It's All in Your Mind by Ann Herrick Read Free Book Online Page B

would've been nice to picnic under one of the huge maple trees.
    I was about to round up the boys, when I heard a roaring din, and what sounded like my name. The roaring stopped, but I heard my name again, louder this time. I looked around, then took in a quick, sharp breath. It was Nolan! He was walking away from his motorcycle, carrying a flat box perched on one hand.
    "Vija!" Nolan presented the box to me, with a sweeping bow. "For you."
    "It's a ... a pizza!" I was dizzy with glee and surprise.
    "Pepperoni. I hope that's okay."
    "It's more than okay—it's really cool. How ... where ...?"
    "You said you'd be taking the boys to the playground at the park. I found the park easy enough, but I had to keep asking people if they'd seen you. Of course, most everyone had noticed you and the three boys, so they pointed me in the right direction. They couldn't believe it when I told them I was bringing you lunch! They said how lucky you were."
    "Nolan, this is so nice. We can get a picnic table under one of the trees." By now Brendan, Daniel, and Stephan had come running to see what was going on. "Look boys, pizza for lunch!"
    Three cries of, "Yipee!"
    "You guys go get settled at the table over there." I pointed to one under the biggest, shadiest tree in the park.
    "It was really great," Nolan said. "Everyone kept saying how nice of me it was to do this!"
    Funny, but I felt the teeniest, tiniest flutter in my stomach. I couldn't figure out why. Nolan bringing me pizza was a wonderful surprise. People thought he was wonderful for doing so. The flutter was probably just because I was hungry.
    As I started toward the picnic table, Nolan swept the pizza box out of my hands. "I'll carry that for you."
    "Thank you." I let out a happy sigh.
    When we got to the table, Nolan placed the box in the center and opened it with a flourish. The boys oohed and aahed and licked their lips. "Oh," said Nolan, "I almost forgot." He pulled a small stack of paper napkins out of his back pocket and handed them to me. "Here you go. Enjoy your pizza."
    "Oh, but ... you're staying, aren't you?"
    "You're babysitting. I don't want to bother you while you're working."
    "B-but ... it's okay."
    "No. I have a ton of stuff I need to do this afternoon." He leaned over and whispered in my hair, "Talk to you later." Then he stood up straight and addressed the boys. "Enjoy the pizza, guys!"
    They nodded and uttered their muffled thanks, as all of them already had started on a slice.
    With that, Nolan trotted back to his motorcycle and roared off.
    "This is delicious!" Brendan exclaimed. "Your friend is so boss."
    "Yeah," Daniel and Stephan chimed in. "He's great!"
    Just as I picked up a slice of pizza and took a bite, a woman pushing a stroller stopped and said to me, "Oh, you're the young lady who got the pizza from that nice young man! He's so thoughtful. You're very lucky."
    I quickly chewed and swallowed the pizza. There was that funny flutter in my stomach again. Why did it bother me that such a fuss was made about how nice Nolan was? That was silly of me, so all I said was, "Yes. Yes, I'm very lucky."
    By the time we'd polished off the pizza, three other people strolled by who'd help ed Nolan find me, and they all told me either how wonderful it was that Nolan had brought me a pizza, or how lucky I was, or both. He must have told everyone what he was doing! It was amazing. I'd never even had a guy like me before, and now I had one tracking me down and bringing me pizza in the park. I wish he'd stayed to have lunch with us.  Still, I really was lucky to have someone deliver food to me like that.
    Refueled from lunch, the boys had the energy to tear around the playground for a couple more hours. Then even tually they started to droop, so we went back to their house, where Stephan took a nap and Brendan and Daniel played quietly. That gave me a chance to do a little dusting and vacuuming for Mrs. Kukk, something I knew she'd appreciate.
    I also practiced my speech