It Had to Be You Read online

  “Ritz crackers filled with peanut butter?” I suggested, scanning the shelves. There were so many choices. There had to be something here that he liked!

  “Peanut butter makes me throw up.”

  “It does not!” Megan said.

  “Does too!”

  “Megan, would you like some cookies?” I asked.

  “No, thank you.”

  Such an angel!

  “Pecan Sandies?” I asked the mini-demon.

  “I don’t want cookies! I WANT CEREAL!!!”

  Ah! We were back to the shouting. How I had missed it!

  “Knock it off!” Kyle warned sternly. “We are not buying cereal, Squirt! Emma offered to buy you some cookies and you turned her down. I don’t want to hear another word out of you. We’re here to buy groceries for Mom and Dad’s dinner and that’s it.”

  Obviously Tommy knew not to mess with Kyle because he didn’t say another word as we went from aisle to aisle.

  “I think we have everything we need,” I told Kyle. “We just have to get some fruit for the fruit salad and we’ll be all set.”

  After filling our cart with a carton of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and a bunch of green grapes, all that was left was the cantaloupe. I started squeezing them, looking for one that was firm, but not too firm, and reached for one at the exact same time as a little old lady who was also squeezing them.

  “Better let her have the cantaloupe,” Kyle warned her, pointing at me and shaking his head knowingly. “You don’t want to mess with her. I’ve seen her do battle over a shirt.”

  “YEAH!” Tommy shouted, choosing that moment to break his silence.

  I instantly dropped the cantaloupe I was holding.

  At that moment, I wanted to race out of the supermarket.

  Until I saw the teasing smile on Kyle’s face.

  He was just messing around with me.

  What a relief! At least, I thought.

  “If I were you, I wouldn’t be so quick to judge,” I sassed back, giving the little old lady a smile and handing her the cantaloupe I’d dropped back into the pile. “I’ve seen how guys get when the new Xboxes go on sale. Worse than girls!”

  After finding a cantaloupe, we paid for our groceries and headed back to Kyle’s house. Tommy and Megan were given a video to watch in the living room while I gave Kyle a lesson in Cooking 101.

  The menu was simple: roast chicken (just clean it and stick it in the oven), mashed potatoes (peel them, cut them, boil them for a long while, and then mash them with butter and milk), string beans (snap them, boil them for only two minutes, then add a dash of salt and pepper), crescent rolls (courtesy of Pillsbury!), and a fruit salad for dessert (just slice up the cantaloupe and throw it into a bowl with all the other fruit).

  While I was showing Kyle how it was all done, I filled him in on the teachers at North Marshall High, telling him which ones were the favorites and which ones weren’t. I also told him about all the after-school clubs, as well as where the local sport center and movie theaters were.

  “You’re not happy about having moved, are you?” I asked. I don’t know what made me ask that question, but suddenly Kyle had gotten quiet.

  He shrugged. “I wouldn’t say I’m unhappy. I just miss my friends, you know? Talking about school made me think about them. I thought we were going to be freshmen together and we’re not.”

  “You’ll make new friends.”

  “I know.”

  “Maybe we’ll be in some classes together,” I said.

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  “You’re going to like living here, Kyle,” I insisted, wanting to cheer him up, but not knowing what else to say. Suddenly there was an awkward silence and I hate awkward silences.

  I wiped my hands on a dish towel. “Well, it looks like you’re all set for dinner. All you have to do is take the chicken out at six o’clock. Then you can just heat up the mashed potatoes and string beans. The rolls are easy. Just pop them on a cookie sheet and stick them in the oven.”

  “Thanks for all your help, Emma. I really appreciate it. You make it all look so easy.”

  I tried not to blush but I could feel my cheeks turning red. “Anytime! If you want some more cooking lessons, let me know. And if there’s anything else I can do, you just have to ask me.”

  “Actually, there is.”

  “Really?”

  He’s going to say he wants to thank me for helping him out and ask me if I want to go to a movie. Yes, that’s it! We’re just going to go as friends, of course, but that doesn’t mean we can’t eventually become more than friends!

