“Zach, shut up,” she interrupts. “I know what you meant, okay? That’s why I turned around and left without saying anything. There was nothing left to say. We spoke our minds and had it out. That sure beats keeping it all inside.”

I stare at the glass triangle. “Has he said anything else to you this morning?”

“My dad?”

“Yeah.”

“He said you declared your love for me last night.”

“That’s how he put it? Oh my God.”

We stare at each other for several seconds.

“Okay,” I say. “Guess it’s time for the hard part. Did you know Tank already knows about us?”

She nods and points her thumb back toward the door. “My dad told me that, too. What we can’t figure out is why Tank’s never brought it up with you.”

“Is he awake yet?”

She nods. “He’s in the basement.”

“Can you tell him to come out here?”

She nods and goes inside. I sit on the porch and gaze at the empty street. Seconds later, Big Dale steps out and stands beside me.

I look up and say, “Mr. Foster, do you think it’s fair to talk to him today? I mean, after everything he went through last night?”

He stares at the street, thinking. The green dragon seems much brighter now that I’m seeing it in daylight for the first time.

“That’s your decision,” he finally says. “Thanks for that email, by the way. Things are already happening.” He looks at the sky and squints. “Christ, it’s hot out here today.”

Then he steps back inside and shuts the door.

Tank comes out two minutes later, wearing nothing but a pair of mesh gym shorts. Despite living in air-conditioned splendor, a thin film of sweat covers his body. He walks past me toward the middle of the lawn, stretches his arms high above his head, and yawns.

“You interrupted my workout, idiot,” he says. “How could you possibly want to be outside in this heat?”

Sitting there looking up at him, I feel like a dwarf gazing at a giant. “Hell of a night last night, huh?”

“Yeah,” he says. “Hey, those same two cops drove me home again. You believe that?”

“Were they cool about it?”

“That’s the thing. They didn’t say a word. I guess my dad wanted it that way.”

“You remember everything?”

“You mean about Mandy, and the gun, and my dad’s truck? Yeah, I remember it all. I did what I had to do. It’s over now and I can’t change it.”

I’m surprised how calm he is.

“Look,” I say, unable to return eye contact, “about the Horton thing. I just did what I thought was right.”

“You mean like lying to me and sneaking around my basement all summer?”

“Don’t play it like that,” I say. “You’ve been lying and sneaking around all summer, too, just in different ways.”