Page 113 of Save Us
Dad lowers his gaze to the desk. He swallows hard and relaxes his hands until they’re lying flat on the dark blue top. When he looks up again, I’m ready for anything. To fight him, if need be. But he looks at Lydia and then at me, and I almost think I can see something like remorse in his face.
“I’d be glad if we could keep the media out of this,” he says in the end.
At this moment I know: We’ve won.
30
James
The sun is beating down on the field, but I’m enjoying the feeling of the padding on my body and the white 17 on my back. I don’t have to think. All I have to do is run, catch the ball, and get it into the back of the net.
For a moment, I shut my eyes and focus on the sounds around me: the pounding footsteps, the yells from the spectators, the whir of the ball.
“Beaufort!” Freeman shouts. “Wake up man, for God’s sake!”
I snap my eyes open just in time to see Alistair playing the ball toward me. At the last moment, my stick catches it—and then three of the opposing team run at me at once.
My body kicks itself into gear. I sprint without a second’s hesitation. One of them rams into me. I wobble for a second but don’t lose my balance. I glance around for my teammates and catch sight of Wren, who has run on ahead of me. I jerk back my stick and hurl the ball to him. He has to jump, but makes the catch. He gets three paces forward, but there’s a defender in his way. Without hesitation, Wren passes back to me. I dodge thedefense and run at top speed. Then I lunge and shoot. The ball whizzes past the keeper and into the goal. The next moment, the referee blows for the end of the quarter.
Wren is the first to high-five me, followed by the rest of the team. Adrenaline floods my body. I’m on a high that I never want to come down from.
I pull off my helmet and immediately look around for a shock of brown hair.
Ruby, her sister, and the whole events committee are right in the front row.
I take it all in. The feeling of the grass under my feet as I run toward them. The creak of my gloves as I grip the stick. The look in Ruby’s eyes that—even from this distance—hits me even harder than the rush I felt just now when I scored. As I reach her, I can’t stop grinning.
“Hey,” I murmur, leaning down to her. It’s only meant to be a fleeting kiss, but when I feel Ruby’s lips against mine, I suddenly can’t stop myself.
Ember makes a weird noise beside us, and Ruby pulls back with a laugh.
“Well, if he’s going to play like that, I guess I’ll let him off for skipping our meetings once a week,” Lin says.
“I know,” Ruby replies, smiling but not taking her eyes off me. “He’s quite good at it, isn’t he?”
My heart beats even faster.
“Hey,” says Wren as he joins us. “I’d like a bit of praise too, if you don’t mind.”
“Fishing for compliments is not cool, Wren,” Ember replies. Her voice is serious, but her lips are twitching. I look over toWren—the look on his face as he watches Ember is one I’ve never seen before: lighthearted, open, and affectionate.
Is that the way I look at Ruby?
“Did Lydia text you?” I ask her a moment later.
She shakes her head. “Not since you last asked. Which was only half an hour ago.”
I lean down to her. “Stop grinning like that. I’m allowed to be a bit excited. It’s not every day you become an uncle,” I say, so quietly that only Ruby can hear. Lydia messaged that she’s been having contractions for a while, but they’re irregular so the midwife said she shouldn’t go to the hospital yet in case it’s a false alarm.
“I’ll give you a sign the minute she texts. Like we agreed,” Ruby says. There’s still that meaningful smile on her lips, the one that makes me want to kiss her for hours.
“Promise?” I ask.
She nods and sits up a bit. Then she takes my face in her hands and pulls me in for a kiss.
“Come on, captain,” says Wren, nudging me with his shoulder. “Halftime is over. There’s plenty more to come.”
I give Ruby one more smile, then Wren and I turn and jog back toward the field. I’m thinking back to the start of the school year. To the day Lydia was standing there, asking me to keep an eye on Ruby.
