Free Crushing by Elena Dillon Page A

showing who got on the golf team, and it wasn’t a big surprise. Coach Cliff only took nine of us. Dom, Holden, Gage, and I all got on. He left off two freshmen, who I noticed spent the entire time fooling around and laughing anyway. I tried not to think about what might happen if the four of us had to play together. Wouldn’t that be exciting? Practice started after school tomorrow.
    Dom dropped me home after school, and I raced into the house to do homework before the prayer vigil. I could not miss it. I needed to be there to support the Pattersons.
    My mother came downstairs when I was finishing up.
    “Are you ready, sweetheart?” my mom asked.
    “Yeah, I guess so. What could have happened to her?” I didn’t really expect my mom to have an answer.
    “I wish I knew. She’s a lovely girl,” My mom said, sniffling a bit as she searched her purse for a tissue.
    “I feel so bad for her family,” I said as we got into the car.
    “I know. Hopefully this will be good for them. I wish there was more we could do.”
    “Are the boys coming?” I asked.
    “No, they can’t make it with their classes. I know they wanted to. Your father’s meeting us there.”
    I was fairly certain the entire town would show up.
    When we arrived, the whole front lawn of the church was filled with people. Police and local officials were there, along with what looked like the whole student body of our high school. It wasn’t quite dark yet, so everyone was kind of just milling around talking quietly.
    I went looking for my friends knowing my mom would find hers. I ran into some of the girls from Student Leadership and decided this was a good place as any to stay for the service.
    I was chatting quietly with Ruby, when I felt something hard ram into the back of my knee. I had to grab Kelly, who was on my other side, so I wouldn’t go down in a heap.
    “What in the . . .” I looked down, and Bailee was looking up at me with her head cocked sideways like she couldn’t figure out what just happened. I reached down and picked her up. I looked up and Gage was jogging over to me.
    “She saw you and took off. She’s been so good off the leash, I didn’t think it would be a problem, but I should have known. She loves you.” He had this grin on his face, and my heart started beating faster.
    “Well, she’s got a funny way of showing it.” I rumpled the fur on her head and took a deep breath. “I almost went down.”
    “Yeah, she’s taken to ramming things with her head. Not sure what that’s about. Good thing my uncle isn’t home much. She rammed him in the ankle this morning, and he was hopping around shouting things not appropriate to repeat in a churchyard.”
    I laughed. She was not making points with Gage’s uncle. First the shoes and now the ankle.
    “Making friends and influencing people—our Bailee.” I got a weird little feeling in my stomach when I said “our.” Those squirrels had better be on lockdown. I handed her back to him.
    He clipped the leash to her collar and put her on the ground.
    “Yeah, just like me,” he said.
    I had to laugh at that. “Well, if that’s what you want to call it.”
    The basket with the candles for the vigil came around, and we each grabbed one and passed it on. Suddenly, I felt the weight of why we were here. Lindsay needed to be found. I got a lump in my throat that I couldn’t swallow away. Next thing I knew Dominic was on my other side.
    “Hey.” He looked concerned. “You okay?” I nodded my head. He reached up and rubbed my back. I felt more than saw Gage stiffen up. I didn’t have the energy for the boy drama tonight. Thankfully, the pastor had just gotten on the microphone in front of the church trying to shush the crowd. I would be spending the prayer time standing between these two boys. They were going to have to get over themselves. This was not the time or the place.
    I had to focus on praying for Lindsay. We lit our candles and the service began. We sang worship