He nods but doesn’t say anything else about it. We load five more canoes onto the rack, and then start shoving oars in the empty cavity of the truck bed. Dad climbs into the driver’s seat and hangs his elbow out the open window. “You sure you’re up for this?”

I know what Dad means—you’re sure you want to work at River Depot? Sure that after all these years avoiding it with baseball camps and pitching clinics and extra workouts, I’m not going to let him down this summer? I won’t be in charge—I don’t know enough now to do anything other than grunt work. Ellis starts training me this weekend, getting me up to speed on all the things I didn’t learn the last four years, while he was working there without me.

I’m excited to work with my best friend. Excited I’ll mostly be helping tourists who don’t know me, and not locals who will ask questions. A three-month break from teammates, classmates, and coaches sounds like a best-case scenario. This summer I need to figure out who I am without baseball, and I don’t need to be reminded of who I was with it.

OLIVIA

“I could stay here.” I turn my eyes from the ceiling and look into Zander’s blue eyes. It’s the first day of summer break, and I’m lying on his bed in a post-lunch food coma.

“In my room? You’re not supposed to be up here to begin with.”

I think of what Aunt Sarah would say, and snort a little. Even when we were in middle school and just friends, I always had strict instructions not to be in Zander’s room. I’m not sure what the goal was, because Aunt Sarah is far from conservative and I wasn’t even thinking about sex back then—I certainly wasn’t about to do it with his parents down the hallway. Maybe it just made her feel more like a mother figure? I had just moved in with her full-time, and she was still getting used to the whole pseudo-parent thing. Sometimes I think she still is.

“Your parents don’t care,” I say.

“I guess.” Zander doesn’t sound convinced. He sounds indifferent. He’s been weird the last week, ever since I told him I was potentially moving. Weird, because he’s taken a temporary hiatus from ranting about his baseball woes, and is now talking about almost nothing. Potentially, because I still have no intention of actually leaving. Aunt Sarah seems to be open to options, so now I just need some options.