So that was what he was interested in: finding out what was going on with his sister and her plot to reunite their parents. I would have lied to protect her, but I didn’t need to because she hadn’t confided in me. She didn’t trust me anymore. The muscles in my body loosened and I felt like my bones were made of liquid. I tilted my head back, closed my eyes, and felt the heat spread into my cheeks. He reached over and grabbed my arm, shaking me out of my dream.

“I don’t know anything, Daryl. Except that your sister thinks that your mom and dad should get back together.”

He let me go and took another sip from the bottle. His backpack was still unzipped and there was a small notebook hanging out of it, so I reached over and took it. He tried to grab it back and, when I sensed it was important to him, I pulled it close to my chest and crossed my arms. He reached from behind, putting his arms around me and trying to get me to release my grip. He was angry, muttering things under his breath that I could not understand.

I tucked my head in and kept my arms tightly closed. After a few minutes, I felt his anger subside until there was no struggle left. I was sitting between his legs and he had his arms around me. His chest was moving up and down fast. His breath hit the tip of my earlobe and then he swiveled me around so that my head was resting in the crook of his arm, like a baby.

I was closer to him than I had ever been before and then his lips were on mine and I closed my eyes because it felt good and I didn’t want it to stop. I don’t know how long we stayed like that, wrapped up in each other, quietly rocking under the heat of the setting sun. When he separated himself from me, I unlocked my arms, which were still clutched around his notebook, and I handed it back.

“Aren’t you going to look at it?” he asked.

“Not if you don’t want me to.”

“I don’t.” he snarled, the warmth of the moment instantly gone. “C’mon. We gotta go.” He stood up and walked toward the door.

“I thought you didn’t like doing things the easy way.”

“Believe me. This isn’t the easy way.”