Chapter 17: I'd Have Waited

Eli's POV

I stopped the truck at Discovery Point on the way up, and I did not know why.

It was past eleven, and the lot was empty.

The sky over the lake was clear and full of stars.

June sat beside me with the tub on her lap and her father's ten-dollar bill in her fist.

She had not spoken since the dance floor.

"Dad is sleeping in my aunt's hotel room tonight," she said at last. "They'll argue about the shop till two."

"He'll be all right."

"Sheila said morning."

"Then we'll be there at six."

"We?"

"I'm not leaving you with a deputy and a cardboard box of your father's receipts."

She almost laughed.

She turned and looked at me in the dim cab light.

The pale stripe on her finger was long gone, and her cheeks had color in them for the first time all day.

"Thank you," she said. "For tonight. For standing there and not hitting anyone."

"I wanted to hit about six people."

"I know. I counted."

I put my hands on the wheel, because it was safer than putting them on her.

"You were a good summer," she said.

I went very still.

"What?"

"I mean it as a compliment." She was not looking at me now. "I know the rules. One summer. No promises. I'm not going to ask you for any."

The words went into me.

"Ask me for any what?"

"Anything after August. I'm good at being the girl people say later to."

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