Free Whitney by Jade Parker Page B

I’d made up my mind.I could do everything behind the scenes, never be discovered … or uncovered. My secrets would remain safe.
    And as long as my secrets were kept, I wasn’t in danger of losing the new friends I’d made this summer.
    Jake and I arrived at the baseball field. It was a long walk from the parking lot to the gate. I was disappointed that we didn’t hold hands. I considered being bold and taking his hand. That would certainly make a statement about my feelings for him, but I was a chicken. What if I took his hand and he looked at me like I was crazy? Did guys like boldness in a girl? Or did they want to make all the moves? Should I text Robyn for some advice?
    Jake gave our tickets to the gate attendant, who scanned them. Then we walked through the gate. We started working our way through the crowd of people.
    Jake reached back and took my hand. His hand was large, mine so small. I wanted to think it meant something special that wewere holding hands, but I suspected it was just that he didn’t want us to get separated. He seemed to know where he was going.
    I’d been here once, earlier in the summer, for a fireworks show. Sean had invited me that time. We sat on a quilt on the grassy knoll. I was really hoping that Jake’s tickets were for real seats.
    We stopped at the concession stand and bought hot dogs and drinks. Then we walked to a section behind home plate. “Follow me,” Jake said, and he started down the steps.
    Thank goodness. No grassy knoll. I wasn’t a huge fan of bugs. Jake kept on going down the steps until he was five rows from the bottom. We were on the aisle. I took the inside seat.
    “These are great seats,” I said.
    “Yeah. My dad buys season tickets. We don’t make it to all the games, but we always have great seats when we do.”
    I bit into my hot dog. “Oh, this is good.”
    “Ballpark hot dogs are the best. I don’t know why, but they’re always better than you’ll get anywhere else.”
    “The ones at Paradise Falls are good,” I said, feeling a need to defend the park and its offerings.
    He grinned. “I don’t think they’re this good.”
    I smiled back at him. “Almost.”
    I finished eating my hot dog as people began filling in the seats around us. When the game started and the first player went up to the plate, I took out my cell phone.
    “What are you doing?” Jake asked.
    “Sending my aunt proof that we’re at the game.” I thought a player at bat was more interesting than the scoreboard. I snapped the picture and sent it to her.
    “She needed proof?” he asked.
    I peered over at him and shrugged. “What can I say? You heard her spouting off the rules.”
    “Your dad is pretty protective, isn’t he?”
    “Afraid so. But it’s just because I’m his princess. His words, not mine. He gets back from his business trip tomorrow. You’ll have to meet him.”
    Jake shifted in his seat as though he was suddenly really uncomfortable. He turned his attention back to the game.
    I was such an idiot. No matter how much I loved my dad, guys didn’t want to meet fathers. Plus I was assuming a lot — like maybe Jake would ask me out again, that I wasn’t just a seat-filler. That there was a reason for him to meet my dad, like maybe we’d do more things together.
    “So which team are we rooting for?” I wanted to change the subject and get things comfortable between us again.
    Jake grinned at me. He really had the cutest grin. “The home team, of course. Rough Riders. I can’t believe you’ve never been to a baseball game.”
    “My dad likes football.”
    “I like football, too. It’s not like you can have only one sport.”
    “But he’s busy with business.”
    I thought I saw sympathy in Jake’s expression.
    “But that’s okay,” I told him, “because it makes tonight really special. You’ll always be the guy who took me to my first baseball game.”
    My words sounded so pathetic, as though I was trying to force Jake to be special, or