Half an hour later, I was staring at Sam’s front door in total disbelief. Seven cousins, three aunts, and an ancient grandfather had turned up for an impromptu reunion. There was so much shouting going on inside their house, the racket could be heard all the way to the sidewalk. Sam had looked like she was trying her best not to cry.

I wandered aimlessly down the street, a half-formed plan about catching a bus and hanging out in a movie theater until closing in my mind.

“Where are you going?”

I looked up and realized I’d almost walked past Mike’s house.

He was sitting on the front steps, his legs sprawled on the grass in front of him. It was almost full dark.

“Why aren’t you inside yet?” I asked him.

“I told Aaron I’d make sure you found a place to stay.” He jerked his head in the direction of Sam’s house. “What’s going on over there? They’re very...loud.”

“Family gathering,” I explained.

“Really? Ours tend to be very quiet. Come here.”

I sighed, too tired to be annoyed by his peremptory tone, and came closer.

He got to his feet. “Want me to drive you somewhere else? Melman’s place is half an hour away, at least, but if we hurry...”

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked, not bothering to conceal my suspicion.

“Because I want to get inside your pants,” he said sarcastically. “Is that what you’re expecting to hear?”

I felt my face heat up. “No,” I lied. “Look, I’m fine. Maybe I’ll just walk home and steal my car back.”

He opened his mouth to respond but the front door opened just then, spilling light upon the both of us. He half-turned to look at an extremely pretty young woman standing in the doorway.

“Mike, dinner’s ready...” She noticed me, and a strange expression came over her face. She didn’t look too happy to see me. “Oh. I didn’t know you’d invited a friend over,” she said, coldly polite. “You should have told me.”

“You don’t expect me to live like a hermit, do you?” Mike asked her sarcastically. “But I haven’t invited her over yet. I was just going to.”

“I can leave,” I said hastily. The woman’s eyes were surprisingly cold.

Mike raised an eyebrow at me. “This is the second time I’ve asked you to join me for dinner. You’re not turning me down a second time, are you? That would be just rude.”

“But—”

“You’re having dinner here. You don’t have anywhere else to go, anyway.”

“I’ll go set the table,’ the woman said. She abruptly turned on her heel and disappeared back inside.

“She’s pretty,” I said after a moment. “But, ah, isn’t she a little too old for you?”

“That’s disgusting. She’s my aunt, you know.”

“That’s your aunt?”

He rolled his eyes and turned to go in. “Come on.”

“I don’t know...” My stomach rumbled again. Maybe he didn’t hear it all the way over there—

“Your stomach says yes.”

“How could you have heard that?”

He smiled his millisecond smile again. “Come on,” he repeated. “Before I change my mind.”

I hesitated for a moment, but my hunger and exhaustion eventually won over my pride and reluctance. I followed him inside.

Mike led me through the bright, elegant living room, with two adjacent walls made entirely of glass, and into a wide room with a baby grand piano in the middle and an elaborate sound system along one wall. There was a window seat at the far end of the room, and his cello stood nearby.

“You have a music room?” I asked, bemused, as I studied a shelf full of records.

“Jennifer has...grand tastes,” he said dryly.

“Your aunt? Does she play the piano?”

“A little, but music isn’t her thing. Hardings are artsy types in general. Painting, design, architecture, things like that. We’re taught music, but the talent doesn’t really run in the family.”

“But you’re a Harding.”

He smiled faintly. “Yes. But I’m my mother’s son, too.”

“The table’s set,” Jennifer announced, walking halfway into the room. “Mike, could I talk to you for a second?” And she glanced at me again. Though her hostility had lessened, her smile was somewhat fixed.

“Mike, wait,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe I should go—”

“Stay,” he said flatly. Then he took his aunt by the elbow and dragged her out of the room.

I sighed deeply and sat down by the piano.

They weren’t gone long. When they came back to get me, Jennifer had lost her animosity. Now she seemed oddly curious.

She fell into step beside me while Mike led the way.

“So you’re Nat Jenkins’ daughter. The one this idiot hit in the head with a soccer ball?”

