“I’m surprised the line didn’t make her turn around and give up.” His eyes were laughing. So he had clocked her ridiculousness when he met her.

I nearly laughed too, but couldn’t get over the fact that my sister was right there, dolled up in a silver 1920s-style dress, her lips cherry-red, laughing at a joke some guy sitting millimeters from her was telling. He was around her age, dark-haired, good-looking, wearing a well-tailored, inexpensive suit.

“It’s the teacher.” I grabbed Oscar’s shoulder. “It has to be. We need to crash their date, this is too good, I might never get another chance again.”

Alice looked just as stunned by the sight of me. She rose to kiss my cheek, hissing, “You are seventeen,” through her smile.

“Don’t tell Dad!” I whispered back.

“Ruby, this is my friend Daniel Ruiz,” she said, perfectly gracious as she turned to the table. “Danny, this is my sister, Ruby. And Oscar—”

“Oscar’s my boyfriend,” I interrupted, grinning giddily.

She hit the table. “I knew it! I am taking full credit for this.”

“Great to meet you both,” Daniel said, recovering from our sudden entrance. “Ruby, I’ve heard so much about you, I feel like I’ve known you for years.”

“You’ve been talking about me behind my back,” I deadpanned to Alice.

She ruffled my hair. “I’m obsessed with you.”

Daniel pulled chairs over so we could join them. I didn’t dare drink with Alice around—her discretion had its limits—but this was too uncanny an event to miss witnessing, a solar eclipse, Halley’s comet, a volcanic eruption.

Alice! Personal life! On display!

“Oscar is a budding composer,” she said to Daniel. “He’s studying with my dad.”

“Is that right?” Danny nodded to him like he was conferring a knighthood. “That’s incredible.”

“Thanks! Yeah, it’s . . .” Oscar glanced up at the stage, half listening to the drummer riffing. “I’m composing a lot less this summer than I do back home, at school, but . . . I think I’m growing a lot, so. It’s been good.”

Daniel laughed. “Jeez, I’m trying to think what I was doing when I was in high school. My baseball team went to regionals, that’s about all I can brag about.”

“You have a lot to brag about,” Alice said, eyes glowing, and they held hands across the table and oh my God, they’d totally had sex already, hadn’t they?

“I played baseball for a hot two minutes.” Oscar grinned. “We did not go to regionals.”

I stared at him. “You played baseball?”

“Outfield.” He glanced back and forth from the stage. “My dad really wanted me to be on a team, any team, so I picked baseball because it looked like it gave you a lot of downtime.”

“Especially in outfield.” Daniel pointed at him.