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“Yeah, no thanks.”

A.J. lay back beside her on the checkered picnic blanket that served as protection from the scorching sand beneath them. Since he and Bren were leaving for Ireland in five days, he’d better soak up some sunshine while he could get it.

“This is really it, huh?” Nat asked.

A.J. opened his eyes directly into the blazing sun.

“Really what?” he asked, hoping he didn’t need to borrow Dad’s identity cane.

“Come on, don’t make me get all emotional again.”

He sat up just as lobster-Bren was thrown into the lake by Dustin and Suveer.

“Well, I don’t wanna cry again either,” A.J. said, remembering the teary campfire exchanges last night. It was embarrassing in the sober light of day—they still had another two nights before they headed back to Moose Jaw for the farewell party his mom insisted on throwing.

“Then come back sooner. A year’s way too long.”

His family was planning on spending Christmas in Glenbridge so they could meet Maura and see the sights, which meant he and Bren likely wouldn’t make it back until next summer. Bren didn’t say it, but A.J. was sure he was sick of eighteen-hour travel days, too.

“You could always tag along with my parents,” he told Nat. “See the Emerald Isle during the most miserable time to be there.” His brow furrowed then. “I guess that won’t be much different from Vancouver in the winter, huh?”

“If you can guilt my parents into paying for it, I’m down.”

He closed his eyes and stretched out on the blanket again. “I think I can probably work my magi—Ugh!”

A sopping wet somebody that he hoped was Bren flopped down on him with maximum body coverage.

“You’re freezing!” A.J. yelled at a close-up of Bren’s hazel eyes.

“Right,” Bren said, ignoring A.J.’s struggles for freedom. “What’s the big idea letting those two gang up on your man like that?”

“You could have hung out with the civilized people and stayed warm.”

“What do you think I’m doin’ now?” Bren asked, his arms tensing around A.J.’s back as he shook his head like a dog.

“Dude!” Nat hissed, shuffling away from the spray.

“Sorry sis. Friendly fire.”

“I changed my mind,” she said. “Please stay in Ireland for the full four years.”

She gave them another disgusted look before getting up and breaking into a sprint for the water.

“Proper mad, that one,” Bren said, refusing to let go. The heat radiating from his sunburn warmed the chill he’d brought from the lake. But it would have been nice if Bren would return the use of his limbs.

“You knew that going in,” A.J. said as his hands made patches of white wherever they touched Bren’s skin.

“True. Now are you gonna get out on that dock and defend your man’s honor or am I gonna have to go drag Yu down here?”

Yu had said he was beached out around two in the afternoon and returned to the cabin. And because it was barely an hour later, A.J. didn’t think Bren would have much luck, even if it weren’t an empty threat.

“But it’s so warm over here.”

Bren’s eyes flickered and the fight left his body with a sigh.

“Fine.” He got up with all the grace of a baby giraffe made of rubber bones and towered over him. “I guess if the water’s too cold for my big tough Canadian lad, then there’s nothin’ I can do, like.”

Things were a lot simpler when Bren hadn’t mastered which buttons to push. With the remaining traces of his Cats’-honed reflexes, A.J. leapt from the ground and wrapped his arms around Bren’s waist. With some bend in his legs and gritted teeth, he lifted Bren off the ground, but only because he was standing perfectly still.