Gabriel looked back out the window and picked at the weather stripping along the glass. “Mostly. I drove her home last week and her father told me off.”

“He told you off?”

Michael sounded pissed, but Gabriel couldn’t tell if it was directed at him or Mr. Forrest. “Yeah. Said he was going to charge me with trespassing and statutory rape.”

“What an asshole.”

Gabriel smiled tentatively, as if Michael might start on him next. “Yeah. He is.” He hesitated. “Thanks. For what you said.”

Michael nodded. “Thanks for not setting his car on fire.”

Silence streamed through the truck again, but there wasn’t any strain to it this time. Gabriel glanced over again. “What did he mean, about the custody stuff? And about the company?”

Michael sighed. “He’s not a judge, is he?”

“No. A lawyer.”

“I should have figured. You don’t have to worry about the custody stuff. It comes up for review every spring. You know that. You and Nick will be eighteen anyway, so . . .” Michael shrugged.

“But Chris?”

“Chris will be fine.”

“But—”

“Seriously.” Michael looked away from the road now. “He’ll be fine. That’s the last thing you need to worry about.” He paused. “As long as you can stay out of trouble, I can scrape one more year out of the juvenile system.”

As long as you can stay out of trouble. He was talking about the fires. Gabriel swallowed.

“What about the stuff with the company?”

“Something else you don’t need to worry about.”

Gabriel was on the verge of peeling the weather stripping right out of the window. “Come on.”

“Really. He’s bluffing.”

But Gabriel kept remembering Michael’s comment in the kitchen earlier. We can’t afford for anything to happen to the truck.

“You know,” said Michael, his voice careful, “when you told me we were picking up a girl, she’s not quite what I was expecting.”

Layne. Gabriel wished he could have picked her up and carried her into the house, all the while telling her father to fuck off. “I don’t think it matters anymore.”

“Just saying.”

Gabriel snorted. “I’m surprised you’re not just saying I need to stay away from her.”

“Yeah, well”—Michael rolled his eyes—“I already tried that with Chris and Becca, and look where it got me.”

Gabriel skipped dinner. Things were all right with Michael—for now—but he didn’t feel like putting on the same show for Chris and Nick, especially since Quinn and Becca were here. He holed up in his room again, iPod blaring in his ears.

He rolled his lighter across his knuckles, striking flame in time with the beat of the song.

His cell phone was in his other hand. Silent.

Not that he wasn’t checking it every fifteen seconds.

Surrounded by people, and he still felt so alone.