I smiled at him. “I don’t think I said that.”

"You were thinking it, though. I could tell.”

Maybe I was thinking it, but I couldn’t say it. I gazed at the sky, gathering strength, enjoying this last moment before everything turned awkward between us. Finally I turned to him again, looking at eyes that were the same color as the sky.

He grinned and waited for my answer.

I said, "You’ve never had a girl turn you down in your life, have you?”

"Nope.” He ran his thumb lazily across my fingers. “Don’t break my streak.”

He said this so casually, so confidently, offering more proof that celebrities lived above the rest of us, getting whatever they wanted and choosing when to love and when to discard us. "You've never had a girl turn you down?”

He shrugged. "There was Hayley Powell in the first grade.

I asked her to marry me and she stuck her tongue out. Put me right off proposing.”

"Hmmm,” I said, trying to sound analytical. This was hard to do. He pulled my hand toward him, making me lean closer.

The jangling of the toolbox broke into the moment. The pool man stormed back over to the valve box, dropping his toolbox with a dramatic clank. "I taking care of the waterfall now!” he yelled. "You see? So now you no play your little games. It's because Enrique said, ‘Ella cree que su caca no huele.' This is why you are trying to make me loco, no?” In Spanish I said, “Didn’t you explain—”

"Yes, I explain,” he said. "But then you told me you no speak Spanish.”

Oh. I guess I should have mentioned that he’d have to speak to Kari in English.

I turned back to Grant. "I think he's off his medication. Maybe we should let him finish and have this conversation another time.”

I motioned to get up, but Grant squeezed my hand and lowered his voice. "We don’t have to wait for another time. Just say yes."

"Yes to what?”

“Yes to us.”

I leaned closer, keeping my gaze on his hands so I didn’t have to meet his eyes. "It’s not that easy. Things are complicated right now, complicated in ways I can’t explain. But I do like you—I’m telling the truth about that. It's just that there are—” I glanced up and saw Kari standing behind the glass door, mouth open, hands on her hips, staring at us. Grant's back was to her. But when he saw my startled expression, he turned his head, following my gaze.

"Grant!” I called, yanking his attention back to me.

"What?” he asked.

I had to do something. I couldn’t let him turn around again. So I leaned all the way into him, putting my knee on his chair to keep my balance. I took hold of his shoulders and kissed him. And not lightly—this was a don’t-you-dare- open-your-eyes, full-on kiss.

Only I kept my eyes open because Kari was mouthing, "What are you doing?”

With one hand I waved in Kari’s direction, telling her to go away, since I really couldn't say anything at that point. But I stopped waving when Grant wrapped his arms around my back.

Kari glared at me, then turned on her heel and flounced out of sight. She wasn’t happy about this, but at least she knew to keep hidden until Grant left.

Which meant I could stop kissing Grant now. Only, the feel of his hands moving slowly down my back made my heart ricochet in my chest. I didn’t want to move. I shut my eyes, relaxed into him, and didn’t end the kiss for several more moments. When I finally did sit back in my chair, I could only stare at him, breathing hard. I didn’t know what to say.

"I take it that was a yes," he said.

That would be the foregone conclusion, wouldn’t it? How could I say no now? I looked at the empty sliding glass door. "We’ll have to be discreet. No one can know about this. No one can see us together."

"Right,” he said. "Let the paparazzi harass someone else for a while.”

I'd completely forgotten about the pool man until he called over, "I'm done now. Everything is okay.” Then he waved his wrench at me with a sly smile. "I understand now why I think I go crazy. I see the two of you together. …” He apparently couldn’t come up with the word for twins in English, so he said it in Spanish. “Gemelas." Then he headed back around the side of the house, this time with an easy, confident gait.

Grant watched him go. "Gemelas?”

"Gemini,” I said. "You know—the astrological sign." Which strictly speaking is true. Gemini is the sign of the twins.

"Geminis drive him crazy?” Grant blinked in confusion. "I'm an Aries."

I shrugged. "Some people just don’t make a lot of sense.”

He took my hand, as though it wasn’t worth figuring out, and then he kissed me again.

My heart somersaulted in my chest. Maybe I could make this work. Maybe I could find a way to be with him so he’d never figure out the truth. Or maybe after I was sure he liked the real me—not Kari—I could tell him the truth about everything. There were too many maybes scurrying around like mice underfoot, but they were all I had.

He leaned away from me, smiling.

I smiled back at him. "I wish you could stay for a while, but I've got a full schedule this afternoon.”

"That's okay,” he said. "We can get together tomorrow, or the next day. When do you have some free time?”

I stood up and glanced at the sliding door. Still clear. "I’ll check my schedule and call you." Now that I had my afternoons free, I should be able to see him without Maren knowing. He stood up and we held hands as we walked back through the house—this time thankfully without getting lost.

He kissed me one last time in the entryway, then we said good-bye and I shut the door. As soon as I did, Kari walked into the entryway, her hands on her hips. "That was completely revolting. I can't believe I just saw myself make out with Grant Delray."

"Sorry,” I said, even though I wasn't—well, I wasn’t sorry about the kissing, anyway.

"You know, when you said you'd bring the book over, I didn’t realize you meant you were bringing my arch-nemesis too.”

"That was an accident. He wanted to take me home, and I didn’t realize he knew where you lived. So then he came inside because he wanted to talk—and by the way, how come you don't have a refrigerator in your kitchen? You have four guest bedrooms and a ceramic cat shrine, but no refrigerator?"

"I have a fridge. It’s a built-in."

I had no idea what she meant. "A built-in what?"

She let out a sigh. "It has wood paneling on it so it blends in with the cabinets."

Which seemed pointless: camouflage fridges. "You’re kidding me.”

"A lot of upscale kitchens have them." She put one hand on her hip. “Did you get a copy of Lorna's book?”

I nodded toward the antique chest, where I'd left it when I came in. I'd wanted to read it before I gave it to Kari, but now that she'd seen it, I wouldn't be able to pry it out of her hands.

She picked it up and flipped through some of the pages. “This is great! I’m telling Maren to give you a bonus for this.”

"Thanks,” I said, but I didn’t mean it. Suddenly I felt like I’d used Grant.

She flipped through a few more pages, a look of icy determination on her face. "Now that we've got this, we don’t need Grant anymore. You’ll have to break it off with him. I so don't want a relationship with him.”

I didn’t answer, but she didn't seem to notice. She walked toward the living room. "I'm going to read this right now.”

I followed after her. "I probably should know what’s in it too. It’s research. You can hand me the pages after you’re done reading them.”

Which is how we ended up sitting on her couch most of the afternoon reading the book assembly-line fashion. She didn’t have much reaction to the stuff about our father, but I read and reread it. He'd taken Kari to Hawaii for an entire summer when she was seven. I would have been almost five at the time and living in a rundown apartment complex with no yard to play in.