Chapter Six

It wasn’t until lunch the next day Avery managed to track Lexi down. Lexi’s ROTC had run long—something about some cadet sergeant getting overenthusiastic about marching—and by the time it was over, Hardy’s had already shut for the night and Avery had gone home.

She waved as Lexi entered the quad and watched her weave her way over to the table. She hefted her bag onto the wooden picnic table and fished out her protein shake—something that was such a murky green color that Avery wouldn’t have touched it with a ten-foot pole.

Lexi had stuck to her like glitter when her mom had died. Most other friends drifted away, not knowing what to say or how to relate to a person whose mother had died. She didn’t blame them. What did you say? But Lexi hadn’t really worried about what she said. If it struck a nerve, she’d hug her until she’d finished crying. If it made her laugh, she’d turn away and do a silent air punch that she’d thought Avery couldn’t see.

Lexi was everything.

“So, what’s cookin’, darlin’?” Lexi said after she’d taken a slurp and winced at the taste.

“Nothing,” she said automatically. Nope. Her therapist had told her that she had to learn to talk to other people. To let friends share her fears and concerns.

She decided to lay it all out to the one person who was likely to understand. “While I was at work the other day, I overheard Mr. Duchamp tell Mr. Hardy that they would have to fire my dad if he didn’t get better results this season. My dad can’t lose his job. It would…”

“Destroy him,” Lexi whispered, grasping Avery’s arm in support.

“Exactly.” She knew Lexi would understand.

“What are you going to do?” Lexi asked.

“I don’t know. I…I don’t think I can tell him. I don’t think I can tell him that the town might fire him from the only job he’s had since college. How do you say that? It’s just too much.”

“I agree.” Lexi was stroking her arm and looking out at the other people in the quad, thinking.

“Can you talk to Mr. Hardy and ask him to warn your dad?” she asked.

Avery slumped. “I’m not sure I can. I was totally eavesdropping. Like, I didn’t overhear it as much as press my ear to a closed door when I heard them mention Dad.” She pulled a face. “I mean, let’s save that as a last resort.” Of course she would risk getting fired for her father, but if Mr. Hardy thought that Mr. Duchamp had a point, he probably wouldn’t think twice about firing her and her father.

“Yeah,” Lexi said. Then she pointed at Avery. “Hey, that’s why you were asking about the new guy yesterday. Damn. I thought it was because you straight-up wanted him. I wouldn’t have blamed you. I nearly swooned when he took off his helmet, all sweaty and stuff. He’s fi-i-ine.” She dragged out the last word in true Lexi-style appreciation.

“Mmm-hmm,” Avery agreed and looked out at the sea of people eating lunch. “Dad invited him back for dinner the other night. For some reason, he seemed to think that Lucas could make the difference to the team. I just wondered if it looked like he was right. Because…”

“Yeah, then you wouldn’t have to worry. He wasn’t awesome, I have to say. But he’s probably weirded out by moving across state. I mean, when Daddy became district attorney and we moved a couple streets away, it just didn’t feel like home for like a year. I was discombobbed for months.”

Avery sat up. That could be it. It could just take time for him to hit his stride. Maybe he would come through for the team. Maybe this was one less thing she’d have to worry about.

“You could ask him yourself,” Lexi said, getting to her feet.

Maybe her dad would keep his job.

Wait, what did Lexi just say?

She looked up.

Lexi was ten feet away from the table, waving over her shoulder, and Lucas was standing where Lexi had been sitting a minute ago, crumpling up a brown paper bag in his hands.

“Hi,” he said.

…

“Hey,” she replied, her eyes shifting as if she were checking that he was talking to her and not someone else.

Lucas had been sitting by himself when he noticed her across the crowded quad. He was supposed to meet Colin, but as usual, Colin’s head was somewhere else, probably. His feet started walking in her direction before he had fully formed a coherent plan in his head.

“Uh, hi,” he repeated. Think. Think. “It occurred to me that I may have been rude to you the night before last.”

“It occurred to you that you may have been rude, huh?” Avery said, raising her eyebrows in disbelief. “You slammed the door as I was talking to you.”

Lucas shifted uneasily. “I’m sorry. I, er…” Yeah, he had nothing. “I’m sorry.”

