Fifteenth Summer

t e n

Liam or Luke or Landon was sauntering slowly about a block ahead of us. He was totally Ruby's type. Super-tan, super-muscly, and happily aware of both. It turned out he was moving at that turtlelike pace so he could check himself out in every store window he passed. He also had to shake his long, blond-tipped bangs out of his eyes every few steps.

Gina and I rolled our eyes at each other.

"Perfect summer fling material," she whispered to me.

"Ugh," I said. "I know where I'd fling him."

Ruby was so fixated on sneaking up on him, she didn't hear us. When she turned to whisper to us, her face was alight.

"I think he's heading to the Pop Guy," she whispered. "Score! I can get the boy and dessert!"

"If I hadn't just seen her in a bikini," I said to Gina, "I'd swear she was a boy."

" 'It's just a body,' " Regina mimicked. She put her hands on her hips and swished them back and forth. " 'What's the big deal?' "

I laughed so loud that Ruby turned around and glared at me. I tried, not very hard, to quiet down. Not that it mattered. Liam (or Luke or whoever) was completely oblivious to us.

He also didn't seem to be in the mood for a pop. Just before he reached the rainbow umbrella, he jaywalked across the street, heading for the corner.

And on the corner was—

"Oh, no," I breathed, skidding to a halt.

"What! What is it?" Ruby asked as she and Regina hopped off the curb in pursuit.

When I didn't answer, Ruby huffed with impatience and grabbed my hand. She dragged me across the street, almost getting us hit by a pickup truck while she was at it.

Before I knew it, we were pushing through the jangly front door of Dog Ear. Immediately after feeling a rush of best-bookstore-ever happiness, I was seized with panic.

Killian couldn't see me like this! I was supposed to be wearing my favorite yellow sundress with the bell-shaped skirt. I should have on mascara and lip gloss. My nose should not be bright red after a morning in the sun, and my hair . . . Well, there was nothing that could be done about my hair, but a big hat would have been nice.

I froze in my tracks. Ruby, still clutching my hand, tried to get me to follow her to the lounge, where her boy was headed (probably just to snap up some free snacks without even making the pretense of reading something). But I wouldn't budge. My eyes darted around the bookstore. Behind the half-dozen stacks of books on the corner of the L-shaped counter, there was a girl with cherry-red streaks in her hair. She was sitting on a stool, reading a book and scratching her head with a neon pink pencil. A gray-haired man was unpacking a box in the kids' section, and a half-dozen people were browsing the stacks. But I didn't see Killian.

I breathed a little easier, but I wasn't in the clear yet. I decided that if he didn't surface in three minutes, he probably wasn't there and I was safe.

Until then I was staying put. I pretended to study the table full of bestsellers just inside the door.

"Oh, fine!" Ruby whispered. "I should have known I couldn't count on you in a bookstore. Come on, Regina."

Gina followed her to the lounge. I watched as Ruby smoothly grabbed a random book off a shelf, then flopped herself onto the couch next to her boy. She kicked off her flip-flops and plunked her feet onto the coffee table, the better for L-boy to check out her legs.

It took, oh, about thirty seconds for him to recognize Ruby and start chatting with her. Regina perched easily on the couch arm and joined in on the banter. How did my sisters make it look so effortless?

I pulled my ragged little notepad out of my bag. I jotted down all the things that would have been going through my mind if I were Ruby:

Okay, so he remembers me, I wrote, channeling my sister, but that doesn't mean he likes me. What if he doesn't?

What if he does?

What if he does but he has a girlfriend?

What if I become his girlfriend and then find out he kisses like a fish?

I stopped scribbling and looked at Ruby's face. It was as open and sunny as the mason jar full of daisies on the coffee table. Clearly she was thinking none of these ridiculous things. I bet the only loop running through her head was: I look awesome! This hottie is the perfect match for me. Until I dump him to head back home.

I sighed as I flipped my notepad closed and tossed it back into my bag. When Ruby was born, she hogged all the badass genes, leaving none for me when I came along.

On the bright side, I realized, three minutes had passed and Killian hadn't emerged from a back room or from behind a bookshelf. He clearly wasn't there. Which meant I was free to dig into Dog Ear without worrying about how horrid I looked.

I glanced at Ruby and Gina. Gina had found a book and sunk into the leather chair to read it. Ruby was laughing with L-boy. She flicked one of her braids over her shoulder and propped her chin on her fist. She was laying it on thick! I had time.

I wondered if that book Killian had showed me, Beyond the Beneath, was still in stock. I started for the YA section.

But as soon as I passed the stacks of books on the corner of the counter, I realized I'd made a grave miscalculation.

The only person I'd seen behind the counter was the girl with the red streaks. But behind that barricade of books, there was plenty more room for another person. Especially if that person was sitting in a low chair and bent over a desk tucked below the counter.

I stifled a gasp as Killian came into my sight line. He was doing his letter C slouch again, so hunched over that you could almost see the knobby curve of his spine through the thin, white fabric of his T-shirt.

And in case you were wondering whether I thought his spine was as cute as his forehead, the answer, pathetically, is yes.

I froze in place, debating whether I should tiptoe back to the front door, where Killian couldn't see me, or dart into the stacks to hide among the books. Before I could do either, though, I got distracted by the thing on Killian's desk.

It was a huge poster. It had a blown-up image of a book cover in one corner. I couldn't read the name of the book, but I could see that it was an image of blue sky filled with perfect fluffy clouds.

Killian was inking in a sketch above the cover. It was a beautiful girl's face, gazing down at the book. She looked hazy and transparent—like she was one with the sky.

It was really, really good.

In another corner of the poster, Josh had made block letters in a funky, slanty font. I recognized it from the Dog Ear sign.

I glanced around at some of the other posters on the walls, each advertising an author reading or book launch party. Killian's same leaning font was on every one.

Other than that, they were all wildly different. One poster—for a book about a London punk—featured E.B. the dog with a Mohawk, black eyeliner, and safety pins in his floppy ears. Another, for a campy zombie book, had a funny portrait of a zombie gnawing on a human arm like it was a cob of corn. Still another, for a children's picture book, had a pigeon pitching a fit from all different angles, like a police mug shot.

Clearly Killian had made all of these.

With my mouth hanging open in surprise, I glanced back at him. That's when I saw that he was staring at me!

As our eyes met I snapped my mouth shut with such force, I felt my teeth jangle a bit.

Killian did the exact same thing.

I didn't know whether to burst out laughing or to duck my disheveled head and run out of Dog Ear. Given my lack of makeup, I kind of wanted to do the latter.

But given Killian's adorable face?

I stayed.

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