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“Can we start the game already?” Madison butts in.
“Serve away, partner,” I reply, moving closer to the net.
I am better at tennis than I am at baseball, but not by much. Harper misses more tennis balls than she hits too, but Madison is actually pretty good. And Caleb seems genetically programmed to be good at any sport, so the teams are pretty even.
Mr. Evans blows his whistle halfway through our third set. “Time’s up. Grab your gear and head back to the locker rooms.”
“Good game, guys,” I call out to Caleb and Harper.
Madison scoffs loudly beside me. “No longer playing hard to get, Lennon?”
“Well, I saw how well being easy was working out for you,” I retort. “You’ve been dating Caleb for how many months now?”
She sends me a glare filled with loathing and then stalks off.
“You two best friends again?” Caleb appears beside me.
“What gave it away?”
We walk off the tennis court, following the rest of the class. Caleb lets out a quiet chuckle, and I know his next words are going to be teasing before they leave his mouth. “So are you just generally uncoordinated, or…”
I shove his arm without thinking. He looks just as surprised by the unexpected contact as I am.
“I ride horses.”
“Isn’t the horse the real athlete?”
“I guess,” I reply. “But it’s not exactly easy squatting on top of a horse running thirty or forty miles an hour.”
“I guess not,” Caleb acknowledges.
“You ever ridden?” I ask, as we follow the gravel path that winds back in the direction of the gym.
“No,” Caleb responds. “When we’d come here in the summer, it felt like we’d spend half the visit at the racetrack. I got my fill of horses then. Became white noise after a while.”
Only a Winters could get away with insulting Landry’s pride and joy like that.
“Do you ride a lot?” he asks me.
“Twice a day. Once in the morning and once after school, so they all get exercised a couple of times a week.”
“Wow. I’d like to see that,” Caleb comments, which I’m not expecting.
“You can come watch whenever, if you’re really wanting to.”
“You’re inviting me over?” Caleb asks. There’s a teasing undertone to his voice, which almost sounds like flirting.
“I didn’t think you needed an invitation,” I respond. “Last time you just invited yourself to stay.”
“Is that why you asked Jake for a ride home from the movies?”
His tone is no longer playful. I glance over at Caleb, surprised by the fact he’s bringing it up. His expression doesn’t give me any indication of what he’s thinking.
It’s completely blank, almost purposefully so.
“He lives closer to me,” I answer. “And I was…clueless.”
Neither of us have acknowledged what happened between us on Sunday since then. I wait anxiously to see what Caleb will say in response. It’s underwhelming. He just nods, not providing me any insight into what he’s thinking. And we’ve reached the entrances to the locker rooms, so I have no more time to analyze his expression.
