Page 4 of Falling Into You

What he didn’t know was whether she ever thought about him. Like ever. Even in a passingI wonder what Jacob is eating over there for lunchkind of way. Because he thought about her all the time. An unhealthy amount of time, if he was being honest.

It had all started in fifth grade when Jacob’s friend Jordan had dared him to do a flip off the monkey bars. Jacob had overrotated and landed flat on his back, knocking the wind out of himself. While the rest of his friends had stood around laughing at him, Rory had recognized what was going on and had rushed over to help, kneeling at his side. What was going on was that Jacob had been unable to take in a breath for what felt like way too long a period of time. He’d honestly felt like he was going to die.

“You’re okay. Look at me,” she’d instructed. “The same thing happened to me at gymnastics once. You’re gonna be fine. It’s all going to be fine.”

When he’d finally choked in a breath and rolled onto his side, Rory had patted his back and told off his friends. He’d basically been in love with her ever since. And whenever he was in a challenging or nerve-racking situation, he could stillhear her voice in her head:You’regonnabe fine. It’s all going to be fine.

Not that he’d ever tell anyone that.

“First of all, I had a crush on her ineighth grade,” Jacob told his brother. Which wasn’t a lie. That just happened to be when Ford figured it out after catching Jacob watching Rory dance in the school talent show all gooey-eyed. “And second, Rory is Tucker’s girlfriend, remember?”

“Tucker Panagopoulos? Eff that douche. He’s a total asshole.”

“You don’t have to hate him just because you guys are locked in some competition of who’s the most manly team captain or whatever,” Jacob said.

“Actually, it does. That’s exactly what it means,” Ford said with a straight face and his shoulders thrown back. “And I’dloveit if my little bro stole his girlfriend right out from under him.” He tore open a box of doughnuts and ate a powdered one in a single bite. “Get it?Underhim?”

“Gross, dude.” He looked Ford up and down, sweat stains everywhere, hair dripping, powdered sugar all over his face and shirt, and grimaced. “Everything about you is gross.”

“And that’s the way I like it.” Ford whacked Jacob on the back of the head again and strode out of the room, cradling the open box of doughnuts like a baby.

Jacob took a deep breath and looked down at his precalc book. He was about to sit in front of it again when his momcame in through the back door with Willow in her cheerleading uniform. Willow was the least insane of the Reilly siblings—outside of Jacob’s two older sisters, who were both in college—and the captain of the middle school cheer squad.

“Hey, Jacob. How was the bake sale?” Willow asked.

“Crushed it. Thanks for the goods, Will.” They fist-bumped.

“Oh, Jacob, good,” their mom said. “I’ve got to take Willow to buy new hair bows for her competition tomorrow. Can you please go outside and watch Lindsay and her friends on the trampoline?”

Jacob blinked. “Friends? What friends? She was just in here with Chad.”

“I don’t know. The neighborhood kids.” His mom absently waved a hand toward the backyard. “You know how they just show up. If you keep everyone from breaking a limb, I’ll get you Domino’s while I’m out.”

“Who could turn down a deal like that?” Jacob joked.

“Bless you,” his mother said, ignoring the sarcasm in his voice. She stood on her toes to kiss him on the forehead, grabbed her keys, and exited with Willow through the front door.

With a sigh, Jacob picked up his books and went out back to the rickety patio table to listen to the neighborhood kids screech. Maybe he could get some studying done after everyone else went to bed.

Rory

“Have you done all your homework?” Rory asked her little brother as she pulled that night’s casserole out of the oven.

“Yeah, we didn’t have that much this weekend, now that the history project is done,” Owen replied. He was sitting at the kitchen island in his usual uniform of a polo shirt and khaki shorts, his glasses sliding down his nose as his thumbs moved quickly over the controls of his Nintendo Switch. It was Sunday night. The kid couldn’t even wear a T-shirt on the weekend?

Rory’s phone notifications kept pinging, and she looked at the screen on the counter to see if anything was urgent. It seemed like her friends were just texting random emojis at each other, so she didn’t bother taking off her red oven mitts. Instead she moved the casserole to the counter, closer to the plates.

“Let me know if you want me to go over anything withyou,” she offered, knowing full well her brother wouldn’t. If Rory was an excellent student, Owen was that times twelve. He hadn’t needed anyone’s help since kindergarten, when it had taken him a few weeks to stop writing his capitalL’s backward.

Rory pulled the tinfoil off the pan and waved the steam away from her face.

“What did you make?” Owen looked up from his game, lifting a few inches off his stool to try to see.

“That pasta you like with the roasted veggies,” she replied with a smile, knowing it was his favorite. “Dad got a ton of broccoli at the farmers’ market yesterday, so I figured we should use it before it goes bad.”

Ding! Ding! Ding! went her phone.

“Did you do the breadcrumbs?” Owen’s brown eyes were hopeful behind his glasses.