Free Under Cover by Caroline Crane Page A

that
butter.”
    “She doesn’t like butter?”
    “She wouldn’t approve. It’s way too much. The
Mediterranean diet is supposed to be healthy and Italy is on the
Mediterranean, so in my opinion it’s okay.”
    “Maddie would squawk that it’s fattening,” he
said.
    “Then she doesn’t have to eat it. Ben,
really, when you said eat, I thought you meant something like
Burger King. Or Taco Bell.”
    “There’s no Taco Bell in Southbridge.”
    “There is in Hudson Hills. I’ve seen it,
never been there.” Which brought me back to Hudson Hills. “What am
I going to do about my dad?”
    “Why do you have to do anything? Can’t he
take care of himself?” Ben noticed he had a chunk of lemon and
squeezed it on his clams.
    “You know what I mean. He’s my dad. Maybe. I wonder what was in that letter. The one he meant for
us.”
    “Do you realize you’re rambling? What do you
mean by ‘maybe’?”
    “About him being my dad. How can I be sure of
anything?”
    “I told you. Get a DNA test.” He gave the
lemon another squeeze. “Do you think you’ll want dessert?”
    “I think I’m going to be stuffed. You still
didn’t tell me what inspired this. Is it because—” I couldn’t say
because you’ve been ignoring me. “Because you aced all your
exams?”
    “I will, I’m not worried. No big deal.”
    “I admire your confidence, but you still
didn’t tell me what we’re celebrating. Or are we?”
    I got a sudden cold feeling. Maybe this was a
break-up date. We could be celebrating Ben’s freedom from me. I
looked up and met his chocolate eyes. It made me look away again
quickly. What if he read my thoughts? What if I was right?
    “I’ll tell you later,” he said.
    I got even colder. “Tell me now and get it
over with.”
    “Don’t sound so grim. How about your
birthday? Don’t you have a birthday coming up?”
    “Not till the end of the month. I’m a crab.”
Did he really remember my birthday? Was that what this was about?
The coldness didn’t go away.
    “Later,” he said. “I have reasons.”
    He would dump me later. He’d let me finish my
shrimp scampi first. How considerate of him.
    He really was. Or tried to be. Not like Troy
Zoller, who couldn’t wait till after the Harvest Moon Dance to dump
me. That was because he wanted to take Stacie Marr, not me.
    Would Ben do that? Never. He would dump me
the nicest way possible. Maybe not even for somebody else, but just
because he was going away.
    “Ben, you’re really sweet.” I meant it. I ran
around the table and kissed him. It didn’t matter if there were
other people watching.
    Some of the people applauded. I sat down
again, embarrassed. I hoped I hadn’t embarrassed Ben.
    Since we weren’t having dessert, he called it
a night. He had an early start the next day at Frosty Dan. All the
way home I dreaded what was coming. His consideration made it even
worse. He was such a sweet guy, and I loved him.
    When we got to my house, he walked me to the
front door, stopped, and held me there.
    Grandma had left the outside light on. Ben
looked up at it and pulled me into the shadows.
    His lips came down on mine. I snuggled close
to him. His fingers worked into my shoulders, then down to my
waist. He pulled me still closer, if I could get any closer.
    Definitely a break-up. I nestled into him. He
pulled me so close that we both sat down on the steps.
    He said, “We got our class rings today.”
    “You did?” Because he was graduating. And
leaving.
    He reached into his pocket and took out a
small blue box.
    The ring sat on cotton. I’d never seen a
Southbridge High class ring. It was dark gold with a rectangular
stone of black onyx. Something was in the stone. As I tried to see
it, Ben took it out of the box and handed it to me.
    “It’s our tiger!” I said. “A little bitty
tiger.” That was our school symbol. I touched it and discovered the
tiger’s outline, in gold, was slightly raised.
    “It’s embossed,” I