Page 39 of The Baller

“Are you seeing her when we get back?”

“I haven’t asked her yet,” I replied, chuckling to myself as I smoothed out the smiley face I’d drawn on my belly.

“Do you want to?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, meeting his earnest gaze when it dawned on me he was the only one of us I could talk to about this without a joke being made. “Yes, I do. I want to see her.”

“Then ask her,” he said simply, like he’d always been this wise.

He sat up and peered down to where Parker and Tanner were still standing by a couple of fishing poles. Empty fishing poles. Tanner was peering down at the water like he expected a fish to jump into his arms.

“Do it now before Tanner falls in, and we have to rescue him.”

I laid back down, readying myself to mentally compose the text. “Yeah, I will.”

A loud splash, followed by a roar of laughter from Parker, and an even louder one from Ace, said my time was up. Ace jumped to his feet and sprinted down the steps, yelling behind him as he did.

“Do it, Weston, then get your ass in the water!”

I snatched up my phone.

Lux: I’m back in two days, so what do you say, Goldilocks? Want to meet and talk books IRL?

NINE

RADLEY

Lux: Hey Goldilocks, are you a hot chocolate or a coffee girl?

Radley: Hot chocolate, please.

Lux: I like it, girl after my own heart. See you soon x

I chewedon my lip as I stared at my phone, wondering if the nerves dancing in my belly would ever get tired. Or bored. I’d take either if they’d stop.

“This is crazy, right?”

Millie’s eyes sliced to the right so she could see me through the reflection of the mirror, where she’d been examining her non-existent pores for the last five minutes. “No, this is exceptionallyawesome.”

“I dunno. I don’t even know him.” I didn’t. I mean, we’d been texting for over a week, but I didn’tknow himknow him.

I knew his favorite color was yellow, and I knew Derek Jeter was his idol, and I knew his favorite movie wasTop Gun, the original. But that didn’t mean Iknew him.

“And you won’t until you meet him, spend time with him, and Get. To. Know. Him.” She punched out every word like I was hard of hearing and/or really needed the point hammered home.

Obviously, it was the latter.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Hey, it’s not like you’re meeting a random guy on the internet. It’s Lux Weston. Everyone knows him, and I haven’t found anything on the internet to suggest he’s an axe murderer or something. Plus, Ethan and Meg will step in way before you’re chopped into little pieces, and he makes a skin suit out of you. You’ll be safe on this date.”

Her nose was now being squeezed between her two index fingers, so everything she said made her sound like either a) she was underwater, or b) had the world’s worst cold, but I got the gist – I was low-risk for being murdered.

“This isn’t a date.” I ignored everything else she said, including the skin suit comment. Shudder. “Is it?”

“Radley, I hate to break it to you, but I think it is.”

“We’re meeting in a bookstore.”

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