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“
What?
I don’t know where you go
t your information, but that’s not true.”

He was about to respond but Jayden entered the
room
as she was finishing up her conversation on the phone
. He
r father
relaxed back into his chair ever so subtly as
Jayden
hung up and
sat down beside me.

“What’d I miss?” she smiled.

“Not much,” her father replied
smoothly
. “How’s Cals?”

“Fine. They’re going to the river tonight for a bonfire.”

“That sounds fun,” he said. “You gonna go?”

“I’d rather see
Ty’s game,” she answered, looping her arm through mine.

I silently gr
oaned. Joe Adams only gave me a glance
, but it spoke a thousand words.

After another half an hour of forced conversation between her dad and I
—mostly about sports because it was probably the only topic we could both tolerate from each other—J
ayden
offered to make
lunch for the three of us.

“I’m not really hungry, s
weetheart,” her father said. “Maybe Ty would rather take you out for lunch.”

She smiled
at me
and asked, “Is that what you want?”
“Sure, that sounds fine.”
Anything to get out of here
.

So with a
smug look on his face,
Joe Adams
sent us off with a wave and a “h
ave a good time.”

I exhaled long and careful as we walked to my truck. Unbelievable. The word
Jayden
had used earlier was exactly how I felt: rattled. But it also
ran
deeper than that. I felt a bit of dread, knowing her father despised me and would probably
never
like me. What would a future with her even be like? My father was a drunk and a bum of a dad, but I knew he would at least
like
Jayden. I knew he would be friendly, accept her, and not
make her feel
threatened
.

Jayden smiled at me innocently as she buckled her seatbelt. “That went better than I expected,” she said.

The fact that she was so pleased made me feel even worse.

“Yeah? That’s good,” I replied
vacantly
. “Uh, what do you feel like eating?”

“I don’t care, you can choose.”

I quietly sighed. I wasn’t even hungry, and frankly, I just couldn’t think straight to make a proper decision. Out of habit I just pulled into a
sub
shop that was a
half-
mile from my house
and the school
. The guys and I ate there a lot on game days because a sandwich was sometimes the easiest thing for Jesse to eat when he had a nervous stomach.

Now I totally understood how he felt.

“Ty, what’s the matter? You’ve been so quiet,” Jayden said
after
we sat down inside.

I shrugged. “Oh, I’m just thinking about the game tonight, I guess.”

She tilted her head and studied my face. She didn’t say anything and took a bite of her sandwich. After she swallowed she said, “You’re not eating. Aren’t you hungry?”

I looked at the sandwich in my hand and took a bite. The idea of eating it made me sick, but it avoided conversation until I could think of what to say. Finally I asked, “What time were they going down to the river tonight?”

“Mmm, about
seven.
”

“I think you should go.”

“No
way,” she laughed. “I want to see your game.”

“There are plenty of games. I want you to spend some time with your friends.”

She froze for a second and then put her food down.
“I’d
only
go if you came with me.”

If it got her to see her friends…

“I can after the game. Why don’t you go with Cali
,
and then I’ll meet you there when I’m done.”

She laughed
again
. “I’m not missing your game, Ty. I’ll stroke your ego and let you think it’s because of you, but I’m really just addicted to baseball now.”

It made me smile, but it wasn’t enough to get my mind off her father. He didn’t want me around her. Whoever it was that told him stuff about me was out to do some major damage. Was it Chris? Was that why Jayden had gotten so upset with him? Maybe she was dealing with the same type of stuff that I was putting up with from Aaron. If Jayden was busy trying to defend me to all of her friends, what did that mean
for
the two of us? Was it really just us against the world?

No, that couldn’t be true. Jesse ha
d my back; so did the rest of my team
. None of them had a problem with Jayden
. In fact, they all thought she was pretty great
. And even though Aaron was a jackass sometimes, he had somewhat laid off on the comments. I guess our battle came down to
the people not liking
me
—m
ainly Chris and Joe Adams,
w
ho happened to be the most important guys in Jayden’s life. What did that say? Neither of them even knew me. S
ure, Jayden was a far greater
person than I was, but was I really that bad?

I was beginning to think that I was way out of my league…

That night I didn’t do so hot in the game. I couldn’
t believe that Jayden was right. O
ne meeting with her father could throw off everything in a person’s mind. By the
fifth
inning Coach Tucker pulled me aside and asked what was going on.

“I’m just off, I guess.”

“You’re never off, Ty. What’s the problem? Something personal going on?”

I couldn’t lie to him; he already knew the answer was yes.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Would it help to talk about it? Did you break up with your girlfriend or something?”

“No, I met her dad today.”

