On the Fence(38)

“Hi. What’s up?” I glanced at the digital clock on my nightstand. It was four thirty.

“Bad news.”

For a millisecond I hoped he was calling to cancel so I could take off this shirt.

“Dustin is sick. Like, beyond sick. Vomiting and the whole works. I’ve been trying for the last hour to find a replacement with no luck. Do you think one of your brothers can go with us instead?”

“My brothers are at a wedding. . . .” I stopped and looked at Amber, who was checking out the back of her shirt in my mirror, a big smile on her face. “I’ll find someone.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. See you in half an hour.”

“Sorry,” he said as he hung up.

“I’ll be right back,” I told Amber.

In the hall, I put the phone to my ear and listened to it ring three times.

“Hello?”

“Braden.”

“You don’t need to give me any threatening speeches. I really wasn’t planning to bug your date at all tonight.”

“The fact that you remembered I have a date makes me doubt that entirely.” Wait, why did he remember? Did it bother him? No. That didn’t matter. We were friends. “But actually, I have the best news ever. You will love me for eternity.”

“Uh-oh.”

“It’s not a bad thing.”

“Okay. What do I have to do?”

“One of our friends got violently ill today. . . .”

“Wow, that is good news.”

I laughed. “Well, I guess that’s not good news. But his ill fortune is your gain, because he can’t go to the game. Do you want to come with us?”

“To the A’s game?” I could hear the excitement in his voice.

“Yeah.”

“So am I replacing a guy or a girl?”

“A guy. Dustin. His date is Amber. She’s hot. Another reason you should be forever indebted to me.” I couldn’t believe I was doing this. I was setting up Braden with Amber. He really would fall for her. This was a good thing, I told myself. Exactly what I needed to happen so that Braden and I could maintain the amazing friendship we’d had for years.

He laughed. “All right. You twisted my arm.”

“Be over in half an hour.”





Chapter 23

My dad stared at me like I was speaking another language. I was convinced he had gotten over the initial shock of seeing me in makeup and a bedazzled shirt and had now moved on to trying to process what I was telling him. “Why didn’t you mention you were driving to Oakland before now? That’s kind of a big deal, Charlie.”

“I don’t know. I didn’t think you’d care. It’s the A’s game, Dad. Come on.” I hoped Amber, who was still upstairs putting the finishing touches on her hair, couldn’t hear us.

“Well, I do care.”

We each took a deep breath. My hands clenched into fists. He looked at me again and his face softened a little. He closed his eyes and when he opened them he said, “You look so much like her.”

My heart stuttered in my chest. So that was what the initial shock was about. With makeup on, I looked more like my mom. It was the wrong time for this, but my whole body waited anxiously for him to say something else. He didn’t. Instead, that familiar look of guilt filled his eyes. The one that said he wished someone else was in charge of me, because he had no idea what to do with me and this situation, and he felt bad about it. I hesitated, then said, “Is that why you’re so nervous to let me go? Because I’ll be driving a long distance in a car? We’ll be safe.”

His brows shot down. “No, Charlie. That’s not why. This is nothing like that.”

How was this nothing like that? My mom died in a car accident and now he was worried about me driving an hour and a half in a car. It didn’t seem so different to me. He glanced up the stairs like he, too, realized this was a bad time, with Amber steps away. He pinched the bridge of his nose and the guilt look turned into a sad look. Great, now I had him thinking about my mom. Stupid makeup.

“I’ll call and check in with you every hour. You can even have a police car tail us if you want.”

That suggestion made him smile a little, but he still said, “I just don’t feel comfortable with it.”

“Dad, you’ll like Evan. He’s really responsible and nice and . . .” I couldn’t think of any other adjectives for Evan since I hardly knew him. I wasn’t even sure if the first adjective described him. So, yeah, this wasn’t my most brilliant idea ever.

I heard the door open and shut behind me, and my dad looked over.

“Hey, Mr. R,” Braden said.

I tightened my ponytail and sighed, because I’d suddenly realized after all this my dad wasn’t going to let me go.

“Nice shirt, Charlie,” Braden said, tugging on the back, probably taking in each gaudy fake jewel.

“Yeah, Amber made it.”

“I hope you don’t blind the pitcher with the bling coming off this thing, because I don’t want any pitchers mad at me tonight.”

“Wait.” My dad pointed at Braden. “You’re going?”

“Yes.”

I could actually see the muscles in my dad’s jaw relax. “Why didn’t you say so, Charlie?”