Read Online If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now by Claire LaZebnik - Free Book Online Page B

the target, and adjusting her feet and her shoulders until she seemed satisfied. Then she wound up and threw
     the ball, hard and straight. There was a sudden “Ping!” and a shout from Andrew as his seat gave way under him and he dropped
     into the tank of water.
    A couple of the girls screamed. Noah cried out, “Awesome!” The teenager and I applauded, and the girl looked around, laughing.
     “Thanks,” she said and took a little bow.
    “You’re good,” I said, and the teenage boy said, “That’s the first time anyone’s been dunked today.”
    “I played ball in school,” she said, like it was no big deal. She trotted up to the tank, where Andrew was holding on to the
     edges, shaking the water off his face and fishing around for his cap, which had fallen off during his plunge. “I’m sorry,
     baby,” the girl said with a grin. Their faces were pretty much on a level. “Had to do it. You okay?”
    “I’m fine,” he said. “Nice job.” She leaned forward, over the edge of the tank, and they kissed right on the lips.
    “She kissed him!” Noah said with amazement. “She dunked him and then she kissed him!”
    “She’s my girlfriend,” Andrew explained with a grin as the girl stepped back. “It’s okay.”
    There was a lot of whispering from the sixth-grade girls at
that
bit of news. Andrew climbed out of the water and resumed his place on the platform, water pouring from his clothes and hair.
     He wrung out his baseball cap. “It’s soaking wet.”
    “It’ll keep you cool,” his girlfriend said.
    “I’m plenty cool now. In fact, I’m freezing. That water’s like sixty degrees.”
    “Serves you right,” she said.
    He gave her an exaggerated scowl. “When I get down from here, you are so going to pay for this.”
    “Yeah? When’s that?”
    “I’m done at noon.”
    She looked at her watch. “Oh, good. Not too much longer. I’m starving.”
    Noah was a suggestible kid. He tugged on my hand. “I’m hungry, Mom.”
    “Okay. Let’s go get something to eat.”
    We turned to go.
    “Hey,” Andrew yelled after us. “Come back later when someone else is up here and I’ll help you with your pitching.” It wasn’t
     clear whether he was talking to me or to Noah.
    I just nodded and we walked away.

6.

    S orry I’m a little late,” I said to Melanie as I joined her behind the counter at the hot-dog booth. “Noah had to go to the
     bathroom just as I was heading over and then I had to find Mom so I could leave him with her.”
    “I just let Cameron and Nicole run off with their friends,” Melanie said. “It’s totally safe. Every teacher from school is
     out there.”
    “It’s not a question of my
letting
Noah run off with friends,” I said. “It’s a question of his not having any friends to run off with.”
    Melanie didn’t respond because someone was suddenly thrusting little paper tickets at her and demanding a hot dog. And then
     a woman was asking
me
for a hamburger “with no sesame seeds on the bun,” which had me completely stumped. Fortunately, Melanie overheard and interrupted
     what she was doing to lean over and explain that all the buns had sesame seeds.
    “My son doesn’t like the seeds,” the woman said. She was wearing a cropped leather jacket even though the sun was high in
     the sky and blazing hot. “We go through this every year. I don’t understand why you people insist on only having buns with
     seeds.”
    “Sorry,” said Melanie. “Do you want it without the bun?”
    “You can’t eat a hamburger without a bun. There’s no point.”
    “My son always eats burgers without buns,” I said. “He can’t eat wheat.”
    “Oh, poor thing,” she said with sudden sympathy. “I know just what that’s like. I went off wheat for a while and I had so
     much more energy, but it was just so hard to maintain. Don’t you think?”
    “He doesn’t have a choice,” I said. “It’s a medical thing.”
    “Mine too.”
    Sure it was. Some quack