She looked guilty, then pulled out the neck of her T-shirt and peered inside. “I couldn’t find it on the band bus. Nine times out of ten, I’ve changed. I definitely would not run back to Sawyer or to anybody when I’ve made a promise to Will. Will is too fucking awesome.”

Sawyer finally stirred—whether because she’d said his name again or she’d said the F-word with such gusto, I didn’t know. He rolled onto his side, shifting his head on her thigh. Now that he might be awake-ish, I was even more alarmed at what she said next: “As long as you’re on a break with Aidan anyway, why not experiment, so you won’t spend your entire life since you were fourteen with one guy? I’m sure Sawyer would be glad for you to use him.”

I cut my hand back and forth violently across my throat, hoping the horrified look on my face told her how serious I was about her shutting up. Even Harper shook her head.

Ignoring Harper, Tia gave me her best Who, me? face and put her hands up like she couldn’t imagine what she’d done wrong.

I already felt vulnerable because Aidan had broken up with me and Sawyer seemed to have rejected me. If Sawyer was playing possum and heard this discussion, I would die of embarrassment. Desperate to keep her from saying anything else, I found a notepad printed with the B and B logo, plucked a pen out of the side-table drawer, and wrote her an angry note. “Sawyer wld not b ‘glad 4 me 2 use him,’ WTF. And if I did, Aidan wld never go out w me again.” I tore it off the pad—silently—and reached across the coffee table with it. Harper half stood to grab it, then delivered it to Tia. Harper read it over her shoulder.

Tia snapped her fingers, meaning she wanted my pen. I winced at the noise but handed the pen to Harper, who delivered it. Tia scribbled an answer below my note. This took so long, and I was so afraid of what she’d say, that I had half a mind to look over her shoulder while she was still writing. I was afraid this might rouse Sawyer—with my panicked breathing or the sound of my heart palpitations. Finally she gave the paper to Harper, who read it with a perplexed expression, then handed it to me.

“Aidan wld b more likely 2 go out w u again bc he wld see ur not waiting around 4 him & his Higgs boson BULLshit. In the meantime u cld experiment w Sawyer. Tell me u don’t want 2 & ur lying like a dog.” Under this she’d drawn a dog stick figure with its tongue hanging out, lying on what appeared to be several yards of shag.

“Shhh,” Harper said, even though nobody had said anything for several minutes. I listened, though. Underneath the drone of TV brides, I recognized Will’s voice and Brody’s laugh on the other side of the front door.

“We’d better go out there before they ring the doorbell and wake up my mom,” Harper said more quietly than we’d been speaking before, as if my written exchange with Tia had caused a pall to descend over the night.

“They won’t,” Tia said as loudly as ever. “Brody wouldn’t risk her wrath. They’re plotting something.”

“Then we’d better go out there before they execute their plot and get me in enormous trouble,” Harper said.

“I’m curious what they’ll do,” Tia said. “Wait.”

We waited. The only lights were still the flickering color from the TV and the soft glow from the streetlights through the window curtains. The only sound was the whisper of televised voices. Then Will’s voice again, hushed, and Brody’s.

Suddenly the fireplace seemed to explode, making me squeal and Tia jump. Sawyer grunted and rolled all the way over on Tia’s thigh with his back to the room.

Harper peered into the fireplace. She rummaged in the ash and brought out a tennis ball.

“Brilliant,” Tia said. “You’re right, Harper, we have to stop the rogue teens before they cause more harm.” She half rose. Sawyer threw both arms over his head to block out sound and light.

“Kaye, come over here right now.” Tia said it with such authority, and I was so surprised at this, that I obeyed, edging between the sofa and the coffee table. She rolled out from under Sawyer and held his upper body suspended until I sat down where she’d been. She laid Sawyer’s head in my lap.

And then . . . I’m not sure what I’d expected to happen next, but it wasn’t this: Tia and Harper left the room as fast as they could go, closing the front door carefully behind them.

Warmth washed over me, followed by a case of the shivers. I couldn’t believe, after all the teasing I’d suffered at Sawyer’s hands for the past two years, he was in my lap. The night had suddenly come way closer to a wild fantasy I’d only half acknowledged: that we would end up together.

But he was asleep. I was convinced now that I felt his deep, even breaths against my hand. An Oscar-winning actor couldn’t fake it this well. And when Tia had ordered me over, it almost seemed she was calling on me to protect his rest, not to wake him or flirt with him or make Aidan jealous.

In front of the house, somewhere just beyond the door, Harper talked in a low voice. “I’m surprised you’re still up. You got hit pretty hard in the third quarter.”

“Yeah,” Brody responded. “I don’t feel that kind of thing until the next day. You have about eight hours left to use me.”

“Oh, really. Use you how?” Harper’s tone was knowing and provocative—like Tia’s was all the time. I’d never heard Harper speak this way before. I recalled what she’d hinted to me in the van about Brody and her exploring each other.