Select (Select #1)(26)

I hated myself for asking, but I needed to know one more thing before I lost him. “Did Liv go with you to my dad? To try to get me out of here?”

Angus paused before giving a small shake of his head, knowing he was delivering bad news. Then he reached across me and opened the door, signaling he was done. I turned to get out, annoyed he had dismissed me but also scared to cut off contact. I stepped out of the car and numbly closed the door behind me.

The coach had her hands cupped to her mouth and was yelling to me. I didn’t say good-bye or look back. I kept walking. I began to process what he’d told me—that I was an official outcast, that my sister, the one person I had always loved, no longer wanted me around. And then he’d planted seeds of doubt about my father’s noble intentions where we were concerned. I could feel myself edging toward panic.

“Julia!” Angus called out from behind me. “I’m sorry.” I heard him rev his engine, and then he was gone.



Left with nothing, I walked back to Coach Kim, who was gesturing at me to follow her to a set of bleachers closer to where the boys were playing. I complied, walking over dead patchy grass and litter, not up for my first talking-to from an outsider.

“You can’t just get in some boy’s car in the middle of practice,” she began. To my total humiliation I saw John standing within earshot, bouncing a ball with his racket, looking like he was waiting to be told what to do next.

“Ford. What’s up, man?” A stocky, sandy-haired boy walked up to him. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey, man. Rehabbing my shoulder. How’s it going?” I pretended to give the coach my attention and I did listen to her, but I could follow the two conversations simultaneously.

“All good. Have you heard from the big schools? UT, Duke?” The boy scratched his nose and tried to act nonchalant.

John lowered his voice as if he didn’t want me to hear. “No, you?”

“Nah, just Michigan and Princeton.”

“Damn. That’s awesome.”

“They’ve been circling you forever. They’ll be all over you as soon as you kick ass again on Saturday,” the other boy said.

“Hopefully,” John said noncommittally.

“How’s Alex playing?”

“Great.” John sounded proud and amazed. “He really likes his new coach. Well, he’s my coach too, but he wants me to practice out here for now while I’m in PT.”

“Do you like the new coach?”

“No,” John said flatly. The other kid laughed, and I sensed John’s smile.

“John!” The boys’ high school coach came over and slapped John’s sweaty back. “Why don’t you and Pete play for a bit?”

John’s whole demeanor instantly changed to business-like.

“John?” Pete looked at him warily, his demeanor also changing since they were about to be opponents.

“Yeah. Sure. Let me just get a drink real quick and lace up my shoes.” He sounded resigned, like he was a soldier going into battle. He’d clearly stopped feeling any kind of joy for the game.

John turned and realized his water bottle was in my vicinity, but he couldn’t change course now.

“Got it?” Thankfully Coach Kim had finished her lecture.

“Yes.” I nodded, reassuring her. She walked back to the girls, expecting me to follow, but I needed a second to catch my breath and sort through what Angus had unloaded. I looked down at my arms and legs, which were now entirely covered with the rash. I was surprised the coach hadn’t said anything. And of course now John was the closest he’d been since Barton Springs.

“Excuse me,” he said, his first words to me since that day. He reached right next to my side and swept up a scratched pink water bottle.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. Why was I apologizing? Ever since I got out of Angus’s car I’d felt shell-shocked, and here I sat out in the open with a full-blown rash. It was bad—blisters with whiteheads all over. No one else besides me had ever seen it this bad before.

John didn’t walk away. He took a long drink from his water bottle and stood next to me, almost like he sensed my panic and didn’t want to leave. I looked up at him and began rubbing my arms, mostly to hide them.

“Don’t touch it. It will just make it worse,” he said.

I felt my cheeks turn bright red. I realized he knew all about stress-induced rashes. I rested my eyes on his as I tried to slow my breathing.

“Thanks,” I said sincerely, surprising both John and myself. It felt good to look him full in the face for once instead of the usual sidelong glances. I leaned forward to rest my elbows on my knees, trying to disguise the extent of the problem.

Oh my God. That’s hot. She is so…

I blinked. It took a moment to realize what had just happened. He hadn’t said it out loud, but I had heard him clearly. I sat up, realizing I had inadvertently given him a view of cleavage. I looked in his eyes, and again I knew we felt that connection to each other. All the panic I felt a moment ago moved to the background.

Talk to her. Just talk to her.

“Ford! You coming or what?” Pete yelled. Left with no other choice, John turned and walked to the court.

What the hell had happened? Why could I read his mind again? I didn’t want it to be over so quickly.