Dave had to force himself to stop staring at Beep. She still had that look in her eye. Mandy Love had it, too. People called it sex appeal or je ne sais quoi or just “It.” Beep had an impish grin, a sway in her walk, and an air of lively curiosity. Dave was as consumed with desperate desire as he had been when he was a thirteen-year-old virgin.

He tried to talk to Cameron, who was two years older than Beep and already studying at the University of California at Berkeley, just outside San Francisco. But Cam was difficult. He was in favor of the Vietnam War, he thought civil rights should progress more gradually, and he felt it was right that homosexual acts should be crimes. He also preferred jazz.

Dave gave the Dewars fifteen minutes, then said: “This is the last night of our tour. There’s a farewell get-together at the hotel starting in a few minutes. Beep and Cam, would you like to come?”

“Not me,” said Cameron immediately. “Thanks all the same.”

“Shame,” said Dave with polite insincerity. “What about you, Beep?”

“I’d love to come,” said Beep, and looked at her mother.

“In by midnight,” said Bella.

Woody said: “Use our taxi service to get home, please.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” Dave reassured them.

The parents and Cameron left, and the musicians got on the bus with their guests for the short ride to the hotel.

The party was in the hotel bar, but in the lobby Dave murmured in Beep’s ear: “Have you ever tried smoking marijuana?”

“You mean pot?” she said. “You bet!”

“Not so loud—it’s against the law!”

“Have you got some?”

“Yes. We should probably smoke it in my room. Then we can join the party.”

“Okay.”

They went to his room. Dave rolled a joint while Beep found a rock station on the radio. They sat on the bed, passing the roach back and forth. Mellowing out, Dave smiled and said: “When you came to London . . .”

“What?”

“You weren’t interested in me.”

“I liked you, but you were too young.”

“You were too young, for the things I wanted to do to you.”

She grinned mischievously. “What did you want to do to me?”

“There was a long list.”

“What came first?”

“First?” Dave was not going to tell her. Then he thought: Why not? So he said: “I wanted to see your tits.”

She handed him the joint, then pulled the striped sweater over her head with a swift movement. She had nothing on underneath it.

Dave was astounded and overjoyed. He got a hard-on just looking. “They’re so beautiful,” he said.

“Yes, they are,” she said dreamily. “So pretty I sometimes have to touch them myself.”

“Oh, my God,” Dave groaned.

“On your list,” Beep said, “what was second?”

• • •

Dave changed his flight to a week later and stayed on at the hotel. He saw Beep after school every weekday and all day Saturday and Sunday. They went to movies, they shopped for cool clothes, and they walked around the zoo. They made love two or three times a day, always using condoms.