He had been waiting for fifteen minutes when Grace’s car turned into the driveway. She always drove slowly, and it frustrated him when he was her passenger. But she really listened to him, and had given him good advice since they met, when he was in the third grade. His mother, Amy, had just been killed in an auto crash and he had lost all interest in school until Granny Grace had been assigned to tutor him. She had done more than tutor him. His heart warmed thinking of it. She had loved him and helped him through those awful months and she met and just about married Grandpa Bob, only they never really got married. Dad had said that at their age, what did it matter? They weren’t going to have babies or anything, the very idea of which had cracked him up laughing. Grace was as much his granny today as if she were married to Grandpa, and she’d taught him that you could create a family by bringing together the people whom you loved.

He was older now, almost a man, nearly fifteen, and he’d been shaving dark fuzz from above his lip for weeks. Still, when he had a problem like the one troubling him now, it was to Granny Grace he turned.

Thinking about love nearly stopped his heart. It was embarrassing how Alicia, his chemistry lab partner, caused his heart to thud and his palms to sweat. She was the most beautiful girl in school, and he had a big, big crush on her. But did she reciprocate those feelings? One day she’d smile at him and say or do something that set his heart racing and his knees wobbling, and the next day she’d brush him off as if she didn’t give a hoot. It was driving him nuts.

Delighted to see Tyler, Grace shut off the ignition and sat for a moment thinking how tall he’d grown and how his features were changing; his nose was longer and his jaw wider.

The gangly teenager rose from the steps and came to greet her with open arms. “Granny Grace, you’re as pretty as ever.” He hugged her. “How about you be my date at the prom this year?” Not that he was a senior or even a junior, but the prom was open to sophomores, and the band was usually terrific. Most of his friends planned on going. He had no date for the prom, and it hurt remembering Alicia boasting in class to Sue Ellen, her girlfriend, that Roger Tiffton, a senior, had asked her to the prom. He’d wondered then if she had raised her voice just so that he would hear this news. He had heard it, all right. If she had plunged a knife into his heart, it would not have hurt more. It was his own fault. He had never had the guts to ask her out.