My punishment was staying in the office with this secretary for lunch and recess all week, drinking from my cup and drawing with highlighter pens on her various notepads. It was the best week I’d ever spent in school.

Chapter Fifteen

EVERY TREE ON THE ISLAND was bare by the first Wednesday of November, and Kira and I were wasting our early-release day in the library. School was out at noon, but instead of a stroll on the beach or in the woods, I was inside, trying to help her not freak out about her unstellar SAT scores and the related panic over applying to colleges that would wonder why she hadn’t enrolled in classes in the discipline she planned to major in, studio art, during this, her senior year.

“One hour, and then I’m walking to Salishwood early,” I whispered, and spread out some homework of my own.

“Ooh, look,” Kira whispered back, “it’s your husband.”

There he was, being all respectful, giving me the stupid “space” I had requested, all while being heart-stopping handsome. He dropped his backpack onto a table and pulled out some homework, completely missing us in a corner study nook.

“Look at your face,” Kira whispered. “Stop punishing yourself. Stop punishing him.”

“I’m not punishing anyone; I’m trying to use my brain and not my nether regions to make decisions.”

She put her hands on the table and got all Law & Order Olivia-Benson-in-the-interrogation-room on me. “Listen,” she whispered. “Look. Listen and look. This is not some dumb crush; you aren’t twelve years old, and you’re not being guided by your hoo-ha. You two never shut up, you yak nonstop with each other when you’re together about stuff no one else in the world understands or gives a shit about—do you know who had even half a clue what you guys were dressed as on Halloween?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “No one! Only you two! I’ve known him forever, and I know I only just met you, but I feel like you and I…”

“Yeah,” I said. “Me too.”

She smiled. “Okay, I get you, you get me. Great. So, then I can say, you know goddamned as well as I do that you aren’t messing around letting your hormones take you down a life-ruining path by being with him. And he’s definitely not. Put yourself and him out of his misery. Put me out of mine. Trust yourself. He’s waiting for you. Go get him.”