I shook my head, sure the whisper had come from their group. I made it within a few feet from Kaylee and the others when a cold breeze kissed the back of my neck. I tugged my jacket tighter around me.
“Did he ask about me?” Natalie asked, her eyes wide and hopeful. With her round face and short-cropped hair, she reminded me of the pixies in Mrs. Addington’s grimoire. She obviously hoped to be Caden’s next girlfriend, and I couldn’t find it in me to tell her he was looking for someone else.
“He told me to say hello, but he couldn’t stay.”
“Oh.” That one word held a world of disappointment.
Lauren pulled the marshmallows she’d been toasting out of the flames and said encouragingly, “Go talk to him.”
“Yeah!” Sarah chimed in. “He probably wants you all to himself.”
I racked my brain for a nice way to say Caden wasn’t interested in her that way, but the words didn’t come quickly enough.
Natalie jumped up. “I think I will.”
I glanced toward the corner of the house where Caden had been, but he was gone. His absence didn’t discourage Natalie, though. She sprinted around the side of the house right as Isaac and Josh walked over to us.
“Someone’s in a hurry,” Josh commented. He had two red plastic cups of beer, one of which he held out to Kaylee. She snapped a quick picture of him before dropping her phone into her purse and taking the drink.
“She’s off to chase Prince Charming,” Lauren said between blows on her marshmallow.
“What does that mean?” Isaac handed me a cup and sat behind me, his legs straddling my hips.
I loved the feeling of his warmth. “Nothing. She’ll be right back.”
“Pork rind?” he offered.
“No, thanks.” I held up the skewer to show him my hands were full.
Kaylee set her cup down and held her marshmallows over the flames. “Are there any graham crackers?”
“Where were you when we made the list for the store?” Sarah asked.
Natalie came back and plopped down between Lauren and Sarah. “Missed him.”
“I still think he’s your secret admirer,” Lauren said.
“You have a secret admirer?” But I knew it wasn’t Caden, unless he’d been at school and at Ben’s house because he did like Natalie. He could have seen her surrounded by people he didn’t know and made up the story about having a mutual friend. After all, who would want to announce they’re someone’s secret admirer in front of a bunch of strangers? Dying to know the details, I said, “Well, don’t just sit there grinning. Spill!”
“Someone left her a bouquet of wildflowers and a box of chocolates,” Lauren said.
All dreamy-eyed, Natalie cooed, “The candy was heavenly.”
“That is sooo romantic,” Kaylee said before stuffing a toasted marshmallow into her mouth.
“Did he leave a note?” I asked. “We might recognize his handwriting.”
Natalie shook her head. “Not yet.”
“That’s dumb,” Josh scoffed. “How is a girl supposed to know a guy’s interested in her if he’s too much of a wuss to include a card?” He paused. “Or for that matter, what kind of wuss chooses to be a secret admirer instead of just walking up and asking a girl out?”
Kaylee scowled at Josh. Then she turned to Natalie and said, “Don’t listen to him.”
Sarah chimed in, “I bet he’s testing the water. You know, to see if you’re interested. You should totally put the flowers near a window so he knows you liked them.”
Isaac let out a disbelieving grunt. “If the guy is hanging outside her house, he’s a stalker and she should lock her doors and windows.”
I elbowed him in the ribs and whispered, “Don’t ruin her fun.”
“How’s a guy hanging outside someone’s home a good thing?” he replied just as quietly.
“They didn’t say he was doing that.” I rolled my eyes. Guys just didn’t get the whole mysterious-romance thing.
“That’s a great idea,” Natalie replied to Sarah’s suggestion.
Natalie and Lauren speculated on who besides Caden might be Natalie’s secret admirer. Sarah, Kaylee, and I added our two cents as the different guys were mentioned. Josh and Isaac held their own side conversation about football and cars. When Mark joined our little group, Natalie and Lauren went to chat with Kyle and his friends. Around eleven, Kaylee and I decided to call it a night. Josh and Isaac followed us to the car.
“Will I see you tomorrow?” Isaac asked. He had his arms wrapped around my waist, and mine were looped around his neck.
“I have to watch Chase during the day, but I’m free after that.”
“Good. We’ll see a movie or something.”
We kissed good night—a short, sweet kiss that managed to send my heart racing.
Chapter 7
A warm front blew in overnight, and with it came temperatures in the upper fifties and blue skies with fluffy cumulus clouds. Kaylee and I decided it was too nice a Sunday to be cooped up in the house. We threw on our jackets and took Chase to the park.
“Last night was fun,” Kaylee said. She held Chase’s waist as he swung one bar at a time across the monkey bars. He landed with a loud thud on the bright red platform. Kaylee quickly jumped up next to him.
I dangled by both hands a few feet away. “It was. Why does that surprise me?”
“She’s going to fall!” Chase yelled with a mix of terror and glee in his voice. “And the lava will eat her up!”
Hot Lava was Chase’s favorite game. The rules were simple: The playground equipment was the safe zone. As long as we didn’t touch the wood chips, we lived. Allow even a toe to touch the ground, and we became volcano food. The only exception was if we were helping Chase across the monkey bars. He’d spend an entire day playing it if we’d let him.
I kicked my legs back and forth, creating momentum. Chase and Kaylee stepped to either side of the platform. On the next forward swing, I let go. Even though my feet landed firmly on the platform, I made a big show of waving my hands in a circle as if I was about to fall backward. Chase gasped and grabbed my jacket. Kaylee played along by putting her hand behind my back. A moment later, I knelt between them.
I looked up at Chase. “That was close!”
“You just need practice.” He scurried up the metal ladder and crawled through a sunshine-yellow tube bridge.
“We were surprised because we thought it’d be a bunch of guys getting drunk, not twenty or so of our friends,” Kaylee said in response to my earlier comment. She held her hand out toward the bridge. “After you.”
We sat crossed-legged in a square blue box; Chase’s little hands gripped a black steering wheel as he pretended to steer us through the imaginary red sea. We’d just maneuvered around make-believe debris when my new ringtone blared from inside my jacket pocket. I checked caller ID before answering.
“Hey, Sarah. What’s up?”
“Are you at home?” she asked.
“Just down the street. Kaylee and I took Chase to the park.” I put her on speaker.
“Hi, Sarah,” Kaylee and Chase sang into the phone. Chase turned the wheel. The three of us leaned to the side as if our boat had taken a hard right.
“Have either of you talked to Natalie?”
“No,” I said. I wasn’t even sure Natalie still had my cell number.
“Why?” Kaylee asked.
