They joined a group on the big patio behind the house, and, for the next hour, Katie was in a state of heaven as she sat beside Matt, her body leaning into the side of his. He didn’t have his arm around her and wasn’t holding her hand, but there was at least a foot between him and the dude sitting on the other side of him, so the fact he was pressed against her side had to be a good sign.

At some point one of the kids lit up a joint and began passing it around the group. When it reached Katie, she thought about passing it along, but then figured if her clothes smelled, she could change into something of Emma’s before going home. She brought it to her lips and inhaled deeply. She held it out to Matt, but the boy on the other side of him intercepted it.

“Matt doesn’t smoke,” he said.

“Put that shit away!” Ryan yelled as he strode towards them. “What the fuck, man? You can’t have that here. My parents could come outside.”

Katie glanced at Matt, who was coming to his feet. “Where are you going?” she asked.

“Home. I’ll see you around.”

“He just left,” Katie told Emma moments later. “He didn’t even ask if I wanted a ride. He was acting different tonight, like he might like me, and then after Ryan yelled at Dustin about the joint, he split.”

“Matt’s kind of anti-drug. I thought you knew that. He doesn’t like being around it.”

In the days after the hot tub incident, Lina resolved to concentrate on her marriage and family, but she hadn’t counted on Brian Drayton practically moving in and serving as a constant reminder of his father. From his deep-set eyes to the cleft in his chin and the way his lips turned up in the corners as if he were always smiling, Brian was Nick’s clone. Even the timbre of his voice was familiar, and on more than one occasion, Lina caught herself watching him and thinking of Nick with an ache in her heart. He and Logan became inseparable, and all of their time was spent at the Hunter house, probably due to the large expanse of grass Phil had turned into a practice lacrosse field a few years earlier and the teenage girls they lounged around the pool with when they weren’t practicing.

“Don’t you think she’s a little old for him?” Lina asked Phil late one afternoon when he joined her on the deck after work. Logan and Brian were at the pool with two girls from the neighborhood, and the one closest to Logan looked more like a fully developed woman than a teenager.

“He isn’t your baby anymore,” Phil said as he watched Logan wrap his arms around the girl.