Death on a Deadline

you probably would have.”
    “True. But I still felt betrayed. That’s why I ran off to the tree house.”
    “I could hear your sobs before I even got up the ladder. But I’d have known where you were even if I hadn’t.” His voice was soft with memories.
    “That day. . .” He’d held me while I cried. When I stopped, I must have been a sight, but he wiped the tears from my cheeks and looked at me like I was beautiful. My best friend was suddenly much more.
    He touched my hand. “Our first kiss.”
    So much for boundaries. I slipped my hand out from under his. “So now that supper’s over, the deal is off?”
    He sat back and blew out his breath. “I guess so. Where do we even begin?”
    I stood and picked up my plate. He took it from me. “Why don’t you let me clean up?”
    “Don’t you think you’ve done enough?” Oh, that was a classic Jenna-ism. “I didn’t mean—”
    He chuckled. “I know what you meant.”
    “We can just leave this. I’ll clean it up later,” I said.
    “Let’s deal with it tonight. It’ll just be harder to face tomorrow.”
    I nodded. Why did everything have to have a double meaning? We’d been so relaxed earlier, but now tension crackled in the air. We worked in silence for a while and when the dishwasher was running, he touched my arm. “I forgot to tell you—you look nice tonight.”
    “Thanks.” Heat crept up my face. “So do you.”
    He laughed. “You don’t have to say that.”
    “No, it’s true. . . .” My voice faded off. Was I actually standing in my kitchen, telling Alex Campbell I liked how he looked? “Let’s go sit down for a minute—and relax,” I added under my breath.
    “Sounds good.”
    I led the way to the living room where Carly had left an eighties CD playing softly when we first got home from the hospital. Had she planned this? And figured I needed all the help I could get? Probably.
    “Oh, man. It’s been a long time since I heard that song.” Alex sank onto the couch and patted the spot beside him.
    I sat—not quite at the opposite end of the sofa but not right next to him either. Distance made my mind work better, and I wanted to think as clearly as possible while we had the discussion I’d been dreading since I first heard Alex was back in town.
    He laughed. “I don’t remember you being this prickly.”
    I tossed him a quick, totally insincere smile. “Maybe I didn’t have a reason to be prickly then.”
    “You?” He pushed back against the sofa back and crossed his feet in front of him. “Deep down, I knew our relationship always came second to your swimming. But I never realized you’d break up with me because you lost a swim meet.”
    “ A swim meet?” I jumped to my feet, then put my hand on my bandage. Whoa. No more sudden movements. He saw me and in a second was on his feet beside me, but I pushed him away. “It was the Olympics! Besides, I didn’t break up with you!”
    I walked over to the window and stared blindly out at the sunset. If I faced him, he’d see the tears sparkling in my eyes and I wasn’t ready to completely trash my pride.
    “What do you call refusing to talk to me?” His voice sounded close behind me.
    I steadied myself against the windowsill and kept my eyes fixed on the fading day. “I call it needing some time to come to grips with the fact that I let the whole nation down.”
    “What about letting me down?”
    I turned around, amazed by his bluntness. He was less than a foot away. “You were included in the whole nation. And yes, you most of all. You believed in me. So did your dad. And I flubbed up.”
    “Dad said you had a bad cold.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Don’t even try to make excuses for me. I wasn’t good enough. I lost.”
    “Okay.”
    “Okay.” I was obstinately pained that he gave in so quickly, but at least we knew where we stood now.
    “So what if you weren’t good enough? Did that give you the right to throw away our future?”
    I’d thrown away our future? Had I stumbled into one of the endless strings of kids’ movies where the main characters swap bodies? “I’m not the one who left.”
    “You knew I was going to college. I sent flowers, I called you, I even came over but your mama said you weren’t up to seeing anyone. I tried everything.”
    Suddenly I remembered the flowers. White daisies and red roses. I’d felt so unworthy that I’d thrown them out. Was Alex right? Had I overreacted? Was I partly to blame? I pressed my back against