“Sure you can. Once we get it fixed up it’ll be good as new.” Sherri wished Raylee could be normal. Life was easier for girls who could smile and giggle and get excited about something as simple as a bike. Raylee was more complicated. Sherri appreciated that the kid wanted to stuff the entire world in her brain by reading the encyclopedia, but where would that get her? “You need a bike. You’ll never have friends around here if you can’t get to where they are.”

“I don’t want friends. I just want to be with you, but you’re never here.”

“I have a job. I need to work, just like your mom and dad need to work. C’mon, we’ll take it to the Mobil. They’ve got oil and air. And if you act stupid enough, those guys’ll do anything for you. Just watch.”

Sure enough, Pete Becker was working at his father’s station. Pete was big and blond, and he’d played football. His dad owned a pontoon boat on Potter Lake—or “Potter’s pee-hole,” as everyone called it, because the lake was man-made and not as clear and fresh as Booth. All the popular kids took the boat out on nice summer days. Sherri used to have a crush on Pete until one afternoon, when they were juniors and were alone in the hallway, he told her she needed “a tickle” and started pawing her breasts right under her bra. She had to kick him to make him stop. She never said a word to Pete about it after the fact. She felt shame, but she figured that was the way guys behaved. Not until she’d started working at the resort, where a man could get thrown out for so much as tapping a Bunny on the shoulder, did she see how wrong he was to do what he’d done.

As soon as Pete saw Sherri approach, her hair still stiff and shiny and her face made up for her aborted shift at work, she saw him look at her with actual interest. She was no longer that awkward girl with the loud laugh who played the church organ. Now she was a Bunny. The women in town snickered at her behind her back, she knew—she’d assumed they were gossiping about her at Giles—but she could see by Pete’s expression that her status with men was newly elevated.

“Smile sweet as you can,” Sherri whispered to Raylee, who managed to look like she was frowning even when she tried to grin.

“Sherri Taylor, that you? What’re you doing home?”

“I have a few days off. And the kid here wants to ride my old bike, but just look at it.”

Raylee, wanting to please Sherri, smiled coyly.

Sherri bit her lip. “Do you happen to know where I could take this thing to get fixed?”