  “It’s kind of a favor.”

  I snapped back to reality. Favors didn’t involve sitting in the dark in a movie theater with a cute guy and a tub of buttered popcorn.

  “What kind of favor?”

  “Would you mind babysitting Megan and Tommy tonight? I want to give my folks a romantic evening alone. I figure I would serve them dinner and then clean up and they could have some time to themselves. They can’t if Tommy and Megan are around. Megan’s usually no hassle, but you’ve seen Tommy. He’s a handful.”

  That was putting it mildly!

  How could I say no? I couldn’t. And I was a babysitter. Although I wouldn’t think of charging Kyle!

  “I’d be happy to watch them. Free of charge. I’ll swing by at six?”

  “Great!”

  I had a feeling Tommy wasn’t going to think it was so great when he found out who he was going to be spending his evening with….

  Chapter Six

  “Bowling is fun, Tommy. You’d like it if you tried it.”

  “No! I don’t want to bowl.” Tommy folded his arms over his chest and glared at me stubbornly. “AND YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!!!”

  “Stop being such a baby,” Megan said as she threw her bowling ball down the alley.

  “I’M NOT A BABY! I’M A BIG BOY!”

  Is this what I had to look forward to when I was a mother twenty years from now? If so, staying single was starting to look pretty good!

  I had decided, rather than just bringing Megan and Tommy over to my house to watch a video, I would do something fun with them and take them bowling.

  When I rang the bell at Kyle’s house at six o’clock, Tommy was the one who opened the front door. As soon as he saw me, his eyes widened like huge saucers.

  “What do you want?”

  I loved how he could put so much contempt into one little word.

  I knelt down to Tommy’s level and gave him a big smile. “I’m going to babysit you and Megan tonight.”

  Within seconds, a look of horror washed over Tommy’s face.

  “OH NO, YOU’RE NOT!”

  And he slammed the door in my face.

  I rang the bell again.

  “GO AWAY!” he shouted. “WE DON’T WANT ANY!”

  I heard Kyle behind the door. “What’s going on, Squirt? Who’s at the door?”

  “Kyle, it’s me,” I called out. “Emma. Reporting for babysitting duty.”

  Kyle opened the front door and gave me a smile. “I think I can figure out what just happened.”

  “Tell her to go away!”

  “No can do, Squirt. Emma is going to watch you and Megan tonight while Mom and Dad have their anniversary dinner. I have to stay here and serve it.”

  Tommy opened his mouth and took a deep breath, preparing to let it all out in what I was sure would be a loud scream. But Kyle foiled him, putting a hand over his mouth.

  “Excuse us, Emma. Tommy and I need to have a man-to-man talk.”

  Kyle took Tommy off to one side and started whispering to him. Tommy kept shaking his head. He stamped his foot once or twice until finally, after Kyle gave him a disappointed look, I heard him say, “Okay, Kyle.”

  I don’t know what Kyle said to him, but a new-and-improved Tommy was returned to me. “Megan!” Kyle called out. “Emma is here.”

  Megan came running down the front stairs with a smile on her face
. At least she was glad to see me!

  “I thought we’d go bowling tonight,” I told Megan and Tommy. “Wouldn’t that be fun?”

  “I like bowling,” Megan said.

  Tommy remained silent.

  “Well, why don’t we head out?” I held a hand out to both Megan and Tommy. Megan took my hand but Tommy didn’t take mine. Instead, after looking at my hand like it was unwashed, he slipped his hand into Megan’s. Oooh, he really knew how to zing me!

  “Be good,” Kyle called out. “Remember, Santa’s always watching.”

  Aha! Santa! I’d have to remember that for future use!

  “If I finish up here early, maybe I’ll stop by the alley,” Kyle told me. “Otherwise I’ll see you when you bring them back.”

  “Okay,” I said, hoping that Kyle would be able to make it.

  As we walked to the bowling alley, Megan talked nonstop, telling me all about her dolls and toys and favorite books. I tried to talk to Tommy, asking him what his favorite toys and books were, but he ignored me. Well, at least silence was better than screaming.