“Yep. That’s me,” I said a little uneasily.

“He says you hate his guts.”

“Actually, yes,” I admitted. “Er...sorry. But we get along a little better now. I think.”

“Yeah, she means she doesn’t try to dropkick me anymore. She still treats me like I’m some kind of pervert, though,” Mike said sarcastically as we entered the dining room – which was also pretty classy. It wasn’t very big – there were only two of them, after all – but it was stylish.

“That smells fantastic,” I marveled, staring at the food laid out.

“Wait until you taste it.”

Jennifer looked pleased. “I do my best,” she said modestly.

“Oh, shut up,” Mike said, though he didn’t sound like he meant it.

“Isn’t he charming?” Jennifer gushed mockingly. “I can totally see why you’d want to dropkick him. I wish I could. But he’d probably sue me for child abuse or something.”

I laughed and wondered if I’d just misunderstood the glances she had given me earlier.

“Oh— Mike, I’m waiting for an important call and I left my mobile phone upstairs—”

“Fine,” he groaned and stomped out of the room to get it.

Leaving me. Alone. With his aunt.

I cleared my throat nervously.

“So you’re really not going out with him?” Jennifer asked suddenly, making me jump in my seat.

“Um...I’m seeing someone else.”

“Oh. Good, good. But you seem nice,” she said quickly. “I just don’t think he should be... He should concentrate on school right now. He has to pull himself together.”

What does she mean? Why does Michael need to pull himself together? “Er... Sure... But he does okay in school, I think. The school’s set him to tutoring kids.”

“I’m not talking about just his grades,” she sighed. “He’s smarter than my entire family put together. Well, at least Tonie’s there to keep an eye on him. Do you know Tonie Melman?”

So they really do get along well... “Yeah. She’s my cousin’s girlfriend.” I squirmed a little and wished Michael would hurry and come back.

She looked suddenly pleased. “Is she? Well, at least I know he’s hanging out with some good kids there. Not like—” she broke off and smiled, looking over my shoulder. “That was fast.”

“I’m starving.” Mike complained, handing her phone over. “And I have to save Jamie from you. Are you done interrogating her?”

Jennifer was unruffled. “Yes. Now, both of you eat your vegetables, okay?”

“You seem like you’re in a good mood,” a voice just behind me said late Thursday afternoon, two days after my dinner with Mike.

I stopped in my tracks and turned to stare at Tonie Melman. “What?”

“You’re, like, skipping,” she said, amused. “Are you going off to help Mike paint?”

“Yes. But that’s not what I’m skipping for,” I said quickly.

“I never said it was,” she said mildly, raising her eyebrows. She grinned. “See you tomorrow, JJ.”

“Go away,” I muttered under my breath. She was really annoying.

“Hey, JJ.”

Finally, a person that made me smile. “Jon! Hi! I haven’t seen you all day— You’re grinning like crazy. You’re scaring me.”

He laughed, kissing me on top of the head. He looked happy. “Thanks.”

I was confused. “Er... What for?”

He blinked at me. “You don’t need to pretend. Who else could it have come from?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, exasperated. I glanced at my watch. If he wasn’t going to get to the point any time soon, I was going to get yelled at.

He held up a thick, ancient book that looked deeply boring and obscure. “This. I’ve been looking for this forever. I told you about it before. Where did you get this? I’ve torn the bookshops apart.”

“Jonathan, I can’t even pronounce the author’s name. I have no clue where that book came from.”

He frowned. “But it was in my locker. And it had a red ribbon and a card with my name on it and everything.”

“Maybe Tonie put it there,” I suggested, although that sounded even more unlikely. Jonathan and Tonie somehow managed to avoid showing each other any kind of sibling affection. Last year, on Christmas day, Jonathan had given Tonie a pair of jeans four sizes too large. On purpose. The fight that had followed had ended with Tonie screaming that she was not that fat while whacking her brother repeatedly with a huge stuffed dog Aaron had given her.

I knew they adored each other. Only they showed it by arguing all the time.

