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  “Human Valium, that’s me,” Sophie said.

  “Hey,” Phin said, and when she looked up, her beautiful lips parted to say something horrible to him, he kissed her, long and slow and deep, and she kissed him back, and he felt human again instead of harried, just because he finally had his arms around her and she was so warm and sure against him. “We’re more than just the sex,” he whispered, and she closed her eyes and whispered back, “I know, I know.”

  He kissed her again, and then rocked the swing with his foot, and she put her head on his shoulder and said, “So tell me about this lousy day,” and he told her while they watched the sun go down, and everything that had been awful seemed funny when he told her about it. He listened to her laugh in the twilight and felt the tension seep away. When it was dark, he sighed and said, “I have to go,” but he didn’t want to.

  “What about the sex?” Sophie said. “Usually you have me naked by now.”

  “Davy’s staying here, right?” Phin said, and when she nodded, he said, “I don’t think so.”

  “You’re kidding,” she said, and he said, “Tell you what. Come on up to the Hill, and we can do it with my mother in the next room.”

  “Oh, God,” Sophie said, and he laughed and kissed her and said, “I’ve got a council meeting from hell tomorrow anyway. I’ll really need to release some tension after that.”

  “You’re such a romantic,” she said, and he kissed her again and then again until she laughed against his mouth, and he drove away feeling all the comfort he’d come for.

  Maybe her brother would leave soon.

  “You never fucking learn,” Davy said when Sophie went inside.

  “What?” Sophie plopped down on the sofa, and Lassie plopped down at her feet. “Thanks to you, he left early, so this is not a good time to yell at me.” She looked at Davy, standing indignant by the fireplace, and had to smile. “I’m so glad you’re here, even if you are being a butthead.”

  Davy came over and sat down beside her. “Let me explain to you again about town boys.”

  “Go away, Davy.” Sophie let her head fall back against the couch and smiled, thinking about her town boy. “He’s not like that.”

  “ ‘This can only lead to tears,’ ” Davy said in a comic voice, and when Sophie rolled her head on the back of the couch, he said, “Anastasia. The bat.”

  “Bat country,” Sophie said. “What are you nervous about?”

  “The way you look at him,” Davy said. “The way he looks at you. You’re in love. He’s in heat. It’s an old story and a lousy one.”

  “That’s what I keep telling her,” Amy said, coming in with three Dove Bars. “ ‘This is Chad all over again,’ ‘he’s got “town boy” all over him,’ but—”

  “Chad?” Davy said.

  “An old mistake,” Sophie said, taking her Dove Bar. “And Phin is not Chad. And I’m not in love.”

  “I still think we ought to go to Iowa and make Chad pay,” Amy said, and bit into her ice cream viciously.

  “This would be Chad Berwick, right?” Davy shook his head and bit into his bar, too. “Not necessary,” he said around the ice cream.

  Sophie blinked at him. “How did you know—”

  Davy looked at her with affectionate contempt. “I was a freshman in the same school, dummy. Everybody knew.”

  “Oh, ouch,” Sophie said, and ate more Dove Bar for comfort.

  “Yes, but the last month of Chad’s senior year was not a good one,” Davy said. “Poor guy.”

  Amy collapsed cross-legged on the rug in front of them with her ice cream dripping, looking about ten. “Ooh. Ooh. What did you do?” She licked the drips away and grinned up at Davy adoringly, moving her ice cream as Lassie took an interest and waddled over.

  “Many things,” Davy said airily. “Too many to recall now.”

  “Come on, Davy,” Amy said. “Sophie needs to know.”

  Davy leaned back on the couch and ate more ice cream as he thought. “Mostly little stuff. I taped a cheat sheet in his notebook and then snitched on him to the English teacher. I started a rumor he had head lice and put lice shampoo in his gym locker. I stuck a bunch of Hustlers in his regular locker and he got busted and had to see the counselor.”

  “That’s it?” Amy sniffed, and ate her ice cream, holding the stick above Lassie’s reach.

  “Well, let’s see, was there anything else?” Davy pretended to ponder, and Sophie started to grin.

  “I love you, Davy,” she said, and leaned into his arm.

  Davy put his arm around her. “I love you, too, babe. Oh, yeah, wait. It’s all coming back to me now. There was that cherry-red Camaro he got for graduation. His folks gave it to him early so he could take it to prom.” He grinned and bit into his ice cream again.

  “He was driving a clunker when I . . . knew him,” Sophie said.

  “He drove it to prom, too,” Davy said. “I put shrimp in the Camaro.”

  Amy frowned. “Shrimp?” But Sophie started to laugh, hiccuping on her ice cream.

  Davy nodded. “I put shrimp down in the seats, in the wheel well, shoved some down into the screw holes under the carpet, anyplace it would be hard to find them. Shrimp are small, you know.” He began to smile, remembering. “And it was the end of May so we were getting some hot weather.” He shook his head. “Chad never did get to use that car. For a week, whenever I went by the Berwick house, that car was sitting in the driveway with all the doors open. Then finally, it just . . . disappeared.”

  He laughed and bit into his Dove Bar again, and Amy said, “Oh, yes.” Sophie thought, I love my family, I really do. “What else?” she asked Davy.

  “He destroyed the guy’s Camaro,” Amy said. “What do you want?”

  “Dempsey revenge, Ame,” Sophie said. “A car is not enough.” She looked at Davy. “Right?”

  “Well,” Davy said. “There was prom.”

  “Oh, tell us about prom,” Amy said.

  “He was dating this really hot senior girl named Melissa Rose,” Davy said. “Boy, she was something. She wore this silky blue thing to prom that sort of slipped around whenever she—”

  “I thought this was supposed to cheer me up,” Sophie said.

  “And because Chad was an asshole, he took a flask to prom,” Davy said. “Big man around town, sneaking Boone’s Farm into the gym. So around midnight, I put ground-up sleeping pills in it.”

  “So he went to sleep at prom and that’s it?” Amy said.

  “No,” Davy said. “He got groggy at prom, and Melissa got disgusted because she thought he was drunk and made him take her home, except he was too out of it, and I just happened to be there in the parking lot. So I helped her.” Davy shook his head as he finished his Dove Bar. “He got a little banged-up when we tried to get him into the backseat. Melissa was not a nice person, so she did most of it.”

  “Good for Melissa,” Sophie said, entertaining her first thoughts about Chad that didn’t involve guilt.

  “That’s good,” Amy said. “That’s enough—”

  “Then we took him home and left him on his front-porch steps with his flask in his hand and his fly unzipped,” Davy said. “Melissa suggested he should have something else in his other hand, and I just happened to have Dad’s Polaroid with me. The pictures were a big hit at school on Monday.”

  Sophie was laughing into her Dove Bar now. “Thank you, Davy,” she said, and his arm tightened around her.

  “Okay, that was enough,” Amy said. “You did good—”

  “And then I drove Melissa home,” Davy said. “And we were feeling warmly toward each other at that point, being sort of united in our distaste for Chad, so I asked if there was anything else I could do for her.”

  “And was there?” Sophie said.

  “You weren’t the only Dempsey who lost yours in the backseat of that clunker,” Davy said. “I remember Melissa fondly to this day. That girl knew things. Wonder what happened to her?”

  “Something wonderful, I