He actually laughed
out loud
.

“I
’m glad that amuses you,” I scowled
.

“I’m sorry, Ty. I’m
not laughing because it’s funny,
I’m laughing because I understand. Joe Adams is one tough sucker
,
and I wouldn’t wish meeting him up
on
any
kid. Come here,” he said. He took me by the shoulder and faced
me to the crowd
from the end of the dugout
. “You see that girl up there?” He
pointed
to Jayden sitting six rows
above us
. She was watching
Jack
at
the plate
. “That girl loves you, plain and simple. If you love her back, and I know you do, nothing else matters.” He patted me on the back and said, “
She
loves you, kid.
Her dad doesn’t have to.
”

He was r
ight, and I already knew that, b
ut
the confirmation was what I really needed to hear
.

Jack got a base hit, but Aaron got out on a pop fly to
right
field. Before taking my place at the plate, I glanced at Jayden. She looked worried, probably thinking I was going to strike out again, but she smiled and blew me a kiss. I relaxed for the first time all night and eyed the pitcher.
The first pitch looked pretty good to me so I took a swing
and the ball went soaring. It went over the fence between center and left, scoring us two runs and tying the game 2-2.

We were ahead by one in the final inning, the score being 3-2. The other team had a runner on third just dying
to get home to tie up the game, and their best slugger was at the plate.
All
we needed was one out to win it,
so when a chopper w
as hit to the left of the mound
,
the runner took off.
But
Everett dove for the ball and stopped it, and he chucked it to me at home plate. The toss was a little wide, so I had to snag it away from the plate, and dive back to make the tag
on the slide.

“
Out!
”
yelled the umpire.

Tomorrow at six: championship game.

             
             
             
             
             
Chapter Eleven

“Wow, that’s huge
!” Jayden exclaimed. “Who built this
thing
?”

We made our way to where everyone was congregating around a gigantic bonfire.

“Chris and Matt,” Cali told her. “They practically hauled full-sized trees over here.”
We sat against a
log in the sand next to Cali
and she asked,
“How’d the game go?”

“Ty saved the day,” Jayden replied proudly.

“No, I had to make up for my
own
screw-ups,” I corrected her.

Somehow Jayden made me sound like a hero anyways, and then t
he girls continued to talk while I observed who was present. Silvia and Josh were cozied together against another lo
g, Matt was with
Stacie next to Chris and Shawn, and there were two girls on the other side that I learned were
Tina
and
Aubrey
.

I remained mostly quiet for t
he time we were with the group. Jayden leaned against me and
wrapped my arms around her;
I tried hard to focus on how much I loved her instead of the daggers that Chris was eyeing me with. It seemed that Jayden was trying to avoid him as well because she didn’t talk to him or look at him unless she had to.

I did like Shawn, though. He was pretty funny. It was easy to see that his personality carried over to his musical performances.
He was f
riendly
and didn’t seem to have any preconceived notions about me—at least none that he cared about.
He and Jayden tal
ked for quite a bit about music—d
ifferent shows they had done or wanted to do, and Shawn’s plans for adding on to the recording studio in his basement. After a while I realized that Josh was actually Shawn’s younger brother.

I learned that
Tina
was another teacher at Jayden’s
music
store. Aubrey’s
mom
,
Charlotte
,
was a good friend of Joe’s
,
and I was shocked that the man would even
have
any friends.

My interest was piqued when Chris and Matt began talking about a ’67 Camaro that Matt and his brother were rebuilding.
Matt was complaining
about some of the work they had been doing
on it
and that it still wasn’t running like it should.
I didn’t want to interfere, but
based on what he was describing,
I knew exactly what the problem was and offered
a
suggestion.

“That’s all it takes?” Matt asked.

“
Yeah
,
it should be good
. If it doesn’t
help, I can
take a look at it
for you.”

“Hey, thanks, man. That’s saves me a lot of worry.
And a lot of money.
”

“Good,” Stacie added. “N
ow maybe he won’t beg
me
for money.”

At
that point it was
eleven
-
fifteen
, and
Jayden
leaned back to whisper, “Let’s head out.”

She kissed me, and even though the other couples—Matt and Stacie, Josh and Silvia—had been kissing on each other all ni
ght,
I was glad she kept it short. I could feel Chris burning holes through me with his glare. 

“We have a little longer if you want,” I told her.

“I want to be
alone with you,” she murmured
against my face.

I chuckled and said, “Okay, i
f you have to twist my arm.”

She stood up a
nd announced our departure, and e
veryone returned the farewell
,
except for Chris who
looked at me and
said, “Yeah, isn’t it past your
curfew
?”