Page 45 of Falling Into You

“My grandmother doesn’t like me to have people over during the week,” Gwen said, screwing her lips to one side. Gwen’s parents were in the military and moved around a lot, so she’d lived with her grandmother since high school started to give her some stability. That stability came at a cost, though: Her grandmother was even more strict than her army captain mom and drill sergeant dad.

“You guys can come study at our house,” Rory offered, finishing her cone.

“Yeah?” Jacob asked. “You sure you don’t mind us invading your space?’

“Not at all,” Rory said. “I’ll even give you a key, if it means you stay on the squad.”

Jacob held her gaze for a long moment. There were about a million jokes he could have made about having a key to her house, but he bit them down. Even so, he watched her face quickly turn pink and was pretty sure she was thinking at least some of the same things.

“Thanks,” he said. “That would be great.”

“Let’s make a schedule!” Gwen said, getting out her phone. She and Carlos pulled up their calendars, and Jacobtook another big bite of ice cream before getting up to join them on the other side of the table.

As he walked around, he looked at the squad, sitting and smiling easily together, Rory looking on proudly. And suddenly he realized—Tucker would have never called a meeting like this for him. Yes, he missed being out of the field, juking defenders, executing highlight reel–worth goals, but the guys on the soccer team would have just told him to get his shit together and let him figure it out himself, then gone home to playMadden.

He sat and looked across at Rory, enjoying the view from this angle even as he missed the warmth of her shoulder next to his. She smiled back at him.

Maybe he’d been on the wrong team all along.

“Hey, Jacob!” Owen said out of nowhere. He had whipped cream on the tip of his nose and chocolate sauce on his shirt. “You never said what your favorite flavor is.”

Jacob held Rory’s gaze, and she lifted an eyebrow curiously.

He smiled. “I like vanilla.”

“Five! Six! Seven! Eight!”

Jacob and Carlos launched into the regionals routine in Rory’s backyard, the sun shining down and a stiff breeze tumbling leaves across their feet. Concentrating as hard as he could, Jacob hit every count, though he could tell his arms were half a second off and his kick was still definitely nothigh enough. It was a good thing the guys were in the back of the formation. Maybe no one would notice.

“And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!” Rory counted for them, clapping along to the beat of her words as she scrutinized their efforts. Her hair was pulled back at the sides with little pieces falling toward her face, which was his second favorite of her usual styles, after the two-braid thing, which pretty much made his knees go weak. She was also wearing an oversize sweatshirt and those short shorts that showed off her strong legs. How was he supposed to keep all these moves straight when she was walking around looking likethat?

Sine, cosine, tangent, function, five, six, seven, eight.

“Jacob! You’re supposed to be stepping right! Carlos steps left!”

Rory turned off the music and Jacob stopped, hands on his hips, trying to catch his breath. Carlos struck the same pose, facing him, and Jacob could tell he was annoyed.

“Sorry, man. Sorry. It’s just... a lot.”

They had spent their entire Sunday alternating between practice problems and rehearsing the routine. At the start of the day, Gwen had been there as well, and while they were munching on the breakfast sandwiches Rory’s dad had made, it had seemed like a good plan. At least it had started out that way. Whenever his brain got stuck, they’d get in half an hour of exercise, and then when they got tired of that, they’d go back to studying and his thoughts would be clear again. But at this point, both his brain and his body were mush.

“It’s going to get dark soon anyway,” Rory said. “Maybe we should call it. Order a pizza and watch the Patriots game?”

Carlos checked his phone and took a swig from his water bottle. “I should get home. My aunts are coming over tonight, which means lots of explaining why I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Jacob laughed. “Thanks for everything, man. I really appreciate this.”

Carlos slapped his hand and gave him a nod. “You’re doing great. Just keep it up and you’ll be ready.”

“For the test or for regionals?”

Jacob looked at Rory, who gave him a wry smile. “Let’s hope both,” she said.

Once Carlos drove off, Rory went back into the kitchen and Jacob followed. “What about you?” she asked. “What do you like on your pizza?”

She pulled up an app on her phone and started scrolling through all the pizza places in the area. Jacob watched as she twirled her hair with her free hand, leaning over the marble island. She really couldn’t have been more beautiful if she tried. And he couldn’t believe she’d just spent the whole day with him without rolling her eyesonce.

Of course, that might have been because he’d made a concerted effort not to crack any dumb jokes or act like a doofus.