Jenny’s perfect world, the entire family would be together this afternoon for Ricky’s game. But Connor was with the Reed family, shopping for sheet music for the upcoming CKT auditions, and her next three boys were working out with their soccer team, getting ready for the summer tournaments. For now it was just her and Bailey.
“Is Dad bringing Cody?” Bailey lowered her phone and leaned against Jenny’s shoulder. “I miss him now that weight lifting’s started.”
“I think so.” Jenny put her arm around Bailey’s shoulders. She and Jim had watched with caution the friendship growing between Bailey and Cody Coleman. He’d been living with them for nearly a year, but last November he’d nearly killed himself through alcohol poisoning. He was still attending his rehab classes, and he’d made tremendous progress in every area of his life—his grades, his social decisions, and his commitment to sports. His turnaround had been so complete that he might even have the chance to play college football after all—at a junior college in Indianapolis.
But he wasn’t the guy for Bailey, at least not the way Jenny and Jim saw things.
Bailey was texting again, her fingers flying over the keypad on her flip phone. Jenny was about to ask who she was chatting with when Ashley and Landon reached the bleachers and took their seats.
“Good.” Ashley sighed and situated herself on a thick blanket. “We didn’t miss anything.”
Landon lifted little Devin from the stroller and took the seat beside his wife. “I’m trying to schedule my shifts at the firehouse around the games.” He smiled at Jenny. “Cole doesn’t think he can hit the ball if I’m not here.”
The teams were each gathered around their coaches, standing outside their respective dugouts, listening to whatever last-minute advice might make a difference in the game. The Reds were in the field first, and the fans around Jenny and Bailey clapped and cheered.
“Let’s go, Reds!” Jenny stood and raised her voice. “Give it your best, guys!” She noticed that Ashley stayed seated, her clapping more subdued than it had been during basketball season.
Landon gave Jenny a wry look. “I’ve toned her down a little.”
“I can see that.” Jenny sat back on the bleachers. “Better to start small in these things.”
Ashley and Landon laughed and turned their attention to finding a bottle for Devin.
Bailey was still texting. “Makes me so mad,” she muttered. “How stupid can you be?”
“Something wrong?” Jenny leaned closer to her daughter. She couldn’t read the text window in Bailey’s phone, but she didn’t need to. Bailey shared everything with her. Especially now that Bryan Smythe was no longer in her life.
“Marissa.” Bailey hit the Send button and snapped her phone shut. “She went to that clinic by the university, the one that gives out free birth control pills.”
“Marissa Young?” Jenny felt the shock to her core. Marissa and Bailey had grown up together, friends since their first day of Sunday school at Bloomington Community Church. They’d been inseparable until Bailey started doing theater with CKT her freshman year. At that time, Marissa had played volleyball and run track. But this year she’d dropped out of both sports—at least that’s what her mother had said when they’d run into each other a month ago.
Bailey ran her fingers through her bangs. Their conversation was quiet enough that even Ashley and Landon couldn’t hear them. “She’s dating this college guy, someone she met through Facebook.”
“I thought Facebook was just for college kids.” Jenny knew about the Web site, same as she knew about MySpace. Lots of Bailey’s friends had gotten in trouble one way or another from having profiles on MySpace.
“Not anymore. Now she’s got this college boyfriend, and it isn’t good.”
Jenny winced. “She wants birth control?”
“She does now. The guy talked her into sleeping with him last