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responsibility.
    “How did you meet them?”
    We navigated our way through the crowd and I kept an eye out for my friends. “I met Kennedy at the Seabag. She works there on and off when she’s not in the city doing her modeling jobs. She’s been friends with Brian for years. They are pretty much a packaged deal.”
    It was a bit overwhelming sometimes, to be perfectly honest. They had a lot of inside jokes, and often had entire conversations with just a few words. I’d had a hard time keeping up at first, and still struggled occasionally. But they were also an endless source of entertainment.  I wasn’t surprised when we found them just west of the beer tent, splashing in a fountain.
    “Should they be doing that?” Nolan asked uncertainly.
    “Probably not, but that’s never stopped them.” This was actually pretty mild behavior for them. “They’re really into shock value.”
    “Jordyn!” Kennedy waved dramatically when she spotted us. “Come in! The water is just right.”
    “I’m good, thanks.” My face grew hot as the crowd around the fountain all turned to look at me. I said to Nolan, “Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to track them down.”
    Kennedy splashed her way out of the fountain and came charging over, shoes in hand. “You missed all the fun,” she complained. “And what are you holding?”
    “Oh, this?” I proudly held up the baseball. “Just the winning pitch from the one and only Nolan Meyers.”
    “You guys played baseball?” Her forehead wrinkled in confusion as she turned to Nolan. “I thought you were still recovering from that horrible injury? Didn’t you almost die?”
    My eyes widened in surprise as I looked at Nolan. He carefully avoided eye contact and I knew this wasn’t the place to confront him about it so I changed the subject. “Does Brian realize that he’s alone in the fountain now?”
    “Brian prefers to be the star,” Kennedy said, keeping a careful eye on Nolan. “He’ll come out when he’s had his fill of attention.”
    “Are you alright?” I asked Nolan quietly. His face had gone hard.
    “I’m not feeling so well, actually.” He gave me an apologetic look. “Would you hate me terribly if I took off?”
    “No, of course not.” I wouldn’t hate him, but I sure was suspicious. “Kennedy will give me a ride home.”
    Nolan nodded. “I’m really sorry. I’ll make it up to you on our second date.”
    “Sounds good.”
    He backed away slowly with his hands still tucked into his pockets. I watched him until he disappeared into the crowd.
    “Did you scare him away?” Brian had finally gotten enough attention and was out of the fountain. His clothes were soaked through and water dripped everywhere.
    “He was intimidated by my awesome friends,” I said, shaking my head as Brian twisted his shirt to squeeze water out of it. “He said he felt inadequate in comparison.”
    “Rightly so.” Brian pushed his shoulders back and stood up straight. “No one stands a chance against a specimen like this.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Are we done here? I’m tired.”
    “Tired? More likely you are bummed you’re going home alone.” Kennedy winked playfully. “At least you’ve got that baseball to keep you company in bed tonight.”
    “Funny.” But it wasn’t funny at all. Kennedy was at least a little right. Maybe I hadn’t been expecting to sleep with Nolan tonight, but I definitely hadn’t been expecting our date to end so abruptly.
    “If you prefer, I can keep you company.” Brian was in rare form tonight.
    “Thanks for the offer, but I’ll be just fine on my own.” At least I was used to that.
    Because of the shortened date, I was home well before bedtime which meant I had some time to catch up on bad television. The first thing I did was change into an oversized cotton t-shirt, my typical lounge attire. Then I dug the remote control out from between the couch cushions.
    Sports Uncovered was just beginning, and I settled on the couch with