I guess I just wasn’t expecting to find the ghost of such a cute guy in my bedroom, is all.

God, I thought, as I stormed down the hall. What am I going to do if he doesn’t leave? I won’t be able to change clothes in my own room!

Give him a little time, a voice inside my head went. It was a voice I’d very carefully avoided telling my mom’s therapist about.

Give him a little time. He’ll come around. They always do.

Well, most of the time, anyway.

Four

Dinner at the Ackerman household was pretty much like dinner in any other large household I had ever known: everybody talked at once – except of course for Sleepy, who only spoke when asked a direct question – and nobody wanted to clear the table afterwards. I made a mental note to call Gina and tell her she’d been wrong. There really was no advantage, that I could see, in having brothers: they chewed with their mouths open, and ate every single Poppin’ Fresh bread roll before I’d even had one.

After dinner, I decided it would be wise to avoid my room, and give Jesse plenty of time to make up his mind about whether he was leaving with or without his teeth. I’m not a big fan of violence, but it’s an unfortunate by-product of my profession. Sometimes, the only way you can make someone listen is with your fist. This is not a technique espoused, I know, by the diagnostic manuals on most therapists’ shelves.

Then again, nobody ever said I was a therapist.

The problem with my plan, of course, was that it was Saturday night. I’d forgotten what day it was in all the stress of the move. Back home on a Saturday night, I’d probably have gone out with Gina, taken the subway to the Village and gone to see a movie, or just hung around Joe’s Pizza watching people walk by. Hey, I may be a big city girl, but that doesn’t mean my life there was glamorous by any means. I have never even been asked out by a boy, unless you count that time in the fifth grade when Daniel Bogue asked me to skate with him during a couple’s only song at Rockefeller Center’s ice rink.

And then I’d embarrassed myself by falling flat on my face.

My mom, however, was all anxious for me to throw myself into the social scene of Carmel. As soon as the dishwasher was loaded, she was like, ‘Brad, what are you doing tonight? Are there any parties, or anything? Maybe you could take Suze and introduce her to some people.’

Dopey, who was mixing himself a protein shake – apparently, the two dozen jumbo shrimps and massive shell steak he’d consumed at dinner hadn’t been filling enough – went, ‘Yeah, maybe I could, if Jake wasn’t working tonight.’

Sleepy, roused by the mention of his name, squinted down at his watch and said, ‘Damn,’ picked up his jean jacket, and left the house.