Page 98 of On His Team

We’re back in Camden before dinner. By seven, Hawthorne has filled itself again. Not with a party. Just people. The girls are here. Food is on the counter. Somebody has a game on. Percy is getting more attention than he wants because of the forty-one saves, and every time Stanley tries to compliment him, Percy tells him to stop.

Gianna comes in with Mara. She sees me almost immediately and smiles.

I don’t know what I’m doing with that smile. I know I like it. I smile back, but she’s already moving to the kitchen where she disappears with the girls.

For the next hour, I keep finding her without trying to. At the counter. On the floor beside Lucy. Standing behind the couch talking to Melly.

Every time I look at her, I remember those words tumbling out of her mouth. Somewhere between Thursday and now, the information has stopped feeling strange. It feels good.

She isn’t acting any differently either. She told me she likes me and then kept being Gianna. If anything, I’m the one making it weird by watching her all the time. It genuinely never occurred to me that she could like me.

Around nine, the house starts thinning out. Mara leaves first. Melly and Blue go upstairs. Percy disappears with Penelope. Benson and Lucy are in the living room arguing quietly about a movie. Stanley is in the shower.

Gianna is in the kitchen rinsing a glass.

I walk in for water.

She glances over. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

I open the fridge while she shuts off the tap. There’s nothing awkward about this until I become aware that we’re alone. Then apparently she becomes aware of it too.

She dries her hands on a towel. “How are you?”

“Fine.”

She tilts her head. “You’re sore.”

I look at her. “How do you know?”

She shrugs. “You look sore.”

I grab a bottle of water. She doesn’t leave. I twist the cap off while she leans back against the counter.

“Can I ask you something?” she says.

I end the sip and nod. “Yeah.”

“Do you wish I didn’t tell you?”

The question catches me off guard. “No.”

She looks at my face like she’s checking the answer. “No?”

“No.”

She looks down at her hands. “Okay. Because I’ve been thinking maybe I shouldn’t have.”

“Why?”

“Because you didn’t know.”

“That doesn’t mean I wish you didn’t tell me.”

“Those feel related.”

“They’re not.”