Then Tyler was upon her. He leaned toward her, and she backed away from the girls. “Hey,” he said beerily. “I’m sorry about the other night.”

The box in the closet of Alexa’s mind began to creak open. “When you spit on me?” she said.

“That’s not what happened!” He furrowed his brow. He was either perplexed or pretending to be perplexed. A confusing thought crawled out of the box. What if Tyler was right and Alexa was wrong? What if she’d misunderstood? Maybe he didn’t spit on her. Maybe he . . . sweated on her. And she got confused. But if he didn’t spit on her, what was he apologizing for?

He had her by the arm and he was pulling her behind a tree where she couldn’t see the eleven-year-olds.

“Tyler!” she hissed. “I’m supposed to be watching Morgan and her friends. What are you doing?” She turned her head to peer around the tree. The bad men, she thought. There was a thrum of noise and energy running through the park. She needed to make sure Morgan and Company were all together before the fireworks started. She especially needed to keep an eye on Katie.

Tyler put one hand on either side of her head and turned it so she was facing him again. “I just can’t stand the thought of you with anyone else, Alexa. It just makes me. So. Mad.” With every syllable he squeezed her face a little harder.

His face was very close to hers; she wasn’t sure if he was going to kiss her or bite her. “Tyler,” she said. “Stop it. Let go. You’re hurting me.” Was nobody seeing this? She was surrounded by hundreds, thousands, of people, yet she felt completely alone. The bad men, she thought. The bad men, the bad men, the bad men.

Then the floodlights near the baseball field went out. The world plunged into darkness. There was a pop pop pop coming from the river. A bang bang bang. The crowd let out an appreciative ooooooooh. Tyler dropped his hands from Alexa’s face, and as suddenly as he’d appeared, he was gone.

60.

The Squad

The first two weeks of August always go by in the blink of an eye. That’s just the way summer is. You start July thinking the season will last forever, wondering how you’ll fill the days, and then the next time you turn around the nights are longer, the days are shorter, and there are back-to-school advertisements everywhere.

61.

Rebecca

Alexa was lying on one of the loungers on the back patio in her black strapless bikini. There wasn’t much sun left—evening was coming—and the air was cumbrous with humidity.