The squirrels wait a few seconds, then bound off in opposite directions.

“It might not be where my parents met,” Amy says, “but it’s still a special place for me.”

She zones out, and I watch the squirrels charge about as if every single one of them has overslept. Then I take a deep breath and say, “Remember your first day at school? Why did you pick me as your buddy?”

Amy blinks away her daydream. “Huh?”

“You chose me, even though you didn’t say anything on the tour.”

She sighs and says, “You looked heavy, Tom. I know how that feels.”

I think of my old life with Mum and wonder if I’ll ever lose the baggage that she packed away the moment she married Jay.

“You’ve never had a girlfriend before, have you?” Amy asks.

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. Instead, I stare at her until she says, “How come?”

I shrug, and she says, “Don’t you like me?”

“Yes.”

“Yes you don’t or yes you do?”

I pause, find some courage and say, “Yes I do.”

“So why are you so scared?”

“I’m not scared,” I say, even though I am…a lot.

Did I make up a story about Amy being trapped because the alternative terrified me? If there is no mystery to solve, and she’s just a girl who actually likes me, I have to admit I like her back.

Amy goes to kiss me, and I move, just a fidget, and, instead of my cheek, she gets the corner of my mouth. She pulls back and looks at me with eyes I haven’t seen before. Then she leans in and kisses me again, and, this time, I don’t have to move.

43

“Can you remember the code this time?”

We’re outside Amy’s house, and she nudges me and says, “I remembered it last time,” but I don’t think she did.

When I was last here, Amy was drunk, her mum looked angry, and her dad looked like he was holding something back. Perhaps he was only being protective. Maybe, to a dad with a daughter, I’m the threat. That’s what I want to think, because, today, everything changed, and my worries are new but just as hard to tame.

Amy’s body hides the PIN pad as she pushes the buttons, and I wonder if that’s on purpose. Then she turns and says, “I’ll see you soon.”

I think about kissing her again, then see movement behind her living room window and stop.

Amy looks behind her, as if she can sense my concern, then squeezes my hand. “Today was fun.”