Lessons in Love (Flirt) (22 page)

Then I felt him shift as he turned to face me. His shoulder pulled away from mine, but now our legs were touching. And Logan’s face was only about six inches from mine.

“This is fun,” he said softly. “I’m glad you came.”

“Me too.” Swallowing hard, I turned to face him. His eyes were so blue, especially this close.

He licked his lips, looking nervous. I held my breath as he leaned forward . . .

A flurry of barking exploded at our feet. “Patch!” Logan blurted out as the leash slipped from his hand. “No!”

The dog ignored him, running off at top speed after a squirrel. Logan scrambled to his feet.

“We’ve got to catch him,” he cried. “He’s not supposed to be off leash here!”

I followed as he raced after the dog. “Patch, stop! Come! Sit!” I yelled.

Patch ignored me, totally focused on his quarry. The squirrel headed straight up the nearest tree, leaving the dog barking wildly at the bottom.

“Need some help?” called out a cute college guy with floppy hair.

“I think I’ve got it,” Logan called back breathlessly, making a dive for the end of Patch’s leash.

But the dog was too quick for him as he made a quick dash across the grass.

“Patch!” I hollered after him.

Realizing we were facing a losing battle, the floppy-haired guy tried to grab him, but Patch darted to the side and barked, his tail wagging even harder. He seemed to think we were all playing an awesome game of tag.

By then more students were running over to help. For the next few minutes Patch led us all on a merry chase, obviously delighted to be loose and the center of attention. Finally a college girl used a granola bar to lure him close enough to grab the leash, and the great escape was over.

“Thanks.” Logan looked sheepish as he accepted the leash from the college girl. “Sorry about that.”

“No worries.” She leaned down and ruffled Patch’s ears, then offered him half the granola bar, which he slurped up eagerly. “I won’t turn this little guy in to the campus cops.”

Everyone laughed, including me. But I couldn’t help being disappointed. Whatever that moment had been between Logan and me, it was over now.

If only that squirrel hadn’t come along at just the wrong time . . .

Chapter
Nineteen

D
o you really think he
was going to kiss you?” Simone asked eagerly.

I shot her a look. “How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t know.” I paused, thinking back to the previous afternoon. “It really kind of felt like that, though. Not that I know what that feels like. You know.”

She nodded and squeezed my arm. It was Saturday, and we were walking across campus toward the athletic fields, where the kickball championship was due to start in less than half an hour. Simone’s dad had just dropped us off on College Avenue. I hadn’t wanted to discuss my love life in front of him, of course, which meant this was my first chance to talk to Simone about Logan since last night, when I’d called to give her the full report.

“So how did you leave things?” Simone asked. “After the squirrel incident, I mean.”

I shrugged. “I already told you. We rolled up the kite string, then walked Patch a little more. Then it was getting late and Logan said he had to get home for dinner. He walked me to Eats and said good-bye. . . .”

“No kissing attempt then?” Simone looked hopeful, as if she actually thought I might have been keeping that kind of juicy tidbit a secret.

“No. He left to walk to his house, and I went inside and talked Aunt Vera into giving me a lift home. The end.”

Ahead, I could hear the sounds of shouts and laughter and general ruckus. We were nearing the university baseball field that would be the site of the kickball showdown of the century. Or at least of this spring.

“No kiss,” Simone mused. She shrugged. “Still, I think it counts as a date. I wonder what he’ll do when he sees you today?”

I was wondering the same thing. Part of me was excited to see him again. Another part was terrified. Megan and Ling would both be at the game today—they always came to cheer on the Lo-Ed team. Would they notice that things were different between Logan and me?

Were
things different between Logan and me?

I supposed I was about to find out, since we were almost to the field. As usual, the scene was total pandemonium. The bleachers along the first-base line and behind the dugout were overflowing with spectators. I spotted a bunch of people I knew from school, including a few teachers.

The high school team was warming up with some kicking drills, while the college kids were just hanging out near home plate. I waved to Susannah, who was chugging a sports drink and chatting with her boyfriend. She waved back, but Chuck and several of her other teammates grabbed her and forced her arm down, yelling something about fraternizing with the enemy. Susannah giggled and raised her hands in surrender.

Then I heard someone calling my name. Gabi and Gwen were hurrying toward us. “Hey, you guys came!” I exclaimed.

“Nice T-shirt,” Simone added with a laugh.

Gwen was dressed all in black, as usual, but Gabi was sporting a homemade T-shirt with
CRUSH THE CO-ED CRAZIES!
written on it in neon fabric paint.

“Very creative,” I told Gabi. “Obviously Ms. Blumenkranz is rubbing off on you.”

She grinned. “What can I say? I have the soul of an
artiste
. Anyway, we’re psyched to see you guys crush the Co-Eds, right, Gwen?”

Gwen rolled her eyes. “Rah, rah, sis boom bah,” she said dryly. But her eyes were twinkling behind their black eyeliner.

“Come on.” Simone tugged on my arm. “We’d better get over there before Vinnie thinks we deserted.”

As we headed for our teammates, my eyes searched for Logan. My heart gave a little jump as I spotted him. He was on the far side of the group doing bounce-kick drills with Matt and Darius. All three guys were laughing, and Logan looked so happy and adorable I could hardly stand it.

“There he is,” I told Simone. “Maybe I should go over and—”

“Aha!” A familiar voice rang out right behind us. “We were wondering when you’d show your face, Bailey.”

