Something in the Way (Something in the Way 1)

“Too bad you aren’t in charge of boys.” Manning stretched his long arm along the back of our chair, his thumb ghosting over my far shoulder. “You’d have no trouble getting them to do what you say.”

Tiffany actually blushed, which was rare. Meanwhile, my heart dropped a thousand miles. Why was he worried about her? Why did she miss him? They didn’t even care about each other. She took a sip from a red Solo cup I hadn’t noticed before.

“What is that?” I asked her.

“Special grapefruit punch.”

I looked in at the pink drink. “With alcohol?”

“Yep. Want some?”

Manning had turned away to talk to Gary. I took the cup from her and sniffed the rim. It didn’t smell like grapefruit. More than once, my dad had come home groaning that he needed a drink. I’d never really had the desire to get drunk, but Tiffany and her friends and mine all made it sound so glamorous. Like fun in a bottle. Much better than feeling like this, jealous of my own sister, invisible to the only man who’d ever seemed to see me.

Still, I wasn’t brave enough to drink it. Camp was no place to be reckless. I wasn’t sure where Tiffany had gotten the alcohol, but it definitely wasn’t allowed.

I went to hand it back when Manning’s arm flew over my head. He grabbed my wrist so fast, punch sloshed over the side onto my top. “Don’t drink that,” he said.

“I wasn’t going to.”

“Oh, come on,” Tiffany whispered. “One sip won’t kill her.”

He turned on Tiffany, keeping my arm firmly in his hand. “What are you doing?”

“What?” she asked. “Our parents aren’t around for once. I just want her to have some fun.”

“That’s your little sister. She looks up to you. If you tell her underage drinking is okay, she’ll believe you.”

My ears burned with embarrassment. I didn’t feel this childish when my parents scolded me. “I’m right here,” I said.

“If she gets caught drinking, you know what’ll happen?” he asked Tiffany. “Did you even think about that?”

She shrunk down. “No.”

Manning lowered his voice. “Gary will kick her out faster than she can apologize.” He looked at me. “He’ll call your parents to come get you. Tonight.”

Going home was the last thing I wanted. I tried pulling my hand back, but I couldn’t even move him. If he was trying to warn or scare me, his grip was having the opposite effect. My insides flurried as I realized the extent of his strength. I wondered if this was why Tiffany sometimes did things she wasn’t supposed to. If she thought this kind of attention was better than none at all.

Tiffany took her drink back. “Sorry, Lake. I’d die if you left me up here by myself for the week.”

Finally, Manning let me go to take the cup from Tiffany. “That goes for you, too. Where’d you even get this?”

“I have my ways.” She pouted. “What about later, when it’s just you and me?”

“No. And don’t bring it up again.”

I couldn’t handle this. If they were making plans to be alone, I wasn’t sure if it was better to know or pretend it wasn’t happening.

Manning tensed in his seat. “Is that the guy from the fair?” he asked.

Tiffany and I followed his line of sight to Corbin Swenson, who looked as tall and swoony as ever in a sweatshirt, jeans, and skate shoes. Corbin walked toward us, his hood pulled over his head, hands shoved in the hoodie’s front pocket.

“Corbin!” Gary said. “You made it.”

Corbin opened his arms. “You wanted a baseball all-star, here I am.”

“I didn’t know you’d be here,” Tiffany said. “You weren’t at any of the meetings.”

“Lake knew.” Corbin winked at me, and Tiffany and Manning looked over.

“I asked him to drive up for a day to play some ball tomorrow,” Gary said.

“Maybe teach these boys a few things,” Corbin added.

“What’s wrong with just throwing the ball around?” Manning asked.

“Nothing.” Corbin shrugged as he and Manning locked eyes. “But when you have access to an all-star, might as well take advantage. I came here as a kid. Same as Lake.”

It was a weird sensation to hear a Swenson say my name at all, but to have him do it in front of everyone made me giddy.

“So proud of you, man,” Gary said. “Take a seat.”

Corbin grabbed two chairs, and everyone but Manning scooted to open the circle for him. Maybe because of that, Corbin set both seats down on the other side of Manning. “Looks like you could use one of your own,” he said to me, since Tiffany and I were sharing.

“I’m fine where I am,” Tiffany replied, putting her hand on Manning’s knee.

“I was talking to Lake,” Corbin said.

With all eyes on me, including Manning’s burning stare, I went to sit between Manning and Corbin.

Corbin took his hood down, ruffling a hand through his honey-colored hair. “How’s your summer been?” he asked.