Sarah and I stare at each other.

“Sarah, you look really … great.”

She smiles and is about to say something, but then she looks over my shoulder for a moment and quickly turns away.

From behind me I hear my best friend’s voice: “The hell you talking to the geek for? Get down here, Zach.”

I turn and follow Tank down the steps. Halfway down I realize something. I’m basically a double agent now. Dale Foster likes me, and I like him. I respect him for not working in the plant, respect him for not being a drunk, and admire his efforts to be a good dad, especially with Tank’s mom out on the streets. I want to know more about the man, but not for Huey Dawkins’s benefit anymore—for mine. Of course, if I can earn some more fifties in the process I’ll gladly take them.

The big question now is whether to let Tank in on the secret.

Then there’s the second secret: I’m totally hot for his twin sister. But there’s no way I’ll tell him about that.

At least not yet, anyway.

Man, what a way to start the summer.

Chapter_5

5

Tank’s pissed.

He sits down on this old, cheap blue sofa, nothing on but a pair of shorts, and starts doing bicep curls with thirty-pound dumbbells. Then he quickly drops the dumbbells and presses the mute button on the remote. He’s watching a Cribs repeat. The ultra-thin sixty-inch screen looks bigger than my bedroom.

He points at the ceiling. “So, you obviously noticed her, right?”

“Yeah. She looks … different.”

“And it’s all his fault.” He’s still pointing at the ceiling.

“Who, your dad’s?”

“Exactly.” He stands and gives one of the dumbbells a light kick with his bare foot. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him, Zach. All of a sudden it’s like he decides he wants to be a dad. You know, like he knows he messed up with me, so now he’s trying to make it up with Sarah before it’s too late.” He paces back and forth, entering one of his “psycho” moods now. Never a good thing.

“Tank, you’ve got it made.” I wave my arm around the basement. “He buys you anything you want.”

“That’s the problem. That’s his way of trying to make up for things. But I see right through it. The guy’s an idiot if he thinks spoiling us makes him a good dad. We’re smarter than that. You know that, and so does Sarah.”

“He was really cool to me just now.”