Startled, I spun around. Megan and Ling were standing side by side with their cheerleading pom-poms at their feet. However, neither of them looked particularly cheery at the moment. Ling’s arms were crossed over her chest, and Megan’s hands were on her hips. Both of them were glaring at me.

“Hey, guys. What’s going on?” I said uncertainly.

“We know what you did yesterday.” Ling’s voice was cold. “How could you go out with Logan behind my back?”

“Behind
both
our backs.” Megan sounded more hurt than angry. “You knew we were going to tell him how we feel today!”

Simone frowned at them. “How did you guys find out about that?” she blurted out. Then she caught herself and shot me an apologetic look. “Oops, I mean . . .”

“So you knew about this?” Ling glared at Simone briefly before turning those piercing brown eyes back on me. “I guess it’s true, then. I didn’t want to believe it when my brother told me he saw you guys on campus yesterday.”

“I
still
can’t believe it,” Megan put in. “I never thought you were sneaky like that, Bailey.”

I frowned. After all her antics this past week,
she
was calling
me
sneaky?

Simone stepped forward. “Lay off, you guys,” she snapped. “Bailey didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Oh, really?” Ling’s eyebrows shot up so far they almost disappeared into her hairline. “So stealing someone else’s guy isn’t wrong? Interesting.”

“He’s not
your
guy,” Simone retorted.

“Shut up, all of you,” Megan said urgently. “He’s coming!” She shot me a look. “We can discuss this later.”

A second later, Logan and the other two guys jogged up to us. “Ready to kick some college butt, ladies?” Matt asked, stepping over to give Simone a quick hello kiss.

Meanwhile Logan was smiling at me. “Hey, Bailey,” he said. “I thought about bringing Patch to watch the game, but I figured if a squirrel ran by, it’d be a disaster.”

I forced a laugh, even though I wasn’t feeling very cheery. “I think Vinnie’s starting a huddle,” I said. “We’d better get over there.”

Usually playing in the Co-Ed/Lo-Ed games was a blast. But it was hard to enjoy myself under the circumstances. I had to admit it—I’d grown kind of accustomed to my popularity-adjacent status over the years. Once my annoyance wore off, I started to realize that all of that might be over.

That wasn’t even the worst part, though. The worst part was remembering the hurt look in Megan’s eyes. The disbelieving sense of betrayal in Ling’s. Even though I’d been hanging out with them for years, I’d always thought of them as Simone’s friends. Now, just a little too late, I realized that somewhere along the way they’d become
my
friends, too. Okay, so we didn’t have much in common. That didn’t matter—I still cared about them. Why hadn’t I thought about that before? Maybe if I had, I would have talked to them about my feelings for Logan instead of assuming they wouldn’t listen. Things couldn’t have ended up any worse, right?

By the time the Lo-Ed team took the field for the third inning, I was feeling pretty low. We had more fielders than we needed, so Vinnie was rotating us on and off the field. This time I ended up at second base, while Zoe played first and Simone was out in right field. Logan was shortstop—a little too close for comfort. I was pretty sure he was trying to catch my eye a couple of times, but I was careful to face the pitcher’s mound so I could pretend not to notice.

I also pretended not to notice Megan and Ling, who were cheering us on from the sidelines. Or at least that’s what they were supposed to be doing. Mostly it seemed like they were standing off apart from Taylor and the other volunteer cheerleaders, just the two of them, talking with their heads close together. And occasionally staring at me. Great. Just one more thing to distract me from the game.

The first couple of Co-Ed kickers didn’t do much, which made it even harder to pay attention. As I checked on Ling and Megan out of the corner of my eye, my mind kept rerunning the confrontation with them. It was really bad luck that Ling’s older brother had spotted me with Logan, though now that I was thinking logically, I knew it had been crazy to think they wouldn’t find out somehow. It was a small town, and gossip always traveled fast. I was a little surprised I hadn’t noticed Ling’s brother, but then again, I’d been too caught up in Logan to notice much of anything else.

“Heads up, Myers!” someone hollered.

I snapped out of my daze just in time to see that Susannah’s boyfriend, Chuck, had just kicked the ball right toward me. Rushing forward, I scooped it up and whipped it over to Zoe, who tagged Chuck out at first.

“Good hustle, people!” Vinnie shouted from the pitcher’s mound. “Keep it up!”

“Nice play, Bailey!” Logan called.

I chanced a look over at him. He gave me a thumbs-up and I smiled back weakly, flooded with memories from the day before. Being with Logan had felt so right, so fun and easy. Then there was that moment when I’d thought—no,
hoped
—that he might kiss me. . . .

I banished that particular memory as soon as it popped into my head. If I wanted to salvage my friendships, I had to stop thinking about stuff like that. I needed to make things right with Ling and Megan. Even if that meant backing off and letting them have Logan.

By the end of the game, which we lost by three points, I was determined to get it over with. Barely aware of Susannah and her teammates leaping and shouting in celebration all around me, I hurried over to the sidelines. Before I got there, Megan and Ling came forward to meet me.

“We’ve been talking, and we just want to know—why’d you do it?” Megan peered into my face.

I turned away, not quite brave enough to face their accusations head-on. “I don’t know,” I said impatiently. “I guess I thought—never mind. It doesn’t matter now.”

“Yes, it does,” Ling insisted. “Seriously, Bailey. You’ve never even gone out with anyone before, right?”

“I know, I know, I’m pathetic.” I sighed. “I guess I just went delusional for a while. But listen, I don’t want to fight about this, okay? I’m sorry I went behind your backs, and I promise I won’t do it again. He’s all yours.”