mysteriously acquire more balls than others? Don’t worry. I fixed it. They each have seven.”
“I’m gonna get popcorn,” I said. “Anyone want anything?”
“No. But you gotta do me a favor,” he said.
“What?” Josie asked. “I’ll do it while Stell gets the popcorn.”
“You have to go in the bathroom and wash your hands.”
“They aren’t dirty,” she said.
He held one hand in front of my nose and the other in front of Josie’s. “Smell.”
We did.
“This place has incredible soap. I’m dying to know if it’s the same in the girls’ room. This is a news story in the making. A comparison of soap up and down the boardwalk. And right now, I gotta tell you, this place is in the lead.” He smelled his hands again.
Josie said, “I’ll admit. That’s some nice-smelling soap, but I don’t know if the topic has news potential.”
“Just do me a favor and check the soap,” Dario said. “I know what’s news.”
I went for the popcorn and looked for TJ. Turned out that a red GUARD T-shirt was in front of me in line.
I cleared my throat, and TJ turned around and said, “Hey. You’re late.”
“We didn’t say a time, and I had this tournament thing—”
“Tennis tournament?”
“No. Never mind,” I said.
It was his turn to order. He said, “I’ll have a Coke and”—he turned to me—“what do you want?”
“Popcorn,” I said.
He bought it and gave it to me. Maybe in an effort to be cute, he bent his head over the bag and took a popped corn into his mouth. “Buttery and salty,” he said. He’d succeeded, because it was cute.
“Popcorn usually is,” I said. “Thanks for this.” Then I asked, “You gonna play a few rounds with us?”
He looked at his watch. “Man, I’d love to, but I gotta go and take care of something. How long will you be here? I could come back.”
I resisted the urge to ask him about where he was going tonight. Is it the same as last night? And why doesn’t he tell me what he’s doing? “We have to be home at ten forty-five.”
“Okay. Maybe I’ll see you later.”
“I don’t know. It sounds like your social schedule is pretty full this summer,” I said playfully.
“Are you mad? Is Stella Higley a little upset that I have other plans without her?” he teased back. “Are you starting to like me?”
“What? No. Don’t go getting a big head. It’s nothing like that.”
“Oh, right,” he said, but I don’t know that he believed me. “Look, this thing I have to do… it’s only for this week. It’s a little side job that’s important. It’ll be over soon, and then… maybe we can hang out more?”
Then he leaned his head into the popcorn bag again, even though he had a free hand, and bit another corn. “Yum.” He lifted his brows up and down. “Have fun, and if I don’t see you tonight, come by the shack tomorrow.”
I watched him leave the arcade. Before he was out of sight, he turned and mouthed to me, I like you, too.
I couldn’t hold back a big smile.
It was so nice to know what he felt about me. I still kind of wished Pete had been like that. I was so mad at him, because it’d felt like he’d been lying to me, but he really never had, I guess.
I liked the idea of TJ hanging out with me for the rest of the summer. But what’s with this secret weeklong job?
I rejoined Josie and Dario at the Skee-Ball machines. Dario had already wrapped himself in tickets like a mummy, and Josie had her hand in front of his nose.
“Looks like I missed all the fun.” I held the popcorn out for them.
Josie said, “He was right about the soap.”
I smelled her hand.
Dario said, “And I think something’s wrong with this machine, because it’s spitting out tickets like crazy. If I keep this up, I’ll have enough for a Tootsie Roll and a piece of gum.”
“Big score,” I said. We had all agreed that playing Skee-Ball was more fun than the prizes. We’d grown out of prizes a long time ago.
I said to Josie, “We need to go back under the boardwalk.”
She began to ask, “Wh—”
She stopped talking when she saw what Rodney was doing.
Twenty-Three Stella
Police Station
June 25 (Continued)
Santoro stands up and walks around the table. He stretches one arm across his chest and pulls it with the other, then does the same with the other side. “What was Rodney up to?”
“It seemed crazy at the