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I turned to look sideways at hi hiave up on the sly look and enjoyed his soft lips on my skin “You have a Secret Make-Out Hideout?” I whispered with my head bent

“I do” His low voice against h me “Just for you”

“What are aiting for?” I hopped forward through the open door, into the truck

“You won’t regret it,” he said before he closed the door and rounded the truck to the driver’s side

Iforward to the instant he slipped back inside the truck and we laughed together again Decisionto an Adam-Related Catastrophe, and it wouldn’t be my last

2

“Adam,” Lori whispered I’d known her all my life I was used to her scent of warm skin and water But in the last couple of weeks she’d started wearing perfuht another whiff of it every time she shook my shoulder

Without opening et Her hair tickled my face I nuzzled her neck

“Adam Vader” Now her voice sounded pinched, like she was clenching her teeth “I a to remain calm so as not to alarm you, but wake the hell up already”

Thatdown at me I couldn’t see her features clearly in the shadowy cab of lowed pink in the light of sunrise

Sunrise!

“Oh, God” I sat up, duer side For the perfect end to a perfect day, I’d driven her here My secretinto the lake with a dirt road leading to it, a primo lot that nobody had built a house on yet It was at the other end of our neighborhood, and we could actually see our houses and my parents’ marina from here My truck was hidden from their view by the trees around us, which was the beauty of it I loved having the upper hand for once in my life

But that was last night Now the sun peeked over the highway bridge in the distance and reflected in the smooth lake

“What time is it?” I looked toward the clock in the dashboard of my truck, which hadn’t worked since probably 1995

“I don’t know,” she said “My cell phone went in the lake with o I’d say five thirty or six” I pulled my own cell phone from my pocket “It’s five fifty-three, and my mother’s called me eleven times”

“Why didn’t it ring?” Lori wailed

“My brothers kept textingup with you I turned off the sound” Which was shootingnition and threw the truck into reverse We backed through the cloud of our own dust, which billowed through the open s and glinted in the sunlight As soon as I hit a clearing with more room, I jerked the truck around in a hasty three-point turn and hit the gas

“Stupid,” Iout late She would get in irl, and her dad was kind of high-strung Plus, we’d slept all night on that abandoned point with the s open I should have protected her better Maybe I’d watched snippets of tooasleep with a wo for snakes

Lori crossed her ar herself The air was heavy with humidity, and chilly This was the coldest part of a summer day in Alabama “Faster,” she said

In the three weeks I’d had ot Most people, Lori included, thought this was not a good idea It was a rush for her to tell as harder “Are you sure you want ether” I felt her looking at aze and held it for one second, two seconds, three seconds longer than I should have been keeping my eyes off the road

The truck hit gravel I swung the steering wheel to point the truck back onto the pavement

She laughed “Better not”

“You thought about it, though” I grinned

“I did” She slid her hand onto h, which was bare below my shorts “Go faster”

I putweirdly against the dense woods flashing past the open s on both sides

“No, wait, stop, stop, stop!”

I stomped on the brake and threw h the windshield before I realized she had put on her seat belt (I had not) The truck screeched to a halt I expected to see the huge body of a deer I’d just missed as it crashed into the woods and escaped—but outside the truck, thewas pink and still “What is it?”

“Sorry,” she sighed “I just realized we need to pick up where we left off last night and enjoy it for a few ain for a while” Her eyes were sad as she said this I should have bear-hugged her and coirl of your dreaht, tells you toto tell her you’d rather just hold each other for a while? Why, hell no I put the truck in park

Then I put my hands on her face and kissed her She opened her mouth Funny that she’d been so unsure about this e’d first fake dated a couple of weeks ago, but she caught on quickly Sometimes she even took the lead Like now She drew back froently to ue A chill ran through me and I shuddered

She kissedreed coured out she was crying

I kissed her cheek “Hey Don’t cry” I couldn’t stand to see her cry She’d already bawled in the boat e got together I’d gotten a little watery-eyed myself, which my brothers loved It had been such a relief to call herFor the happiest day of my life, the one I’d drea a lot

As it turned out, ould have good reason

But then, in the truck, I didn’t know this I wiped her tears aithabout?”

“We’re finally together,” she sobbed, “and noon’t go out for the rest of the suround me until Labor Day!”