Me & Timothy Cooper by Suzanne D. Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

stared at me. And I stared at Tim’s back as he exited the room.
    I couldn’t go after him, obviously. Brianne shouldn’t go after him. I was, after all, his girlfriend so how would that look? And Eric d idn’t attempt to go after him. So w e sat there as the youth pastor dis missed and kids filed out. When Tim returned, h e seemed better, resolved.
    “Let’s go,” he said to me. He made no attempt to explain anything to Brianne, which made me feel kinda bad, but probably he didn’t want to talk about it. He helped me to my feet, and we headed for his car.
    The moon was at about half - mast, enough to make the world dark yet provide a breath of light. It cast strange shapes on the hood of his car. He wasn’t speaking, so I wasn’t either. Until we got to the park and he shut the car off.
    “I need to tell you,” he said.
    Tell me about Justin. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it. It would be awful no matter how he phrased it. I kept my mouth shut.
    “He was ten. Loved to play baseball. Was good at it actually. Mom signed him up for Little League, and we’d go to every game. They were playing the Miners, a team from across town, and the Miners had a fierce reputation.” He rubbed his arm absentmindedly.
    “Justin had gone on all day about how this year they’d finally beat them. ‘We’ll show them,’ and all that, so he was pretty pumped when we got there. I don’t know, but I’ve always wondered if that made him careless. If … if it could have been prevented.”
    I reached across and took his hand in mine. He looked at me, his eyes so sad, and my heart broke in two.
    “It was the middle of the inning, and he went up to bat. Mom was cheering. I was cheering. He batted left-handed, so he was standing opposite the others and couldn’t see us. But I’m sure he could hear. We were so loud. The pitcher, a f ellow twice Justin’s size, wound up the pitch, and I could see it in his eye. He was going to make this a good one, really sling it over the plate and try to get him out. He pulled back his arm and tossed the ball. No one knows how it happened. All Justin did was swing, but as he did, his helmet popped off. Flew right up in the air and distracted him. So much so, he stepped forward, right into the path of the ball.”
    I listened to my own breaths race faster and faster. I didn’t want to hear this. I didn’t. But he had to tell it. I braced myself.
    “The ball hit him square in the head. Killed him instantly.” He glanced away. “It was determined after that the helmet wasn’t put on correctly.”
    His voice was bitter. “ Mom had to tell Dad, who was far away, and he had to fly all the way home to bury his son.”
    I licked my lips. “I’m sorry.” Which sounded really rotten given the size of what he’d just told me.
    “Thanks.” He turned to me. “I’ve never told anybody that.”
    “So wh - why me?”
    “Come here.” He tugged me across the vinyl seats to his side, and I buried my head in his shoulder. He didn’t speak for several minutes, but ran his thumb back and forth over my hand. “Is it crazy that I like you so much?” he asked.
    “No crazier than me liking you so much.” I raised my face to his, and he smiled at me.
    “You are crazy, but I like you that way.” He lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me gently.
    My insides went all swirly.

CHAPTER 10
     
    “You sure I have to do this?” I asked. But he was grinning again. He’d make me. I pulled the towel tighter about my body.
    Me swim with Timothy Cooper? We’d made a deal, and I had to keep my part of it. He did wait until Saturday though. Thursday and Friday were boring, old school. We watched TV in the evenings and talked. I felt like I knew all there was to know about him now.
    And I admitted my dad was not really my dad. Well, he was. He’d raised me, and I loved him like my dad. But he married my mom when she was expecting, my real dad having run out on her . She’d never seen him again after