Page 27 of Falling Into You

The crew dispersed, grabbing their stuff and heading off toward the parking lot. Rory picked up the plastic crate full of poms. They had another home game next weekend, so the gear would be stored in the shed behind the concessions stand this week for easy access. Usually Tucker stayed until the end of the game and helped her with this, but she’d noticed him sneaking off with his friends after halftime and he’d never returned. He’d probably gotten bored of mocking Jacob and decided to go play Xbox or something. She hesitated, wondering if she should put the two megaphones on top of the box or come back for them, when she turned around and saw Jacob standing right behind her.

“Need a hand?” he asked.

She glanced around, but everyone else had already bailed. “Uh... sure. You want to take this and I’ll get the megaphones?”

He gave a little bow and took the crate out of her hands. “Oh captain, my captain.”

Rory grinned. “Okay, you’re really going to have to stop doing that.”

“Why would I, when it clearly makes you so happy?” he shot back.

She had no idea what to say to that, so she just gestured with the megaphones, indicating that he should get moving.

“So tell me the truth,” Jacob said, glancing back at her over his shoulder. “How did Ireallydo?”

“You did really well!” she replied. But even she could hear that her voice was an octave too high to be a hundred percent believed.

“Uh-huh,” he said dubiously.

“I mean, except when you almost dropped me during ‘Go, Woodmont, Go!’?” she said.

He paused. “You felt that?”

“How could I not? I had visions of my skull splattered on the track!”

“Ugh, I’m so sorry,” he said, leading the way over to the storage shed. “I’m just not used to this yet. I spend a lot more time working my legs in the gym than my arms.”

“Well, you definitely need to rectify that,” she said. “I like my face the way it is, thank you very much.”

“You’re not the only one,” Jacob said under his breath.

Wait. Had she heard that correctly? Rory paused, trying to figure out how to respond. She decided it would be best to pretend she hadn’t heard him.

But did he mean it? And... why did she want to know so badly?

She put the megaphones down next to the shed and unlocked the padlock with the key she’d been given at the beginning of the school year. The janitor who had given it to her had acted like he was handing over the Holy Grail, when all that was inside this oversize closet were stacks of hurdles for the track team and a bunch of torn soccer nets.

“Thank you for helping,” Rory said as he placed the crate full of poms inside. She set the megaphones next to the crate and relocked the shed.

“Anytime,” Jacob told her. “You need a ride home?”

“No, Gwen’s driving me,” she said. They both looked over at the parking lot. It was almost completely empty. There was definitely no sign of Gwen’s car. Or Gwen.

Rory texted Layla:

Rory:

WHERE DID YOU GUYS GO?

The response came instantly:

Layla:

THOUGHT YOU AND OUR NEWEST SQUAD MEMBER COULD USE SOME BONDING TIME.

GWEN WANTS YOU TO KNOW IT WASN’T HER IDEA

This was followed by a tongue-stuck-out emoji and a skull. Rory texted back: