He said, “I like your new haircut just fine, but I thought you might like coverage.” He handed over a baseball cap with the logo of the UConn Huskies basketball team. He’d bought it yesterday, wondering if he was supposed to wrap it, or if that would make it too important. Macey gave the cap a smile and put it on frontward, yanking it low. Austin lifted the bill of the cap a little to see her better.

He had to stoop down to do it, and when their eyes met, Austin’s heart felt like a rowboat loose in the sea.

“I saved the T-shirt,” she said. She put both her hands flat on the dark gray tee he was wearing. He could feel her hands. He could feel all ten fingers and her palms. “I hung it in Papa and Nana’s back porch. I made them swear not to throw it out. Nana thinks salt air will take away the smell.”

“Nothing will take away the burn holes,” he said. He was getting a headache from how hard his heart was pounding. No fair.

By late afternoon, Macey’s voice was warmed up and ready to use. She needed two hours of phone conversation.

Lindsay had gotten heavily into e-mail and preferred to keyboard back and forth. Macey did not object to e-mail, but since it did not include the sound of her own voice, it would never be number one. So she called Grace. Grace’s finest asset was that she could hold a phone for two hours and not say anything except, “And then what happened?”

“It’s me,” announced Macey. “Forget all other topics. We have a big one. I’m in love with Aus.”

“That’s perfect. The boy across the street. And he’s such a cutie.”

The number of people with that opinion was rising. Grace said, “Tell me everything about Aus. How come he’s here, how long will he stay, how much time do we have to work with, can you rope him and tie him down before he leaves?”

“Stop it, Grace. I’m not going to rope him,” said Macey indignantly. “There will be no tying down.”

“We’ll do it delicately. He’ll hardly notice. He’ll think he’s in charge.”

“Grace! Nobody’s in charge! It isn’t that kind of a thing.”

“It’s a crush. Somebody always has to be in charge with a crush. You can’t just let it lie there. First give me the details on his family.”

“I don’t have any.”

“Sic your grandmother on his grandmother.”

“Nana tried. She got nothing.”

“Whoa. Hard case. I could place demands. Aus and I will be in the media center tomorrow for English class and I can sit next to him and say, ‘So why are you here, Aus?’ ”