I glanced at my watch again. “I really have to go,” I told him apologetically and pressed a hurried kiss on his cheek. “I’ll call you when I get home!” I tossed over my shoulder as I ran off.

I was sort of skipping.

Now that Mike and I were more or less getting along, I didn’t mind having to help him. He could be really nice, if he wanted to be. Plus, it was fun to tease him. He had a whole repertoire of snappy comebacks.

I reached the gym doors and pushed them open. I was going to have to put my foot down about the three-hour sessions, though. My arms were going to—

My jaw fell open and I stopped in my tracks.

Mike was already there, but I don’t think he cared that I was late at all. I don’t think he cared about much, really. He was far too busy.

He was standing by the far side of the wall we were painting. We hadn’t gotten around to filling in the outlines he’d drawn for that. That was fortunate, because the unidentifiable red-haired girl in the cheerleading outfit he had pressed up against it would have become a paint-covered mess otherwise.

I couldn’t tell who it was – they were kissing far too deeply for that, and Mike’s hands were absolutely everywhere. I felt my face beginning to flame and wondered if I should clear my throat and stop them or simply run away.

Then a loud, shocking sound just behind me made me jump and I realized in dismay that I had unthinkingly released the gym door and it had slammed shut.

The redhead reacted first. She shoved Mike away, hurriedly straightening her skirt, and cleared her throat uselessly.

Harding didn’t look too surprised to see me. He did, however, look a little disappointed.

“Gee, I’m so sorry for interrupting,” I said sarcastically. “Would you like me to leave so you can carry on?”

“Yes?” Mike said hopefully.

The girl – her name was Denise Campbell, I recognized her from P.E. – giggled and playfully hit him in the arm. “Mike! I have to go, anyway. Katie will kill me. See you!” she said cheerfully and kissed him noisily on the cheek before sashaying out of the gym.

I expressed my disgust as soon as she had vanished. “I can’t believe you. I mean – Denise Campbell!”

He looked totally blank. “Who?”

“The girl you were just making out with! She’s forever chasing after popular guys... You didn’t even know her name?”

“Gosh, you’re right! And I had my heart set on marrying her!”

“Everything’s a joke to you! You’re disgusting! And I was actually starting to think you weren’t so bad!” Then I stopped because I hadn’t wanted to say that.

His eyes grew wide. “Really? Wow. I feel so horrible now. I wanted so much for you to like me,” he said, the sarcasm in his voice increasing by the second. “I don’t know why you’re so worked up. People make out all the time. What do you care if I do? It’s not like you’re my girlfriend.”

I snapped my mouth shut.

“Are you jealous?”

“Drop dead, Harding.”

He laughed at that.

“I don’t think I want to help you out to today,” I told him petulantly. It was probably childish, but it was the only thing I could think of to say.

“That’s all right,” he said calmly, putting away his brushes. “I’m done.”

“You’re what?”

“I’m finished for today. Come back tomorrow. Thank you very much. What else should I say?”

I blinked. “Isn’t it rather early?”

“You’re just late. And I have a date. I guess.”

“With Denise?”

“I’m not obliged to answer that, you know.”

“I’m just asking! As a... a concerned friend.”

“Since when are we friends?”

I threw my hands up in the air. “Oh, forget it! Just die old and friendless, then. See if all your girls will still care when your cheeks are all wrinkly.”

“You are, by far, the strangest girl I have ever met,” he suddenly said, rather seriously, out of the blue.

I didn’t know what to say to that, and I was saved from having to think of something when the entire cheerleading squad came back from practice.

Katie Tanner bounded over and hung onto Mike’s shoulder. “Hey. You done?”

“Yeah. I’ll wait for you outside.”

I stared at them in horror.

“Hey, JJ,” Katie smiled at me. Then she ran off to the locker room.

“You’re going out with Katie?” I asked in a strangled voice. “She’s my friend. Mike, if you’re just messing around—”

“Katie can take care of herself. Leave me alone, Jenkins. I’m not in the best of moods today.”

“You’re always snippy,” I murmured as he walked away, and an inexplicable, unidentifiable feeling settled into my stomach.