The Sweetgum Ladies Knit for Love - By Beth Pattillo Page 0,19

he may be the first freshman to start as quarterback here in, like… forever.”

Hannah had dried her hands, thrown away the paper towel, and refused to cry. Josh would figure out the score soon enough, now that he was a jock. She should save herself the pain of having him be the one to pass her in the hallway without speaking.

“If I’m tardy again, I get detention.” She stepped backward, trying to escape the compulsion to move closer to him. “Later.”

“Hannah.” He caught up with her in two steps. His legs were a lot longer than they used to be. “Stop.”

Several seniors looked their way. She couldn’t let him make a scene. Not here.

“Okay, okay.” She turned to face him. “What do you want?”

He frowned. “I thought I wanted to talk to my friend. What’s your problem?”

She swallowed. How could Josh have possibly become a jock? But he was. And he was apparently determined to treat her as if he’d never left. As if they still caught crawdads together or traded licks of their Popsicles.

She swallowed again. “I don’t have a problem.”

His shoulders relaxed. She hadn’t realized how tense he was until that moment.

“You do a pretty good impression of it.” He smiled. “So what’s up with Old Lady Budge, anyway? Is she always so harsh?”

Hannah couldn’t help smiling. His dimples really were incredible.

“At least we don’t have to finish that stupid play by tomorrow,” she said. “She’s being pretty generous giving us a whole week to read the book. I heard her class last year had to read 1984 in, like, three days.”

He shifted his books from one arm to the other, and Hannah’s eyes were drawn to his arms. Muscles. Josh with muscles. The dimples might be cute, but muscles were—

“What do you have last period?” he asked.

“American history.” She nodded at the pile of books in her arms. Mr. Barnes, her teacher, believed in lots of supplemental reading. Lots and lots of supplemental reading.

“Those look heavy. I’ll take ’em.” Josh reached out for her books and stacked them on top of his.

Her knees quivered, and Hannah locked them with determination. “You don’t have to—” But he had already started off down the hall, and she had no choice but to follow him.

“Am I going the right way?” He turned back to look at her. She hurried to catch up.

“Um, yeah.” She could feel other kids looking at them and saw them start to whisper. By the end of the day, it would be all over school. The new jock had been spotted carrying loser Hannah Simmons’s books. “You really don’t need to do that, Josh. Besides, don’t you have CA this period?” All the jocks signed up for competitive athletics as the last class of the day so they could get an early start on their workouts or practices or whatever they called them. “The gym is the other direction.”

He shrugged. “They won’t care if I’m a little late.”

Hannah paled. Of course they wouldn’t. The other players, even the coaches, would bow down to a star athlete like Josh. If she’d had any doubt before about how far apart they were now, it was definitely, totally gone.

“Josh, just give me my books back.” The words came out harsher than she’d intended.

“Were you always so hard to be nice to?” He frowned and dumped her books back in her arms. “Here. Sorry for trying to help.”

“Josh—” But it was too late. He was already moving away from her. Ten yards down the hall, he ran into some other football players headed toward the gym. They fell into step, and all Hannah could do was watch them walk away. Broad shoulders and confidence. Girls watching them as they passed.

It was better this way, she told herself. Safer. She couldn’t afford to hope for what she couldn’t have. And that thought hurt more than the sight of Josh and his crew stopping at Courtney’s locker to flirt with her and her pompom girlfriends.

Camille settled into a pew halfway back in the sanctuary of the Sweetgum Christian Church and set her faux Kate Spade handbag on the cushion next to her. She tugged the hem of her skirt. Somehow it felt wrong for her knees to show in church. Soft music emanated from the old pipe organ, and she took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Maybe here, in a holy place, she could find the peace that had eluded her in the days since her mother’s death. And