Her eyes softened as he watched her. How did she change expressions without moving her face? He just wanted to stare at her to see how she did it.

“Do you want to sit?” Avery asked uncertainly.

He nodded and tried to take off his backpack, but his lunch bag was still in his hand, so he hesitated and then threw it toward the trash can to the side of the bench. It bounced off the rim and fell onto the ground at her feet.

So smooth. He sighed and went to retrieve it, but Avery picked it up and threw it effortlessly into the can.

“Thanks,” he said as he slid his backpack off his shoulder and dropped it on the ground. Except it bounced off the edge of the table first and then tumbled to the ground.

Avery’s eyebrows raised. “Wow.” She looked at him for a long second and then nodded to the bench. “You better sit down before you fall down,” she said with a raised eyebrow. “Are you okay?”

He sat down, unsure of what to say to her. Especially since he bailed on her so abruptly the other night. After he’d nearly kissed her. He wished he could talk to someone—anyone—about the things that were constantly fighting for space in his brain. Maybe he could say: “I’m sorry about the other night—I just have so much to deal with right now. Trying to ensure no one discovers my real name. Trying to navigate school with no car, no computer, and no phone. Trying to get a job—but one that wouldn’t interfere with school or football. Trying to take some of the burden from my mom. Trying to make her smile again. Trying to catch a fucking ball. And then I went and nearly kissed you, and now I’m right here, and I want to kiss you again…”

But he couldn’t.

His brain throbbed to the rhythm of all the things he couldn’t do.

And then he remembered Colin’s words. He looked around anxiously. He didn’t see him, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t hear that they’d been seen together. What was he doing?

Lucas unscrewed the top of his water bottle, took a gulp of water, and offered it to Avery, head still swiveling, looking for potential trouble. She shook her head, understandably, and he took another swig and put the lid back on. He started to toss it into the air and catch up. Up and catch.

She stared at him for a second and then sighed and opened the book that she’d been reading in the car the first time he saw her. She took out a pen and crossed something out, and next to the word “Assignment” a page back, she put an “A” and circled around it.

It was a planner, obviously. It made sense. Most of the entries from the week before had “A” written next to them. Except for one. He craned his neck. She had an A- next to Calc.

She wasn’t as perfect as she looked.

His gaze slid up from her planner to her face. “Listen, about the other night.” He shifted around on the bench to face her, but she didn’t do the same. “Thank you for the ride. You gave me good advice, by the way.”

She looked up, and suddenly their faces were less than a foot apart, and he…couldn’t look away. She was really pretty. Did she know how pretty she was? Did she have a line of guys waiting to ask her out? Shit! Did she already have a boyfriend? Would she have gone out with him if she’d known him before?

As if she could tell what he was thinking, she blinked slowly and shook her head slightly. Of course she wouldn’t have gone out with him. He sat upright, increasing the distance between them. “Do you have any more?” he asked.

She cleared her throat. “Any more what?”

“Advice. Coach is busy with the players he knows, and I feel stupid being new on the team and taking up his time and…stuff.” Yup. He should have practiced this.

“But you don’t feel stupid taking up my time?” she asked. Her voice wasn’t accusatory, more genuinely interested in his reply.

“It’s not that. It’s just… You seemed like you were happy to give me advice the other day. If that’s the case, I wondered if you had anything else that might help me get my head out of my ass?”

She smiled at his words and tipped her head to one side as if she were contemplating. She didn’t speak for some long seconds. So long, in fact, that he was about to get up and make his escape.

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. “Maybe we can meet later?” he asked.

That got a response. A real fast one. “I can’t. I’m sorry. I don’t have any time at all.” She flipped open her planner and thumbed the pages, frowning. “I work at Hardy’s, and I study, eat, and sleep, and that’s all I have time for.”

“But you were at practice last night. So you do do other things,” he said with what he hoped was a charming smile.

She shoved her journal thing in her bag and stared at him for a second. She really looked as if she wanted to say something more. But she didn’t.

“Bye,” was all she said as she left him sitting there alone.

Yup. That just about covered it. His luck, mojo, skills, and life had been swapped with someone else’s. His pity party faltered only slightly as his attention was grabbed by her skirt floating around her legs as she walked to the main building.

The second bell sounded, and he grabbed his bag and ran to Block 23 for world history.