter had visited it a few times since Liam had moved but always on his own.
Until now. He met up with Ash by chance at the start of his walk. Before, he would have turned away from the path in the woods. This time, he headed straight for it with Ash and Lucky Boy in tow.
Ash had known for a long time that Carter had something secret hidden in the woods. He’d tried to persuade Carter to tell him what it was but dropped the questions when Carter evaded them. Now he shot Carter a surprised look but didn’t say anything.
It took fifteen minutes to reach the shelter. Carter knelt down, crawled inside, and came out dragging the green plastic bin he and Liam had stashed there long ago. Inside the bin were a few old beach towels and some flashlights. He spread out one towel, gave Ash another, and sat down.
After a moment’s hesitation, Ash sat beside him. “So,” he said. “This is the secret you’ve been hiding, huh?”
Carter let Lucky Boy off his leash before answering. Then he told Ash the story of how he and Liam found it. “It’s where I go when I need to think,” he finished.
Ash surveyed the shelter appreciatively. “I can see why. Thanks for showing it to me.”
Carter was glad he didn’t ask why he’d revealed the hideout after keeping it secret for so long. He wasn’t sure how he’d answer.
“Do your parents know about this place? Your dad?” Ash asked suddenly.
Carter looked at him sideways. “No. Why?”
Ash picked up a rock and threw it, watching as Lucky Boy bounded after it. “I don’t know. You and your father seem so close, I just figured…” His voice trailed away.
Carter almost asked Ash about his own dad. The question was on the tip of his tongue. Then his cell phone chimed and the opportunity was lost.
“It’s my mom,” he said with a glance at the tiny screen. “We’re supposed to go home right away. Our parents have something to tell us.”
“What?” Ash asked.
Carter shook his head. “No clue, but we’re supposed to hurry.”