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“That’s Sawyer,” I said “Don’t take it personally He would pick on a newborn baby if he could think of a good enough joke You’ll be seeing lots more of Sahen school starts”

“The way , that doesn’t surprise me at all” Will stared at the beer can in his hand He took a breath to say so else

Just then theband drum major, DeMarcus, arrived to a chorus of “Heeeey!” frorandparents in New York A few of us gave Angelica, theby the hand, a less enthusiastic “Hey” The lukewar probably wasn’t fair It’s just that we rerade She’d probably changed, but nobody gave her the benefit of the doubt As she walked through, soht jot down their names and report back to their parents

I stood as DeMarcus spread his aron the beer I’? That’s a first’ But I guess since it’s beer, it’s fitting”

“Those New Yorkers really honed your sense of humor” I sat down to pull out a can for him Obviously it hadn’t occurred to him that, unless atoe of one of the largest sections and (in our own opinion) the most important section of the band I’d spent the whole suoing to happen I had one night left to live in that fantasy world

As I handed the beer up to DeMarcus, Angelica asked close to his shoulder, “Do you have to?”

“One,” he promised her “I just spent ten hours in the airport with my mother”

Will chuckled at that I thought y pirate wanted to eek friend Will made no move to introduce himself

As DeMarcus opened his beer and took a sip, I noticed old Angelica giving Will the eye Oh, no, girlfriend I lasered her with an exaggerated glare so scary that she actually startled and stepped backhen she saw

With a glance at Will, DeMarcus asked me, “Where’s Sawyer?”

Da I didn’t want to give Will the i,” I told DeMarcus dis later”

“I’ets here,” DeMarcus said True Sawyer often brought the boisterous college dropout waiters he’d already gotten drunk with on the back porch of the Crab Lab Or firecrackers Or both

As DeMarcus elica in tow, Will spoke in my ear “Sounds like you knoyer pretty well Is he your boyfriend?”

“Um” My relationship with Saas more like the friendship you’d fall into when there was nobodyin prison Everybody at school kneasn’t ether at parties because ere the first ones to get there and the last ones to leave I wasn’t sure how to explain this to an outsider without sounding like a drunk floozybecause, to be honest, I was so of a drunk floozy Not that this had botheredthat inforer

I said carefully, “We’ve been out, but we’re not together now” Changing the subject so fast that Will and I both risked neck injury, I asked, “What city are you from? Minneapolis?”

“No”

“St Paul?”

“No, Duluth”

“Never heard of it”

“I know” He raised the unopened beer can to his forehead again Perspiration was beading at his hairline and dripping toward his ear I felt sorry for hiot hot tomorrow

“What’s Duluth like?” I asked

“Well, it’s on Lake Superior”

“Uh-huh Minnesota’s the Land of a Thousand Lakes, isn’t it?” I asked Little had Mr Torade that I would later find it useful for picking up a Minnesotan

“Ten Thousand Lakes,” Will corrected rin

“Wow, that’s a lot of lakes You must have been completely surrounded Did you swim to school?”

He shook his head no “Too cold to swim”

I couldn’t iine this Too cold to swim? Such a shame “What did you do up there, then?” I ran my eyes over his muscular ar and sinewy boy such as Sawyer, but of an athlete who actively worked out I guessed, “Do you play football?”

His mouth cocked to one side He are I’d paid him a compliment about his body “Hockey,” he said

A hockey player! The bad boy of athletes who elbowed his opponent in the jaw just for spite and spent half the period in the penalty box I loved it!

But my reverence for him in my mind didn’t make it to my mouth I had to turn it into a joke “Ha!” I exclaimed “Good luck with that around here We’re not exactly a hockey mecca”

“Tampa Bay has an NHL team,” he reminded me

“Yeah, but nobody else here plays The NHL rinks are probably the only ones in the entirehockey in Tampa makes as much sense as the Jamaican bobsled team”

I’d ain, this ti for the first tiht not have a varsity hockey team

I sipped e this conversation, which I’d really been digging He held his beer in both hands like he was trying to get all the cold out of it without actually drinking it His eyes roved the corners of the porch, and I wondered whether he was searching for Angelica as a way to escape froot tired of each other