Cover-up (25 page)

“Steven Richman Thomas,” she said finally. “Have you not yet learned how to kiss your girlfriend goodbye?”

“Are you really my girlfriend?” he asked. “It's not like we see each other that often. There must be other guys at home….”

“And plenty of girls in Philadelphia,” she said. “Do you
want
me to be your girlfriend?”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “Oh yeah.”

He leaned forward, standing on his toes just a little to kiss her, but she had a silly grin on her face.

“What?” he said.

“You know, Jamie Whitsitt did turn out to be a much better guy than you gave him credit for,” she said.

“You want to call him?” he said. “I'm sure you've got his cell….”

He had to stop at that point because she was kissing him. He put his arms around her, not really caring about all the people walking in and out of the hotel, and held her for quite a while.

“Wow,” Susan Carol said. “Pretty good for someone so young.”

“Yeah—fourteen isn't so bad.”

They still had their arms around each other. “I know,” she said. “I think you've got great growth potential.”

He laughed. “When will I see you?” he said.

“Duke is playing at Temple in two weeks,” she said. “Maybe I'll come up for the game.”

“Bad idea,” he said.

“Why?” she said, a surprised look on her face.

“You
like
Duke. And if
we're
both at the game, there's bound to be trouble of some kind.”

“We are kind of a jinx, aren't we?”

“Yup. Basketball, tennis, football…What sport shall we ruin next?”

“How do you feel about baseball?” she asked.

“No! I like baseball. And we can't wreck swimming either.”

“Oh, hey—think of the damage we could do at the Olympics!”

They both laughed for a long time, hanging on to each other a little crazily, the snow swirling around them.

After a while, Susan Carol said, “So, I shouldn't come to Philly for the game?”

Stevie kissed her again. “Of course you should,” he said. “Trouble is what we do.”

“And we do it well, don't we?”

“We sure do, Scarlett. We sure do.”

ALSO BY JOHN FEINSTEIN

Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery

Vanishing Act: Mystery at the U.S. Open

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known public figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life public figures appear, the situations are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2007 by John Feinstein

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

KNOPF, BORZOI BOOKS
, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

www.randomhouse.com/kids

Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on request.

eISBN: 978-0-375-89071-0

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