Cam falls back on the blanket, cracking up. Willa lies back beside him, giggling, and for a long time they don’t do anything but laugh. Then he scrambles to his feet. “I’ll go get us some popcorn. Butter?”

“Absolutely.”

He kisses her quick. “Be right back.”

Willa watches the light fade to twilight, and when the first star appears, she wishes for Campbell to be hers. He returns with one large tub of popcorn and a large drink with two straws, and her heart thumps like she’s got an entire marching band in her chest. He sits down on the blanket. “Come here.”

Willa settles between his thighs, leaning back against his chest, as the movie previews begin. He kisses her shoulder and she feeds him a piece of popcorn. “Keep rewarding me with popcorn every time I kiss you and I’ll have to kiss you everywhere.”

“Not here.”

“Of course not here.” He laughs softly. “Around these parts they’re just not ready for the s-e-x.”

Willa isn’t sure she is ready for the s-e-x either. If the rumors about Cam are true, he’s in a whole other world of experience. What if he has porn star expectations? What if she’s bad in bed? She’s not even sure how to be good in bed. But Cam doesn’t mention sex again. He kisses the top of her head, the back of her neck, the palm of her hand—seemingly benign places that only make her want him more.

Campbell falls asleep during the second feature, sprawling out on his side. Willa lies facing him. She brushes his hair back from his face, and her breath catches in her chest as the lights of the movie play across his skin. Now she understands what it means to say you could stare at someone for hours. She could. She does.

He wakes when the car beside them revs up. He offers Willa a sleepy-eyed smile. “How long was I out?”

“Almost the whole movie.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

He leans forward and kisses her. “When Taylor asked me to stay away from her friends, I should have said no.”

“Well, I pinkie promised that I’d stay away from you.”

Cam laughs. “That’s serious business.”

“In middle school? Hell yes it is.”

As the cars line the lanes, all waiting their turn to leave the drive-in, he gathers Willa in his arms and they kiss until they’re the only ones left. On the road back to Minetto, they pass a thicket of trees. Cam stops and swings off his bike, dropping it into the grass on the side of the road. Willa isn’t sure what’s happening, but she does the same and follows him past a NO TRESPASSING sign into the trees, where he catches her up and pulls her to him.