“In the parking lot of the nature preserve,” he said. “About two miles from our house. She climbed into the bed of a truck that looks like mine, and some dude drove around for half a day before he noticed her in there.”
I crouched down to pet Vera. “She looks happy to be home.”
The dog’s ears stood up at the word and she gave me an expression like, You have no idea.
On their way out, they held the door for someone coming in, who turned out to be Camden. Followed by Max and Eliza.
“Hey,” said Camden, leaning across the counter to kiss me. I assumed it was going to be a quickie and drew away after a moment, but he reached out and pulled me back toward him for another, longer one. He tasted like grapes. When we finally managed to separate, I turned to face Eliza.
“Sweet,” she said. “You guys are sweet together.”
The proclamation felt important somehow.
“Although,” Eliza continued, a wicked smile spreading across her face, “the words people are using most often include hot, crazy sexy, OMFG, and my personal favorite, Satinazor.”
“People,” I said.
“The AlternateArt people,” said Camden. “Apparently, my Azor and your Satina are the couple of the moment. Among the geeks and freaks, that is.”
Eliza fiddled with her phone and hoisted herself onto the counter so she could lean in next to me. “See,” she said, and showed me a phone-sized view of all the comments.
“I really don’t need to read them,” I said, waving the phone away.
“You really don’t,” added Camden, giving me a meaningful look before turning to Eliza. “Who cares what other people think of the photos? We did it for fun. For ourselves.”
“Maybe you did that,” said Eliza.
“I’m not sure Eliza is capable of doing anything that’s not for the benefit of others to enjoy,” said Max, who was wandering down the greeting card aisle.
“Excuse me?” she snapped at him.
“What? You live to entertain. You know that already.”
“Why would you say it like that?”
“Like how?”
“Like a dickhead?”
“I was kidding,” said Max. “Christ. What happened to your sense of humor?”
Eliza gave him what I would classify as the most withering look I’ve ever seen, then hopped off the counter and put away her phone.
Camden motioned for me to lean in close to him. I did. His breath was warm as he whispered, “We’re here to steal you.”
“What?”
“To the lake. It’s a gorgeous day.”
I drew back. “You can’t steal me.”
“Uh, stealing doesn’t really operate that way. You don’t need the stealee’s permission. You simply do it.”
“I’m at work.”
“Can’t you ask Richard for the rest of the day off?”
“I’m not really supposed to . . .”
“He’s your stepdad, for God’s sake,” said Eliza. “He’s not going to fire you. The worst that’ll happen is that he says no.”
“My mom will kill me.” As soon as I said it, I wasn’t really sure it was true. Would she? Would she care that I wavered from the schedule, on her first day at her new job to boot? And would I care that she cared?
“Nobody will kill you, Ari,” said Camden calmly.
My eyes found his and I felt something that might have been a hunger pang, if I hadn’t just eaten breakfast.
“You are absolutely right.”
I went to the back room, where Richard was standing on the stepladder, reaching to put something on a shelf. His shirt hiked up and I could see how white the skin on his back was. Poor guy. Had he been outside in the sunlight at all this summer?
“Hi,” I said softly, worried that if I startled him, he’d fall.
“What’s up?” he asked, distracted. He hadn’t been his usual Mr. Sunny Sunshine all morning. Starting when, you know, my mom left the house at 7:00 a.m. in a supernova of jitters, snapping at each of us and cursing her way out the door.
“Camden’s here. He wants to say hello.” That was good.
“Oh, okay. I’ll be out in a bit.”
“His friends Eliza and Max are here, too. You can meet them.”
Richard nodded. I turned away and started back into the store, my courage deflating now. It really was a bad day to do this. Even if there wasn’t a single customer in the next few hours, he seemed so down and . . . lonely.
But there was Camden, leaning against the counter with his hair falling across his face, and I didn’t know which I wanted to touch more—the hair or the face. We hadn’t been truly alone since the morning after the fair, and my fingers itched for him.
There, too, was the blue sky through the store window, and the promise of cool water and the sand between my toes and basically everything else in the world.
“Actually,” I said slowly, as if this were a brainstorm coming to me now. “I’m wondering if you need me here today. They’re all going to the lake and I really want to go with them. I’d leave in time to get Dani from camp.”
Now Richard turned all the way around and sat down on the top of the ladder.
“You’re wondering if I need you here today . . . ,” he repeated.
“Well, maybe I’m a little more than wondering.”
Richard sighed. “No,” he said with a shrug. “I don’t need you here.”