“We’ll check in with her. We’ll see howshe’s doing, and if she needs you home, then you go home. But if she says she’s fine, we’re getting you lunch.” Nellie stepped up closer to the net, lowering her voice. “You deserve an afternoon off. Well, for the most part.”
My gaze flicked behind her to my little brother. “It’s only been a weekend since they’ve been out of school. I don’t need an afternoon off yet.”
“I’m just worried about you,” Nellie confessed, once more taking her spot on her side of the court. She bounced the ball once, then twice. “You’re… balancing a lot.”
“Ihavethought about running away to join the circus,” I returned blithely. “Oh, wait—I’m already running one.”
Nellie gave a little snort laugh, but my attempt to distract her didn’t last long. “You’ve got a lot going on, Daisy.”
I wondered if she knew about my argument with Jamie. I couldn’t quite imagine him saying anything to her, but she might’ve sensed something was off with her Wonder Twin Powers. I wondered if Jamie had told her about Dalton showing up at the playground. If he’d told her that I was drawing him.
“Nellie,” I began, lowering my voice. “About Jamie. We kind of?—”
“I was hoping it was someone I knew on the court today.” Dalton appeared out of nowhere, coming up to the chain-link fence that separated our pickleball court from the walkway, hooking his fingers through the rungs. In his other hand, he held a pickleball racket case, and lightly smacked it against his gym-short-clad thigh. “Hey, guys.”
How? I thought dumbly.How does this keep happening?
Nellie’s voice was cold. “What are you doing here?”
“I didn’t realize the courts were booked so easily. I remember when there was a time you could walk up and play.” He swung his racket case against his palm. “We could do doubles.”
I blinked at the rude way he’d butted in. “You don’t have a partner.”
“That guy over there could be my partner.” Dalton gestured at the picnic table.
“Did you just call methat guy?” Beck, from where he sat at the picnic table, frowned. “I drove you to the beach last week, but you don’t even remember my name?”
“Man, sorry. Was it… Peck?”
Beck folded his arms across his chest as he sat back in his seat, pouting. “Pass.”
To his credit, Dalton did look sheepish as he turned back to Nellie and me. “What about Jamie? Is he here?”
“Jamie doesn’t play pickleball,” Nellie said.
“No? Not even for Daisy?” Dalton reached for his pocket. “I could call him and ask?—”
“Beck will play,” I said, because the idea of Dalton calling Jamie had filled me with nothing but panic.
He’d said no to Dalton, but for me, Beck rose from his chair. “If I’m playing at all, I call dibs on Nell.”
Nellie tried to shoot him a meaningful stare as he came into the pickleball area. “You can be Dalton’s partner?—”
“Pass.” And then Beck seemed to understand the unspoken meaning behind Nellie’s tight tone. His scowlsmoothed a little as his gaze flicked to mine. “Oh. Right. I guess I can be… Dalton’s partner.”
“No, that’s okay.” Dalton, too, entered the fence, and after passing Beck one of his extra rackets, he rounded the net toward me. “Daisy and I got this.”
Nellie smacked Beck’s shoulder, her lips moving like a scolding, and I saw Beck mouthsorry, sorry. The sight, as funny as it was, didn’t make up for the fact that Dalton now stood beside me. Theo had lifted his head from my phone, eyes on me. “You okay?” I called to him.
Theo gave me a tiny thumbs-up. “Yep.”
I caught Dalton looking at Theo, my mood souring further.You have four little roots holding you in place, he’d said. Was he looking at Theo like a root now? Thinkingoh, see, now she even has to bring him places?
And then Dalton nudged my shoulder. “You still hug the left side too much,” he murmured, like we were back to last summer when we’d played before. “I was watching you two play. You keep too far to the left.”
“I do not.”
“Do too.”
