What did “meeting at the Creamery” mean, exactly? There wasn’t any room to hang out inside when it was this crowded. Was she supposed to find the whole group so they could wait in line together? Or order her ice cream by herself and go find them outside?

She tried to make herself walk normally, even though she had no idea what to do with her arms or how to scan the crowd for the rest of the group without looking like some pathetic girl who couldn’t stand to be on her own.

At the end of the line, there was a family with two men and two little kids, and then there were a bunch of older guys wearing those faded T-shirts that are already faded when you buy them. Annabelle took a spot at the back and pretended to check something on her phone.

“Hey!” Jeremy rushed up, with Kayla a few steps behind him.

“What are you doing here?” Annabelle asked.

“Uh, same as you, I’m guessing,” Jeremy teased. “Getting ice cream.”

“Thanks to your generous sister who let you tag along,” Kayla added.

“Mom made her bring me,” Jeremy fake-whispered.

Kayla gave him a little shove, but it was a jokey shove. Kayla and Jeremy didn’t fight for real the way lots of siblings seemed to.

Kayla held up her phone. “Ruby says they’re almost at the front of the line and we should meet them. You guys coming, or you want to wait?”

Annabelle scanned the line in front of her. She hated when people saved spots so their friends could cut.

“Maybe we’ll stay back here and meet you outside?” Jeremy said.

He looked at Annabelle to see if that’s what she wanted, too. But she didn’t need Jeremy to answer for her. And if Connor was up there with Ruby, she wasn’t about to get stuck back here.

“I’m coming,” Annabelle said.

She ignored the annoyed looks from the dads with little kids as she and Kayla pushed their way forward, and she ignored the way Jeremy kept saying, “Excuse me, I’m so sorry.” It wasn’t like she’d told him to follow her.

But when they reached Ruby, she was only with a couple of other girls from the team. No Connor. No Elisa, either.

Annabelle and Jeremy always used to order a large cup with half peanut butter cup for her and half double-chocolate chunk for him because it was cheaper than two separate small cups and the same amount of ice cream. But she was afraid Ruby would make a thing of it if they shared a cup of ice cream now, so she said, “Okay if we each get our own?” and Jeremy shrugged but didn’t complain.

After they got their orders and walked outside, she finally saw Connor, sitting with Jordan on one of the gray wooden benches along the street. “You made it!” he called. He didn’t clarify who he meant when he said “you.” Was he talking to all of them, or mostly to her? Had he texted Kayla and Ruby and the other girls, too?