It’s some kind of Biblical magic how long that one cigarette lasts. A miracle. Like Jesus did with the loaves and fishes. We just keep passing it back and forth. Every time I put it to my lips, I taste Lex’s minty ChapStick.

When the cigarette finally burns down, Lex gets up and crosses to the edge of the porch. He leans down to put it out on the wet steps. Then he flicks the butt into the bushes. He stretches one hand out into the rain and turns it palm up.

I watch the water slip between his fingers. He turns back to smile at me, and it knocks the wind out of me how beautiful he is. Red-gold hair and bright eyes against the dark blue of the night. That curtain of rain behind him. He takes my breath away.

Lex comes back to the picnic table and sits beside me again.

“Has anything happened to you?” I ask him. “Since you’ve been here? Anything weird?”

He raises one red eyebrow and grins at me.

“I mean—I went skinny-dipping.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Other than that.”

He’s quiet for a minute. Then he takes a long drink from the wine bottle. “A couple of nights ago, Jude and I were gonna sneak down to the barn. We were looking for someplace we could be alone. You know? And it was late. Maybe one o’clock in the morning. But Jude has a key, so we thought—” He stops. Swallows another swig of wine. “But we didn’t make it.”

“What do you mean, you didn’t make it?”

Lex shrugs. “We never could find it. The barn. We kept walking. And I know we were walking the right direction. But we never came to it.”

“I get so turned around here,” I tell him, and I hope he can’t hear the fear in my voice. “It’s easy to get lost.”

Lex turns toward me, and I think he’s going to say something, but instead he leans in close and presses his lips against mine. I gasp in surprise, and when my mouth opens, I feel his tongue against the ridges of my teeth. Just for a second. His kiss is tender. Sweet. Then he pulls back and giggles. My mouth is tingling. That damn minty ChapStick.

“Oh shit,” he says, and his hand flies to his mouth. He throws his head back. Laughs. Takes another swallow of wine. “I guess I’m drunk, too.”

We’re both laughing now. Leaning against each other and laughing so hard that tears are running down our cheeks.

I scoot down so I’m lying on the picnic table with my head in Lex’s lap, looking out at my stars.

Cole’s stars.

Lex is raking his fingers through my hair. “Promise me you’ll be my best friend forever,” he says.

I smile up at him. “I will if you’ll let me.”