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  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 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 hope,” Sophie said.

  “She already had something wonderful,” Davy said. “Me.”

  “Beyond that,” Sophie said. “I like a woman who knows how to get even.”

  “So do I, as long as she’s not getting even with me,” Davy said.

  Lassie whined at their feet, and Sophie looked down into his pathetic brown eyes. “Poor baby,” she said, and then he rolled over with his legs in the air and she laughed and leaned down so he could lick the rest of the ice cream off the stick.

  “Con dog,” Davy said.

  “What?” Sophie said, still smiling at her baby.

  “Con dog,” Davy said. “Look pathetic, make the mark feel superior, get what you want. He just ran a con on you for that ice cream.”

  “My dog conned me?” Sophie said.

  “What the dog is doing to you is not your problem,” Davy said. “It’s what the mayor’s doing to you that worries me. Which brings us back to now. If I have to fill a Volvo with shrimp, I will, but I’d just as soon you wised up.”

  Sophie stopped smiling. “I’m wise. He’s not a Chad. I’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah,” Davy said, “Right. Well, I’m telling you now, when he screws you over, I’m kicking his butt.”

  “I love you, Davy,” Sophie said.

  “I love you, too,” Davy said. “You dumbass.”

  The council meeting the next day went so badly that Phin was still reeling from it when his mother cornered him in the empty council room.

  “About this woman,” she said. “You can’t see her a