“Define ‘sort of.’ ” Lex looked at him hard.

“My class instructor explained it to us, but I’ve never played it.”

Lex groaned and looked at the ceiling. The other players were more restrained.

Jill laughed. “Well, we’ll try it. We’ll tell you where to go.”

They set up with Aiden in middle back – the easiest position for a guy in coed rotation – so he could watch how the other guys moved in the complex pattern. Except it stuck him in the prime passing zone.

He shanked the first serve. However, Lex – the front-row setter -raced down his high, wide pass and made a brilliant set to their strong side hitter, who slammed a line drive past Kin-Mun’s three-story-tall block.

“Haa!” Lex heckled Kin-Mun under the net. He made a face at her.

The game continued with the two scores neck and neck. Lex dove and rolled. She screamed possession as she ran down shanked passes or blocked hits. She became a blazing fireball on the court.

Stop watching her. And stop liking it.

Just observing her made him step up his game. He dove for balls.

He became more territorial when passing. His passes marginally improved.

“Game point!” The ref signaled the serve.

Lex served. Kin-Mun, in the front row, passed the ball and then set up for a hit. Aiden leaped to block…

He actually got a touch on it. The ball sailed high.

“Got it!”

“Mine!”

He and Lex shouted at the same time. He was closer to it. He ran -

“Oomph!” He and Lex went down in a tangle of limbs. He slapped his hands on the floor to keep his face from planting nose-first. Lex toppled next to him.

Another body tripped over his arm and dropped on him. Ow! An elbow hit his ribcage.

“Umph!” Lex groaned next to him as yet another player flipped over someone’s legs and came down on Lex’s head.

Somewhere, Jill was laughing.

Lex’s face lay six inches away from him. She lifted her head and glowered at him.

Aiden already knew he should say his last prayers now. Lex was going to kill him. Slowly.

She was going to kill him. Slowly.

Lex sat on the sidelines watching the last game of the night. She hated sitting out, but she had to take her turn.

“You can’t be too mad at the guy.” Robyn, whose team referee’d on the far court, watched Aiden dive for a shanked ball. His assertive play made up for a girl’s timid defense in the back row.

“We lost that first game. Kin-Mun is never going to let me forget this.”

“Oh, come on. It’s only pizza.”

“I had such high hopes for this season when I saw the team Jill had picked. Even Neal wasn’t a bad fourth round guy. But then Neal had knee surgery and we got Aiden.”

“I think Aiden’s better than Neal.”

Lex turned her head to stare at her. “How?”

“Aiden gives 110 percent on the court. He’s more aggressive than Neal, and he stays in position.”

Lex couldn’t argue with Robyn, but she still didn’t like having him on her team, where she had to see him every week. “He’s awkward.”

“He’s not that graceful right now, but hopefully he’ll get better.”

Lex pursed her lips.

Robyn motioned to him. “He’s also a pretty cool player. He doesn’t get upset.”

Aiden always had that calm, composed look on his face. “He’s so bland.”

“He doesn’t cuss at himself or anybody else. He never gets emotional. Unlike somebody I know.” Robyn nudged her.

“I’m not emotional.”

“Suuure. You never yell at anyone on the court.”

Kin-Mun’s team reff ’d the game. He saw her glowering, and he did his dorky “laugh and point.”

“Ooooh, I’m never going to live this down.”

“It’s your fault. You heckled Kin-Mun first.”

Lex huffed. She couldn’t keep her massive mouth shut.

She had more important things to worry about, anyway. Like employment. And a volleyball sponsor. “Do you know anyone else who might be able to sponsor my girls’ team?”

Robyn’s mouth opened to the size of a musubi rice ball. “You mean Jim said no?”

“Yeah.”

“Why? What did he say?”

Lex frowned, remembering. “He seemed kind of evasive. I figured he didn’t like hurting my feelings by saying no.”

“I don’t understand. He can totally afford it.” Robyn peered at where Jim reff’d a game on the third court. “I’m going to talk to him.”

“Don’t. I’ll find another sponsor.”

“I can’t think of anybody else who has the money to do it.”

Lex sighed. “I’ll keep looking.”

“I don’t understand why Jim said no. It must be something serious that happened, or someone scary who threatened him not to do it.”

Lex laughed. “Who in the world would scare him? King Kong?”

TWELVE

Lex’s head whirled. Not just from circling the biology labs where Trish was supposed to be, but also from the chorus of chemicals smelling up each lab. If she hadn’t run into Trish’s boss, Lex would still be wandering through the labs trying to find her.

She walked down the sunny path to the other biotech research building, but she couldn’t enjoy the warm day. Trish hadn’t been to church again. Come to think of it, she hadn’t talked to her cousin for a couple of weeks, and they usually gabbed pretty often. Was she okay?

Lex entered the glass doors to the lobby of S-building and stopped in her tracks. “What are you doing here?”

Aiden turned and backed away like she had the bird flu virus.

“Hello to you, too.”

Lex peered over the counter of the receptionist’s desk at the empty chair. “Did you ring the buzzer?”

“Five minutes ago.” He hit the buzzer again. “Happy?”

“Satisfied.”

“What are you doing here?” Aiden looked genuinely curious.

“Looking for Trish.”

Alarm flickered across Aiden’s face, but then he assumed that bland-as-rice expression. “She works here?”

He had so much control over his expression. Lex wondered what it would be like to rile him. “She doesn’t work in this building. Anxious to see her again?” Lex smirked.

His eyebrow twitched – a crack in his calm mask. “Can’t get away from you two.”

“What?” Lex feigned shock. “You’re the one who’s stalking me, buddy.”

“You came through those doors after I did. Looks like you’re the one who can’t leave me alone.”

He was teasing her. Lex smiled. Maybe he wasn’t as colorless as she first thought.

The receptionist clicked through the magnetically locked doors from the labs into the lobby area. “Who are you seeing?”

“Trish Sakai.”

“Spenser Wong.”

The receptionist called Trish and Spenser to snap at them about their guests at the front.

Spenser came first – a tall, broad Asian guy with the Hollywood look of Chow Yun-Fat and Russell Wong rolled into one. He didn’t even glance at Lex. “Hey, Aiden. Ready to go to lunch? It’s gotta be fast today. I have an assay running.” They left out the front glass door.

Trish came through the magnetically locked door a few minutes later. “Hi, Lex. What are you doing here?”

“Want to go out for lunch?”

“Sure. Come in, let me finish up my experiment.”

Lex trailed Trish to yet another smelly lab. Trish donned a lab coat and pointed to a chair a few feet away. “Stay there while I finish pipetting these.” She seated herself in front of a big inset hood with air whooshing up through a pipe in the ceiling.

“Why did you come all the way here?” Trish had to shout above the noise as she manipulated some delicate instruments and canisters of liquid inside the hood.

“I can’t find you anywhere else. Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”

Trish had her back to Lex so she couldn’t see her expression, but Trish’s silence said it all.

“What gives? You haven’t been to church lately, either.”

“I’ve, uh… been with Kazuo.”

“The Japanese waiter?”