  Unfortunately, the silence didn’t last very long.

  The problems started again at the alley after we’d gotten to our lane and bumpers were put in so the balls wouldn’t go into the gutters. I figured Megan and Tommy would have more fun this way and they’d get to hit pins.

  I helped Megan put on her bowling shoes and then turned to Tommy, who tucked his legs under himself.

  “I’m not putting on those shoes,” he said, making a face. “They smell.”

  I stuck my nose into a shoe. Okay, so he had a point. But he couldn’t bowl unless he wore the shoes, I explained to him. He didn’t want to hear it.

  “You know, Tommy,” I said, shaking my head sadly, “I don’t think Santa would be happy if he knew you were breaking the rules at the bowling alley.”

  Instantly, Tommy’s legs came out from under him, his sneakers came off, and the bowling shoes went on.

  That didn’t mean he was going to bowl, of course.

  Resulting in the latest scream-fest.

  I didn’t want the little guy to be miserable all night. What could I do to make him happy? Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the bright lights of the bowling alley’s concession stand.

  “Would you like an ice-cream cone?” I asked.

  Tommy slowly nodded his head.

  At last. Success!

  “What kind do you want?”

  “A vanilla-and-chocolate-swirl cone with sprinkles.”

  “One vanilla-and-chocolate-swirl cone with sprinkles. And what would you like, Megan?”

  “Just plain vanilla in a cup, please,” she said as she threw another ball down the alley. She knocked down nine pins and started jumping up and down excitedly.

  As I gave my order to the guy behind the counter (who was the same age as me—I recognized him from school and knew he hung out with the skateboarders), I was able to keep my eye on Tommy and Megan since the concession stand was so close to where we were bowling. First he gave me Megan’s cup of vanilla, which I brought over to her.

  “Thank you,” she said, digging into it with her spoon.

  Then I went back for Tommy’s vanilla-and-chocolate-swirl cone with sprinkles.

  “Here you go!” I said proudly, holding out the cone.

  “What’s that?” he asked, staring at the cone with a look of disbelief.

  “Your ice-cream cone.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not eating that!”

  “B-B-But it’s what you wanted,” I sputtered.

  “No, it isn’t.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “No, it isn’t,” he stubbornly insisted.

  “Tommy, you said you wanted a vanilla-and-chocolate-swirl cone with sprinkles,” I explained. “Right?”

  “Tommy doesn’t like chocolate sprinkles,” Megan volunteered. “He only likes rainbow sprinkles.”

  I looked at the ice-cream cone. It was covered with chocolate sprinkles.

  “Chocolate sprinkles are dead ants,” Tommy said. “I don’t eat ants!”

  “But they’re not ants,” I tried to explain. “They’re little bits of chocolate. They just look like ants.”

  Tommy tucked in his upper lip and stuck out his lower one. Nothing would be getting into that mouth of his.

  I looked back and forth between Tommy and Megan. Couldn’t one of them have explained the chocolate-versus rainbow-sprinkle rule before I placed the order?

  I went back to the counter. “Could I exchange this cone for one with rainbow sprinkles?”

  “Yeah, right,” the guy laughed, not bothering to look up from the skateboarding magazine he was flipping through. “Ice cream is nonreturnable.”

  Wise guy!

  Before ordering another cone, I double-checked with Tommy to make sure I was getting exactly what he wanted—that there was no sugar-cone versus wafer-cone rule that I was unaware of.

  “Thank you,” he said, taking a bite out of his cone after I’d handed it to him.

  Finally, I’d done something right in his eyes!

  Now what was I going to do with this other cone? I hated chocolate ice cream but I didn’t want to throw the cone out. Then I saw Aaron in the bowling alley’s video arcade with Michael. Luckily, Aaron will eat anything.

  “Aaron!” I called out. “Aaron!”

  My brother came over to our lane. “What do you want?” he asked.

  I offered my brother the ice-cream cone.

  “What’s wrong with it?” he asked suspiciously.

  “There’s nothing wrong with it,” I huffed, shoving it into his hand. “Tommy doesn’t like chocolate sprinkles.”

