“What’s with you?” he wanted to know.

“That stupid Paul Slater’s mad because I won’t go out with him,” I said, even though I generally make it a policy not to share my personal problems with any of my stepbrothers except, occasionally, Doc, and then only because his IQ is so much higher than mine. “He says he’s going to tell Caitlin I took his little brother off hotel property without his parents’ permission, which I did, but only to take him to the beach.” And to the Carmel Historical Society. But I didn’t mention that.

Sleepy went, “No kidding? That’s pretty low. Well, don’t worry about it. I’ll smooth things over with Caitlin for you, if you want.”

I was shocked. I had only mentioned it because I was feeling so down in the dumps. I hadn’t actually expected Sleepy to help, or anything.

“Really? You really will?”

“Sure,” Sleepy said with a shrug. “I’m seeing her tonight after I get off from delivering.” Sleepy lifeguards by day and delivers pizzas by night. Originally he was saving up for a Camaro. Now he is saving up to get his own apartment, since there are no dorms at the community college he’ll be attending, and Andy says he isn’t going to pay for Sleepy to have his own place unless he pulls his grades up.

I couldn’t believe it. I said, “Thanks,” in a stunned way.

“What’s wrong with that Slater guy, anyway?” Sleepy wanted to know. “I thought he’d be just your type. You know, smart and all.”

“Nothing’s wrong with him,” I grumbled, fiddling with my seat belt. “I just…I sort of like someone else.”

Sleepy lifted up his eyebrows behind his Ray-Bans. “Oh? Anyone I know?”

I said shortly, “No.”

“I don’t know, Suze,” he said. “Try me. Between the pizza gig and school, I know most everybody.”

“You definitely,” I said, “do not know this guy.”

Sleepy frowned. “Why? Is he some kind of gangbanger?”

I rolled my eyes. Sleepy has been convinced since almost the day we first met that I am in a gang. Seriously. As if gang members wear Stila. I am so sure.

“Does he live in the Valley?” Sleepy wanted to know. “Suze, I’m telling you right now, if I find out you’re going out with a gangbanger from the Valley—”

“God!” I yelled. “Would you stop? He isn’t a gangbanger, and neither am I! And he doesn’t live in the Valley. You don’t know him, okay? Just forget we had this conversation.”

See? See what I mean? See why things will never, ever work out between me and Jesse? Because I can’t pull him out and go, Here he is, this is the guy I like, and he isn’t a gangbanger, and he doesn’t live in the Valley.

I have just got to learn to keep my mouth shut, same as Jack.

When we got home, we were informed that dinner wasn’t ready yet. That was because Andy was waist-deep in the hole he and Dopey had made in the backyard. I went out and looked at it for a while, chewing on my thumbnail. It was very creepy, looking into that hole. Almost as creepy as the prospect of going to bed in a few hours, knowing that Maria was probably going to show up again.

And that, seeing as how I hadn’t done a single thing she’d asked, this time she’d probably cut up a lot more than just my gums.

It was around then that the phone rang. It was my friend CeeCee, wanting to know if I cared to join her and Adam McTavish at the Coffee Clutch to drink iced tea and talk bad about everyone we know. I said yes right away because I hadn’t heard from either of them in so long. CeeCee was doing a summer internship at the Carmel Pine Cone (the name of the local newspaper; can you imagine?) and Adam had been at his grandparents’ house in Martha’s Vineyard for most of the summer. The minute I heard her voice I realized how much I’d missed CeeCee, and how great it would be to tell her about vile Paul Slater and his tricks.

But then, of course, I realized I’d have to tell her the part about Paul’s little brother, and how he really can speak to the dead, or the story wouldn’t have half as much pathos, and the fact is, CeeCee is not the type who believes in ghosts, or anything, for that matter, that she can’t see with her own two eyes, which makes the fact that she goes to Catholic school problematic, what with Sister Ernestine urging us all the time about faith and the Holy Spirit.

But whatever. It was better than standing around at home, looking at a giant hole.

I hurried upstairs and slipped out of my uniform and into one of the cute J. Crew slip dresses I’d ordered and never gotten a chance to wear since I’ve spent the whole summer in my heinous khaki shorts. No sign of Jesse, but that was just as well, as I wouldn’t have known what to say to him anyway. I felt totally guilty for having read his letters, even though at the same time I was glad I had done it, because knowing about his sisters and his problems on the ranch and all made me feel closer to him in a way.

Only it was a fake kind of close because he didn’t know I knew. And if he had wanted me to know, don’t you think he would have told me? But he never wants to talk about himself. Instead, he always wants to talk about things like the rise of the Third Reich and how could we as a country have possibly sat around and let six million Jews get gassed before doing anything about it?

You know. Things like that.

Actually, some of the things Jesse wants to discuss are very hard to explain. I’d much rather talk about his sisters. For instance, had he found living with five girls as trying as I find living with three boys? I would imagine probably not, given the reverse toilet seat situation. Did they even have toilets back then? Or did they just go in those nasty outhouses, like on Little House on the Prairie?

God, no wonder Maria was in such a bad mood.

Well, that and the whole being dead thing.

Anyway, Mom and Andy let me go out to eat with my friends because there was nothing for dinner anyway. Family meals really weren’t the same, anyway, without Doc. I was surprised to find that I actually missed him and couldn’t wait for him to come home. He was the only one of my stepbrothers who did not enrage me on any sort of regular basis.

Even though I couldn’t really tell CeeCee about Paul, I did have a good time. It was good to see her, and Adam, who, of all the boys I know, acts the least like one, though he isn’t gay or anything, and actually takes great umbrage if you suggest it. So does CeeCee, who has been in love with Adam since, like, forever. I had great hopes that Adam might return her feelings, but I could tell things had kind of cooled off—at least on his part—since he’d been away.