Endless Summer

There were still a few inches between our bodies. So there was no embrace. Only his lips, soft, warm, on my lips.

Our fingers, interlaced.

A tingle so strong, it turned into a vibration.

A hick driving by on the road, hollering, “Get a room, Vader! Wooooo!”

Adam laughed a little against my lips. I thought I detected the slightest shudder, like he felt the vibration too. en he backed up and looked at me. “Is that what you wanted?”

“Yes,” I breathed. “Is that what you wanted?”

His smile faded. “Yeah. Come on.” He led me back up the sidewalk, toward Tammy and McGillicuddy still talking together but never taking their eyes off us. When we got close to the truck, Adam asked me, “Will you go out with me tomorrow night?”

“I’d love to,” I said, focusing only on him like I had no idea my brother was staring a hole through my head.

“I’ll pick you up at seven,” Adam said. “No, wait.”

“That’s fine,” I laughed. “You can drive a hundred feet and pick me up at seven.”

“I’ll walk over at seven.” He smiled and twisted a lock of my hair around his finger. “Seven is lucky.” McGillicuddy cleared his throat.

“That’s not what I meant!” Adam roared at McGillicuddy in outrage. Adam’s cheeks were bright red.

“Are we finished?” Tammy asked quickly. “Lori, didn’t you lose four or five balls over the fence in the kudzu?” McGillicuddy, Adam, and I all started for the kudzu patch. But Tammy caught me by the sports bra, and I snapped backward. She waited until the boys were out of earshot before she hissed, “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“Yes!” I said happily. “But you can’t tell anybody. And I don’t mean you need to keep this secret the way the te

“I promise,” Tammy said, pulling a te

Personally, I’d never had a secret for them to work on before. I was that popular.

“Don’t mention it to McGillicuddy. He might blab it to Cameron, depending on how fu

“It sounds hopelessly complicated. Wouldn’t it be easier to hook up with Adam for real? He’s adorable.”

“No, he’s not!” I eyed her, unsure I should have shared the diabolical plan with her after all. Granted, Adam was adorable. But I was after Sean. I didn’t intend to act on Adam’s adorableness. And at that moment, I realized I didn’t want anyone else to act on it, either. He was part of my Adorable Special Reserve. Now that Tammy was telling me there was indeed a problem with my plan, I found that I didn’t want to hear it.

She bounced the ball methodically against the truck. “You think Sean is adorable.”

“Duh.”

“And Adam looks a lot like Sean.”

“True dat.”

“So why don’t you think Adam’s adorable?”

I snatched the ball in midair and shook it at her. “Because he’s Adam!”

Adam and McGillicuddy had found all the escaped balls. ey stood in the kudzu, oblivious to snakes, and threw te

“No, you said that.”

“You said girls fall all over themselves to get to Sean. They don’t do that for Adam.”

“But wouldn’t that be better? You’d have to share Sean. Adam would be yours.”

I’d thought girls giggled secrets to each other because they understood each other. Tammy didn’t understand me at all.

Adam had made a hangman’s noose out of a length of vine and was chasing McGillicuddy down the sidewalk with it. Both of them laughed like ten-year-olds. Adam really did look adorable when he smiled.

So, maybe Tammy was half-right. I knew Adam had been kidding about seven being lucky. I knew he was just playing the part with me, like we’d pla

Sean had the nerve to smile down at me. His blue eyes were lighter than the sky behind him, a spooky blue. He shouted above the drone of the boat motor, “Lori, when we’re old enough, I want you to be my girlfriend.”

I tried to speak, spluttered, and spit out a lock of my hair the wind had blown into my mouth. I was nothing if not glam. “You’re old enough,” I told him. “And if Rachel is old enough, I’m old enough.”

He bent closer and said, “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

What a thrill! He’d asked me out! I was going out with Sean! Only, those were the words I’d heard. What he’d mouthed was something different. Like on one of those kung fu movies the boys loved to watch, with English words dubbed over the Chinese sound, and the characters’ mouths never quite matching up.

“Bastard!” I sat straight up in my cold, wet bed. I wiped and wiped with my palms, but I could not get all my hair out of my mouth. en I realized what I’d said out loud.

“Sorry, Mom,” I told her sweet sixteen photo on my bedside table. My alarm clock blared Avril Lavigne, “Keep Holding On.” Right! I vowed to move things along with Sean that day at work. I would make sure he knew I was part of the hot scene. Unfortunately, the instant I stepped into the marina office, I was presented with an obstacle to this goal in the form of a seething matriarch with pinstriped hair.

“Lori!” she roared, spi

“Good morning, boss!” I said brightly, giving her a wave.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “It was bad enough when Adam told me yesterday that Sean stole Rachel from him. He wanted me to ground Sean, or take away his Wii.”

“Ground him for how long?” If Sean was grounded, he wouldn’t even be able to pick Rachel up and drive her back to his own house. He could only see her if her mom dropped her off. Talk about embarrassing. Sean didn’t like to be embarrassed. Instant breakup! On the other hand, if he were grounded for the whole summer, even after he broke up with Rachel, he could never go out with me.

“I can’t ground him,” Mrs. Vader squealed. “I can’t ground a legal adult. And I can’t ground one son for stealing the other’s girlfriend. But I’ve got to do something.

Adam’s cheekbone is blue. Sean is holding his jaw at a fu

Of course they could. ey’d been doing it for years. Obviously Sean was careful not to call Adam ADD when their mother was around. Somehow I didn’t think pointing this out would help my current situation, so I nodded like I understood her plight. “Do I have gas?” She folded her arms. “And this morning Adam told me he’s going out tonight. With you.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” I sang, sweeping my hand down my body in the all this can be yours gesture.

“You were after Sean,” she spat.

“Who, me?” Yes, I actually said, Who me? I was begi

“You were after Sean. You watched him moonily all day Friday. You took an hour and a half for lunch, waiting for him to show up.” I raised my chin haughtily. “You people are slave drivers. Can’t I have a break to watch What Not to Wear?”

“Besides,” she said more calmly, examining me too closely for comfort, “if you and Adam really were about to start going out, Adam wouldn’t have complained to me just yesterday about Sean stealing his girlfriend. He’d be happy to have you, and he’d forget all about her.” Good point. Where was Adam to take some of this heat? I looked around futilely for him. en I told part of the truth. “It’s the principle of the thing. Adam’s also mad Sean broke his remote-control pickup that he got for Christmas six years ago.”