I helped him out. “Obsessed with it.”

Clearly that was the word he’d been too polite to use first. “Obsessed,” he repeated. “I’ll tell you, Brody was thrilled about getting paired with you.”

“He was?”

“Yeah. And today . . .” Will gestured to me. His hand stopped in midair, roughly on a parallel with my stomach. I wasn’t sure what he meant by this until he said, “Brody was happy to see you. And he was even happier to see you looking like you do today.”

“Ah.”

“And I know this is none of my business, but he has a girlfriend.”

I took another sip of water and said slowly, “I know.”

“I don’t think Brody takes any of this seriously,” Will said. “Not the elections, not dating. You take it very seriously, like I do. That was my whole problem at first with Tia.”

“I get it.”

He drained the rest of his water and handed the thermos back to me.

“Here.” I dug another bottle out of the ice for him and pointed toward the pavilion. “Go lie down in there, where it’s actually cool. I’ll tell Tia where you went.”

“Thanks.” He stood and turned down the sandy path. The dog jerked to her feet in one motion and followed him.

“No, thank you.” As I watched Will go, I heard my own nonsensical words. No, thank you for telling me the guy I have a crush on has no real interest in anybody, including me.

Except that Will had compared Brody and me to Tia and himself.

And he and Tia were now together.

Did I have a chance with Brody?

No, that was ridiculous. To accept that interpretation of what he’d said, I would have to ignore his whole exposition on Brody already has a girlfriend and it isn’t you.

Frustrated with myself, I stomped back to the towels, kicking up more sand than necessary, and threw myself down next to Tia.

“What’s wrong?” she asked with her eyes closed. She didn’t even look over to see who’d collapsed next to her. Tia was laid back, and I envied her.

“This is not what’s wrong,” I said, “but I sent Will to the pavilion because he was melting.”

“He claims he’s normal and Floridians are made of asbestos. What’s wrong with you? Does your eye still hurt? Will said you had a real problem with your contact and Brody came to your rescue while Kennedy just sat there.”

“My eye is better.” Then I said flatly, “And I went to the pavilion and made out a little bit with Brody.”

Instantly she rolled over on her side. Her dark eyes were wide. “You don’t make out a little bit. The definition of ‘making out’— Where’s my phone?” She felt underneath her towel. “Without even looking it up, I can tell you that ‘making out’ means you’re hot and heavy. You can’t do it halfway.”

I told her solemnly, “So I made out with Brody.”

“You’re turning into me,” she breathed, pretending to be horrified.

“No. You’ve made out with random people, and Sawyer. But you never had a boyfriend before Will, so you were never cheating. I’m a cheater.” Honestly, I didn’t care about this as much as I should have.

She shrugged as best she could while lying on one arm. “Brody’s a cheater too.”

“Yeah,” I said, looking down the beach for him. He’d stopped about halfway from the pavilion with his back to me and his hands on his hips. Grace, Cathy, and Ellen walked toward him, presumably victorious after their foray for beer. Ellen staggered a little.

Tia still watched me. “Will told me he was going to warn you about Brody.”

“He did, after it was too late.” I looked around us to make sure nobody had plopped down near us on the towels. Then I admitted, “Brody felt me up a little.”

“Oh, good Lord!” Tia cried.

“Oh, you can’t get felt up halfway either?” I asked quickly. “Then Brody felt me up a lot. Don’t tell Kaye. Grace is sure to ask her what she knows. Kaye can’t spill it if she doesn’t have the info.”

Tia propped herself up on one elbow. “Can I just ask what the fuck you think you’re doing?”

I gasped. “Are you judging me?”

“Of course I’m not judging you!” Tia exclaimed. “I’m just wondering what’s gotten into you. The day of the elections, I told you to go after Brody, and you just reminded me you already had Kennedy. Today you’re setting up clandestine meetings and letting Brody grope your bosom.”

I laughed so hard at her phrasing that I sucked in some sand and spent the next minute spitting it out and wiping it off my tongue. Continuing to giggle didn’t help this process.

Finally I sighed and said, “This whole election has shaken me out of my comfort zone. I thought all I wanted was to spend a little time with Kennedy, and take pictures, then sit at home by myself and tweak them on the computer. But if this is supposed to be the most exciting time of my life, I’m wasting mine. The rest of the United States comes to Florida for adventure. I actually live here and I don’t have any fun at all.”

“You started taking pictures because it was fun,” she pointed out.

“True.” Tia and I hadn’t worked through any of my problems, but I felt better talking to her. She was so upbeat about everything. My mood had improved. I sat up on my towel, half expecting the beach to hold wondrous surprises for me after all.