Page 57 of Falling Into You

“Before you say anything, let me get this out,” she said, lifting a hand. “We need you at regionals tomorrow. We cannothave a repeat of what happened at the halftime show. This squad has worked too hard and too long, and I am so proud of our routine. We actually have a shot at winning. I’m not going to take that away from them; are you?”

Jacob stepped fully onto the porch, closed the door behind him, and opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off again.

“So I’m here to tell you, you can do both. You can compete at regionalsandplay in the soccer game.”

Jacob tilted his head, looking at her like she might have actually lost her mind.

“Look.” She took out her phone and opened the route she’d saved between the community college and Bergen High. She turned the screen to face Jacob, and he glanced downat it. “Regionals should definitely be over by seven o’clock, if not earlier. And according to this it’s less than an hour to get to Bergen. If we leave right after the trophy ceremony, we can get you there before the first whistle. All I’m asking you to do is show up for the squad this one last time, and then you can go back to mocking us with Tucker and the rest of your little soccer buddies.”

She put the phone back into her pocket and looked up at him expectantly. He stared back at her. And stared. And stared. Rory held her breath. The wind swirled, and the candles in the jack-o’-lanterns along the porch flickered.

“Well? Aren’t you going to say something?” she prompted.

“I wasn’t sure if you were going to let me,” he replied.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, go. Now it’s your turn. Speak.”

“First of all, I would have cheered with you all today if you had let me,” he said, leaning one hand on the doorjamb just above his head, which only made his arm muscles more pronounced. “You’re the one who turned me away.”

“I know. I was wrong,” she told him, tearing her gaze away from his triceps and looking him in the eye. “I’m... I’m sorry.”

“Okay, and secondly... when did you figure all of this out? And why?” he asked, gesturing at the pocket where she’d stashed her phone.

“Because I didn’t want you to have to give up soccer for cheerleading! Or cheerleading for soccer,” Rory said, lifting her shoulders. “It all just seemed so arbitrary. So I showedthis to Coach Fitz yesterday morning, and he agreed that if you felt like you could handle it all, you should rejoin the soccer team and play in the Bergen game.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You talked to Coach Fitz?” he asked. “Is that why I got my jersey back?”

“He didn’t tell you?”

“No! He had Tucker and Kai tell me.” Jacob’s eyes went wide as if he’d just realized something important. “And of course they didn’t tell me about being able to do both. They made it pretty clear I only had one choice. They told me I’d be off the soccer team permanently if I didn’t choose them.”

Rory’s face flushed in irritation. She wasn’t sure why she was surprised at new evidence of Tucker being a selfish jerk, but she was. It was hard to believe that their first date had been exactly one year ago, at her sophomore homecoming dance. He’d seemed like such a dream at the time. A popular, fun, handsome junior. She could hardly believe he’d asked her, of all people, to go to one of the biggest events of the year with him. And today she’d almost pushed him off an elevated platform onto a muddy football field.

“Rory... why aren’t you at the dance?” Jacob asked, as if reading her thoughts.

“Oh, uh... I didn’t really feel like going without a date. And I don’t have a ticket, actually. Tucker bought them,” she said, the blush in her cheeks deepening as she looked down at her feet.

“But I thought you and Tucker ...”

She pulled a face and looked up at him. “That me and Tucker what?”

“Got back together?” he asked, his eyebrows raised.

Rory cracked up laughing. “Hardly.”

He still looked confused. “But you won king and queen. He kissed you in front of the entire school. I was there.”

“Yeah, and then I shoved him off me and handed the crown back.” She shook her head. “Did you somehow miss that part?”

She watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down. “I kind of bailed during the kissing part.”

Rory laughed again. She couldn’t help it. There were all these emotions swirling inside her. Emotions like relief and hope and glee. She pulled her phone out and opened TikTok. “Half the school has posted this. Are you living under a rock?”

She handed him her phone and pressed her lips together as he watched the video of her shoving Tucker off of her, yelling at him, and then giving her quick speech renouncing the crown. Jacob covered his mouth with his free hand. His eyes sparkled.

“That is epic. Can I watch it again?”

“Knock yourself out,” she told him.