Read Taylor Made Owens for Free Online Page B

October Saturday afternoon after the game ended. He disregarded her, walking past her toward his house. “What, are you afraid of me?” He kept walking.
    Though continually disappointed, she didn’t give up. She would rollerblade occasionally for his benefit, but he didn’t seem to notice much. He
had
noticed, of course. Try as he might to hate her, she was just too exquisite to ignore for long.
    Getting desperate for his attention, Jennifer went to Kristen’s house one Saturday afternoon in early November and pulled out all the stops rollerblading for him. Kristen had gone to the mall with a friend. Jennifer dressed in skin-tight black leather pants and a snug black sweater. The contrast with her golden tresses was arresting. Armed for the conquest, she skated near the boys playing hockey and glided close to Robert, her spellbinding eyes fixed on him, her disarming beatific smile disarming his resolve to ignore her. The game and everything else in the universe faded into irrelevance as he stood there entranced by her.
    “Come on, Owens. Play the game!” said Jeremy, frustrated with his teammate standing around while the other team continued to play.
    Robert squared for a slap shot. “He shoots … crap,” he announced as the ball sailed over the net and down the road where Jennifer was rollerblading, exactly where he wanted it. Jeremy yelled at her to throw the ball, but she paid no heed.
    The ball came to rest on a sewer grate at the intersection. At this moment, Shaun Driscoll—that reckless teenage driver who, when he rocketed by, made all the parents in town think
Where are my children!
—hopped into his black half-ton truck and sped up Pioneer Drive. This was no trifling matter this day, for fate had contrived, or chance happened, to bring him and Jennifer to the same corner at the same instant.
    Robert got to the ball as the truck turned the corner down the street with tires squealing. It raced up the street toward the intersection. Jennifer decided that she would execute a jump right beside him. As she drew near, Robert stood staring at her, the ball at his feet. Lisa, who was sitting on the front step tittering at her niece’s devices, discerned something alarming out of the corner of her eye. While Jennifer accelerated in preparation for her jump, Lisa—who realized,
That truck’s going to hit her!
—screamed, “Jenny!” and swooned. At the same time, Robert took notice of the truck, which was speeding into the intersection.
    Jennifer, who couldn’t see the truck because three large blue spruce trees blocked her view of it as she approached the intersection, commenced her leap. The driver saw the girl at the last instant, too late to avoid a collision! He veered and stomped on the brakes, the tires smoking and making an eerie screech. Jeremy and his friends looked on in horror. Without thinking, for there was no time, Robert jumped into Jennifer’s path, perhaps feeling subconsciously he’d have better luck stopping her than the truck, and the pair slammed together. Her momentum carried the two toward the truck, but they ended up in a heap a couple of feet from the back wheels of the truck that had come to a belated stop.
    Seeing he missed the two, Shaun blared the horn before speeding off up the road.
    The collision rendered Robert unconscious and left Jennifer dazed, with a broken right arm, which had borne the brunt of their fall to the ground. She was crying in pain, wondering what had happened.
    Jeremy ran to help Jennifer and Robert. “Are you okay?” he asked Jennifer. She didn’t answer, and walked as if in a trance into the house, stepping over her prostrate aunt. Jeremy turned his attention to Robert who was only then coming to his senses.
    “What happened?” he asked Jeremy as he struggled to sit up. He put his left hand to his aching head.
    Jeremy helped him off the street, and sat him on the front lawn. “Jenny crashed into you. You jumped in her way. That truck would have hit