  “Who’s Tommy?” he asked, opening his mouth wide and inhaling half the cone in one bite, which caused Tommy’s mouth to drop open. And promptly want to try the same thing with his cone. Of course, his cone couldn’t fit into his tiny mouth and a second later his entire lower face was smeared with vanilla-and-chocolate ice cream and sprinkles.

  I pointed to Tommy and Megan as I began cleaning Tommy’s face with a napkin. Naturally he started squirming like an eel and wouldn’t stand still. “Our new next-door neighbors. I’m babysitting them tonight for their older brother, Kyle.”

  “Aren’t you going to throw a ball, Emma?” Megan asked.

  I will be the first to admit that I’m not the world’s best bowler. No matter how hard I try, the ball never goes where I want it to. If I throw it to the left, it goes to the right. If I throw it to the right, it goes to the left. If I try to throw a straight ball, it curves. Whenever I bowl, my score is pathetically low, as opposed to my brothers, who are always breaking 200. I’m lucky if my score breaks 100. Even Caitlyn is a better bowler than me!

  “I can give you some pointers if you want,” Aaron offered.

  “Thanks, but we’re just messing around.”

  Aaron shrugged. “Suit yourself,” he said, before going back to Michael.

  Megan and I played two games (I bowled a 90 and a 75 compared to Megan’s 50 and 73. I was on pins and needles our second game. I didn’t even want to think how my brothers would tease me if I had been beaten by a seven-year-old!) while Tommy sat watching us, kicking his feet against the floor. Every so often I’d ask him if he wanted to play and every time he said no.

  We had just started our third game when Kyle arrived at the alley.

  “Kyle!” Tommy and Megan exclaimed happily, running to give him a hug.

  Watching Tommy and Megan hug their older brother, I wondered what it would be like to hug him.

  Wait a second!

  Where had that thought suddenly come from?

  Well, Kyle certainly was huggable. There was no denying that.

  And ever since Kyle had moved next door, I found myself thinking of him more and more.

  Before I could give it some extra thought, though, Kyle said, “I saw the way you throw your ball.”

  “And?” I put a hand on my hip and gave him a challengi
ng look. “Think you can do any better?”

  “I think I can.”

  Kyle found a ball that fit. Then he threw it down the alley and got a strike, sending all the pins flying, which caused Tommy to start hooting and hollering. I’d somehow gotten a strike the last game but Tommy hadn’t applauded my efforts. Hmph!

  “Anyone can become a better bowler,” Kyle said. “It’s just a matter of concentration. See those arrows on the lane?”

  “What arrows?”

  “Those,” Kyle said, pointing them out to me.

  “Are they important?”

  Kyle stood behind me and slipped my fingers into my ball. Then he lifted my arm up and back in a straight line. “You need to keep your arm straight when you throw your ball. You twist your wrist, which is why your straight ball is never straight. Also, and this is very important, if you focus on a particular arrow when you throw the ball, the ball will go where you want after you release it.”

  I tried to pay attention to everything Kyle was telling me but I was unable to.

  The only thing I was able to focus on was having Kyle so close!

  He smelled like soap and summer and coconut and cologne all wrapped up together.

  Like most of my friends, I hadn’t really started dating yet. But I was definitely wondering what it would be like to have a boyfriend now. I did have some crushes in junior high but that was junior high! Guys in junior high are so immature. They’re more concerned about watching TV and playing video games. But Kyle was different. He seemed older. More confident. Thoughtful, as evidenced by the dinner he’d made for his parents.

  And Tommy and Megan both adored him.

  Especially Tommy, who had been on his best behavior since Kyle’s arrival and was now asking him to show him how to throw a bowling ball.

  “Didn’t Emma show you, Squirt?”

  “Nope,” Tommy said, jamming his fingers into a ball that was way too big for his tiny fingers.

  Could someone that young be that devious? He wasn’t lying but then again, he wasn’t exactly telling the truth! How could I show him when he’d refused to let me?

  “Let me finish showing Emma how to throw her ball and then I’ll show you. Okay?”

  Tommy gave Kyle an angelic smile. “Okay.”