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“Yeah,” Morgan said. “I barely ate breakfast anyway. We’re starved.”

“Good,” David said as he headed toward the cooker. The girls collapsed at the picnic table. Maddy looked back and forth between her two friends for a few moments.

“Well?” she whispered after a long pause. “What do you think?”

Kirsten nodded slowly. “Cute.”

“Yeah,” Morgan said. “He’s really cute, Mad.”

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Kirsten opened her mouth to add something, but David’s figure loomed over them suddenly, loaded with steaming paper plates of ribs, corn on the cob, and warm biscuits.

“Hey, look at this!” he said, plunking the food down in front of them. “The guy recognized me and jumped me to the front of the line. Plus, he threw in the biscuits for free.” He sat down next to Maddy and pulled over two of the plates.

For a long moment, no one said anything. Maddy imagined that she could see the tension floating around the table like a fog. Then Morgan swallowed a bite of corn and asked, “So, what did you guys do up here for fun all summer?”

Before Maddy could say anything, David answered,

“Went biking some, did some cooking, had paint fights. The usual Napa activities.”

Kirsten laughed as if David was making a joke and then stopped, seeing Maddy’s expression. “Oh, you were serious. Sorry. It’s just that I can’t imagine Maddy cooking and having paint fights.”

“Well, we did,” Maddy said, a trifle defensively.

“Sounds awesome,” Morgan said, and laughed. Maddy couldn’t tell if she was being serious or sarcastic. Probably sarcastic, she decided glumly.

Everyone ate ribs and made conversation for the next half hour. David and the girls seemed pretty relaxed, but 250

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Maddy figured they were all just trying to be polite. After all, they weren’t going to be rude. But Maddy imagined she could hear what Morgan and Kirsten were thinking: How can we get out of here? What does Maddy see in this guy? Has she gone out of her mind thinking she can date him back in the city? They were right, Maddy thought furiously, rising to stuff her plate into the metal trash can. She had briefly gone out of her mind. Now, though, she could see the situation more clearly. The sight of the three people sitting at the picnic table—David’s lanky figure in an old T-shirt and worn jeans and the two hip, perfectly groomed girls next to him—made her decision for her. It was over.

Maddy marched back to the table. “Are you all ready to go?” she asked. The others looked up in surprise at her firm tone.

“Sure,” David said, getting up quickly. Everyone rose and tossed their trash away, heading toward the car.

“Your stuff ’s all back at the house, right, Mad?”

Morgan asked, starting the engine.

“Yeah, we have to go back there first,” Maddy said, her eyes on David. He was lounging easily, his arm draped around the back of the seat, looking happy and satisfied after their meal.

Maddy sat stiffly and silently until they pulled up the long gravel drive. She jumped out as soon as Morgan cut the engine. “Wait here for me, girls,” she said. “David 251

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will help me get my suitcase inside.” She aimed a significant glance at David, who jumped up.

“Oh, yeah. I’ll just give her a hand . . . ,” he said. They slammed the doors and Maddy led him around to the backyard, where she stopped and turned to face him. She took a deep breath. His forehead was creased with concern. “I guess you’re going to tell me what’s wrong,”

he said.

Now that the moment was here, she just wanted to get it over with. “I’m worried about going home.”

“Huh?”

Why were guys so dense? “I’m worried about you and me,” she said.

He looked confused. “What do you mean? I thought we talked about all that last night.”

“We talked about us for like one minute!” Her voice rose involuntarily. David looked at her carefully.

“Why are you getting angry?”

“I’m not angry!” she said angrily. “I’m just thinking about the future, which you don’t seem concerned about.”

He frowned. “I’m not. What’s there to be concerned about? I’m crazy about you and last night was practically the best night of my life. All the rest of it is just details.”

Maddy fought back tears. “Yeah, well, details can be really important! And if you don’t know that, then I think we have a problem!” In the back of her mind, she 252

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realized that what she was saying didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but she couldn’t stop herself. “We’re going back to our old lives. Everything’s going to be different.”

He nodded slowly, his face hardening. “Yeah, I see what you’re talking about now. You’re worried I wouldn’t fit into your rich-kid life in the city—like your friends might wonder if I was some hippie you’d picked up by the side of the road in Napa.”

“No!” Now it was her turn to reach for him. “That’s not what I mean,” she pleaded, snuffling a little. “I’m just confused. These last few weeks have been like some dream and now we have to wake up to our other lives. Can’t you see that?” She took his long fingers in hers and held on to them. He stared at their entwined hands for a long moment and then leaned down and kissed her fingers.

Then he released her hand and stared into the vine field. “Look,” he said, choosing his words carefully, “I know what I want. I’m not saying it won’t be hard. It will be hard, but I don’t care. I want you.” Maddy opened her mouth as if to protest, but he held his hand up.

“But.”

Her breath caught in her throat.

“But I’m not the only one here. Last time I looked, I think I was only fifty percent of whatever this is. So, I can’t force anything. If we want different things . . . I 253

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guess we’re going to have to say good-bye.” He looked unbearably sad.

Maddy’s head was spi

“It doesn’t have to!” David gazed into her face, but she couldn’t meet his eyes. She stared at the ground and said in a low voice, “You make it sound so easy.”

“Don’t you see that it can be?” he insisted.

“I . . . I think it’s going to be too hard,” she mumbled. Even as she was saying the words, she could feel how discordantly they jangled with the emotions in her heart. But she steeled herself. Better to end it now than have it trail on miserably for months and then end.

“I have to go,” she whispered, not daring to look at his face. Without waiting for a response, she whirled around and ran back to the front of the house.

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!

Tears almost blinding her, Maddy grabbed her suitcase off the front porch. Morgan and Kirsten turned toward her as she hurried over to the car. “Mads, we were just saying what a hottie that guy is!” Kirsten exclaimed as she opened the passenger door.

“Yeah,” Morgan agreed enthusiastically. “Totally different look than Brian, of course, but really yummy. And sweet, too.” She turned the ignition and “Promiscuous”

blared from the speakers.

Maddy barely heard her friends. All she could think was, This is it. I’m leaving David. Like she was moving through glue, she shoved her bag into the backseat and climbed in.

“He was so sweet to get all our food. It’s obvious he’s 255

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crazy about you, Maddy,” Morgan said over her shoulder as she adjusted the sun visor.

“You guys are perfect together!” Kirsten declared. The words reached Maddy’s ears as if through fog. She shook her head.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Maddy asked, leaning forward.

“I said you guys are perfect together,” Kirsten repeated, rummaging in her handbag.