“Don’t take this the wrong way,” said Levi, breaking the unhurried silence, “but you don’t feel like a stranger to me. Even though, you know, you sort of are.” He threw me a quick glance. “I’ve never—I mean, this hasn’t ever happened to me.”

I thought about Chad and Penny and wondered if we really knew each other as well as we thought, or if we’d just gotten content with being friends out of habit. I shifted on my feet. “Maybe we knew each other in another life.”

“Nah,” said Levi. “Trust me, I’d remember.” He playfully nudged my shoulder.

My bare skin tingled at the unexpected, pleasurable contact. I wanted him to do it again. And again. And again. It startled me how young I felt right then. Not the kind of young that made someone go head over heels, wanting to tattoo someone’s name on their shoulder or anything like that. But for the first time in years, I wondered what it would be like to kiss someone other than Elodie. The taper of his neck made me uncomfortably, wonderfully aware of how much I wanted to press my lips to the warm hollow under his jawline.

“You wouldn’t,” I said. I meant it to sound like a joke, but it came out like a challenge. My body prickled. What was I doing? I couldn’t flirt with a summer boy!

He caught my eye, the breeze ruffling his hair just right so he looked like he was in the frame of a movie. “Yeah,” he confirmed, voice grave and studious. “I would.”

My reservations whooshed out of me.

We shared the moment, smiles lingering on both our faces, until it was broken by Lorcan’s shout of “Hey, Babe!”

I headed back to the shack, squeezing my way through the throng of people, to accept the newspaper-clad bundle Lorcan handed me. “Bon appétit,” he said, handing me a bunch of napkins.

“Thanks.”

“Who’s he?” Lorcan asked with frank interest. He wiggled his eyebrows in Levi’s direction. “Doesn’t look like one of Penny’s friends.”

“He’s here for the residency at the art center. He’s, uh, Penny’s mentor.” I immediately wanted to kick myself. He was more mine than he was Penny’s. Then I wanted to kick myself again. Levi wasn’t a rope in a game of tug-of-war; he belonged to himself first and only.

Lorcan’s eyebrows shot up. “And you’re dating him?” Even he knew how well that would go over with my possessive ex–best friend.

“It’s a date. One. Dating would imply plural dates.” I cleared my throat. “And we’re just hanging out, it’s really casual.”

“Then why are you so pink?”

“It’s hot over here! Your firepit is making it about a hundred degrees!”

“Sure, sure. Blame it on the heat,” he said with a grin.