Baumgartner Generations: Henry Read Online Free PDF Page A

football…” Henry’s arm tightened around her as they both tried to make
themselves as small as possible while a man and his son squeezed by.”Why did
you come?”
    Libby didn’t
say anything for a minute and he wondered if she was going to answer at all
when she finally changed the subject and asked, “So, you play hockey?”
    “Uh-huh.” In
his pocket, Henry’s phone went off for the third time. He’d put it on vibrate,
but it still startled them. He ignored it anyway.
    She lifted
her head and he liked how close she was, how her breath smelled like the
cinnamon Trident gum she had been chewing on their walk to the stadium. “Think
I could come watch a practice?”
    “You like
hockey?” She hated football and liked hockey. It had to be a sign.
    “Oh I love
hockey,” she agreed, snuggling closer again. “I just wish I could afford season
tickets.”
    “I get two free
tickets for every home game. You can have them if you want. Unless my parents
are coming or something. Mostly they can’t make the games. It’s too far.”
    “I’d like
that.” He thought he heard a smile in her voice. The stadium was on its feet
now, ready to welcome the home team, but they both stayed put. “So what’s your
major, Henry?”
    He snorted. “Hockey.”
    “Are you
good enough to play pro?”
    “I don’t
know.” He shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant. The dream of becoming a
professional hockey player was so enormous for him, it was unspeakable. “Maybe.”
Now he was desperate to change the subject. “So you didn’t always want to be a
librarian?”
    “No, I
wanted to be an investigative journalist.” Libby clapped her mittened hands as
the team burst out onto the field, but Henry didn’t take his arm from around
her to do the same.
    “What
happened to that plan?” He was far more interested in their conversation than
the upcoming game. Damn, there went his phone again. He jammed his hand into
his pocket to silence the vibration.
    She
shrugged, leaning forward in her seat now to see, and he didn’t like it when
she moved too far away. “Well, for one thing, newspapers are disappearing.”
    “There’s
always TV.”
    She
mock-shuddered. “I couldn’t do TV news.”
    “Why not?
You’re gorgeous. You’d make a great news anchor.” It was true. Of course, she
could have made a great anything in that regard—model, actress, whatever.
Although Henry thought it would be a waste of her real talents, he also
believed someone should bask in her beauty. He selfishly thought it should be
him.
    “Well thanks
for the compliment, but I get tongue tied.” Libby pulled out her cell phone and
clicked the camera on, taking a picture of the field. “There, now we can show
Dean proof we were here.”
    “I bet you
could overcome it,” Henry encouraged.
    She made a
goofy face at him, sticking out her tongue and crossing her eyes. It made him
laugh. “You haven’t seen me. I freeze up. I stutter. It isn’t pretty.”
    “Well,
librarians are cool.” He thought whatever she did would be cool.
    “So are
hockey players.” She turned her attention fully to him, pressing close, her
thigh brushing against his. He insanely wished, even though it was only
forty-something degrees outside, that they were wearing shorts so he could feel
her skin. His phone buzzed again and he swore, taking it out of his pocket.
    “Who keeps
calling you? Is it your girlfriend?”
    “I don’t
have a girlfriend.” Henry made sure to say that first. “It’s my mother.”
    “Shouldn’t
you answer it?”
    He clicked silence
all with one hand and slipped it back into his jacket pocket. “She just
wants to yell at me about my grades.”
    “Oh, you
have those kinds of parents too.” She had a sad sort of knowing expression in
her eyes.
    “Actually
no.” Henry couldn’t help being fair to his mom. She hardly ever yelled at him
about anything, except maybe the time when he was seven and he’d taken his
dad’s spray paint from the garage