Ben nodded. “I needed to think things through. It was hard with both Mom and Dad out of town. What you said this morning about me being responsible as well for what happened to Spencer’s car hit home. I knew Coach giving us those performance enhancers was wrong and the way we had been pledged to secrecy said as much.”
“Spencer and I went there, and I could feel something was really wrong,” Callie said.
Spencer placed his arm around her shoulders, holding her protectively against his side.
Ben smiled, studying the two of them standing side by side. “So you and Spence are an item now?”
Callie looked to Spencer, who only seemed to have eyes for her. “Yeah,” she whispered. “We are.”
Spencer cleared his throat. “We are? I mean, we are. Yes, we most definitely are.”
Cade had to hand it to Ben. It’d taken courage to stand up to Coach, knowing there would be a price to pay.
—
The sheriff returned, and they were all questioned for what seemed like hours. As soon as Cade could, he broke away and hurried to the hospital where Hope had been taken. By the time he arrived, she had been checked over, given a CT scan to be sure there was no internal bleeding, and released. She sat in the waiting area outside of the emergency room and leaped to her feet, then walked directly into his arms. “I don’t know what would have happened if not for you,” she said, hugging him close.
“I’m no hero,” he said, embarrassed to have what seemed like half the hospital staff watching them.
“You are to me,” she said.
Closing his eyes, he rested his chin on the top of her head. “You’re the only one who thinks so and the only one whose opinion matters to me.”
Then, hand in hand, they headed home.