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A sudden memory of their kiss along the trail sent a flood of warmth through her. “Thanks. We’ll be there.”
“I have to make a run to Billings this afternoon, so this will be something easy, just steaks on the grill.”
Closing her eyes, Jolie imagined the wonderful aromas and taste of those steaks. “Sounds wonderful.”
For the rest of the morning, she tried to convince herself that it was thesteakthat sounded wonderful.
And not just the company of the man who occupied her thoughts far too much.
ANNIE SAT ONthe top step of the middle school entrance and lifted her face to the warm sun.
Charlie played baseball with the other boys at the playground after school these days, and there really wasn’t any point in walking downtown alone for an hour until Dad came.Boring.And then—lucky her—when Dad showed up, she had yet another appointment at Jolie’s clinic, where she’d be grilled once again about her diabetes.
With a sigh, she dug a new paperback novel out of the backpack at her side and started reading.
Until a shadow fell over the pages, she didn’t realize anyone had approached.
“Hi.”
Clint gave her a shy grin, and just like that she felt her heart do a somersault. “Hi.”
He’d barely spoken to her in school, but she’d watched him from afar and imagined what it might be like to date someone who was so ultimately, impossibly cool. She wouldn’t ever find out, though, because she could never think of a single thing to say when he walked by.
“Want to walk to the drugstore with us? I hear they got black cherry supreme in today.”
A few of his buddies loitered at the curb. Sara and Gina, too. A thrill of excitement rushed through her at the thought of being included in the crowd.
Clint might have a wild reputation around town, but if he’d asked her to help grease a car or mow a fifty-acre yard, she would have followed him anyway.And black cherry supreme ice cream?
Jolie’s words of warning buzzed in her ears, but Annie ignored them all. A treat now and then sure couldn’t matter much, especially since Dad was so strict at home. And the drugstore was just a block away. There was plenty of time.
Sparing a quick glance at her watch, she smiled up at him. “I...um...I’ve just got to be back here when my dad comes.”
“No sweat.”
Clint fell in step with her as they headed for the store, and just like that, her knees went weak and her throat turned dry.What did girls say to guys like him?She’d seen other girls laugh and flirt and attract guys like crazy. But how did they do it?
One of the boys walking ahead of them reached over and gave Sara’s ponytail a tug. “Hey, brainiac—no fair you getting a hundred on that history test. What did you do, study?”
“What’s that, a new concept?” She rolled her eyes and smiled at him, softening her reply. “You could try it sometime, just for kicks.”
He moved closer and their heads bent in a conversation Annie couldn’t hear. Sara made talking to a boy lookeasy.
The group split up inside the drugstore, the boys moving to a rack of magazines to flip through the latest issue ofCar and Driver,while Gina and Sara wandered over to the cosmetics counter.
Annie hesitated, feeling stupid and uncertain—should she follow Clint or the girls? There were so many things she didn’t know. Didn’t have anyone to ask. Not really, ’cause what would her dad know about all of this?
A shudder swept down her spine. The last thing she wanted to do was to get him started again about boys and—yuck—a discussion on what he called “the birds and the bees.”
The major embarrassment of her first period had been awful enough, when she’d needed to buy her supplies.
As soon as she’d started babysitting back home, she’d taken care of that on her own, never wanting to put those packages in the grocery shopping cart in front of him. If only Mom had lived...
With a sigh, Annie started toward the cosmetics counter.
And saw Gina slip a tube of lipstick into her pocket.
Annie stopped. Swallowed hard.
