Free Lucky by Rachel Vail Page A

gross tongue. Ew, I couldn’t even think about him without gagging; I don’t care how tall he was—yuck. So what if Luke is only my height, and wears Old Navy clothes, and maybe doesn’t shave at all yet, and his father is friends with my father and we’ve known each other forever?
    Right there in my pool house, on a perfect warm May day, in my best Calvin Klein bathing suit and him in just shorts, smiling at me like that…it did not seem babyish and boring to think about kissing him again. The opposite, actually.
    “I was wondering,” Luke said.
    I just waited. I didn’t want to mess him up, in case he had it kind of planned out or something.
    “Do you have any chips in here?” he asked.
    “Chips?”
    “I’m starving.”
    “Oh,” I said. “You want some, some what?”
    “Whatever, pretzels. Doritos. Remember one time you had those orange things, the crunchy ones?”
    “Yeah,” I said. I opened the cabinet with all the snack food. “Take whatever you want.” If this was his introduction to asking me out, I was not hugely impressed. “What else were you, um, going to ask? Or say? Or whatever?”
    “Nothing,” he said. “I just…I’m just a little…I’m always hungry lately.” He shrugged apologetically.
    “You’re hungry,” I said.
    “Is that okay? You seem, kind of, annoyed.”
    “No, not at all,” I said, completely annoyed. “Take as much as you want.” You immature puppy. You want chips? That’s what you want? Take them. I don’t know why you had to look all cute and bashful, if all you wanted was a snack. But I didn’t say any of that. I just pointed at the well-stocked shelves.
    “Okay. Thanks.” He put down the sodas and the towel and came to check out what was in there. Great. Fine. Take some chips. What do I care? I had come in for a soda, nothing more. I’ve got bigger stuff to deal with than snacks, or hungry boys. Take every bag of chips in the whole cabinet, for all I care.
    I held the door handle and he leaned forward to choose what he liked from the freaking buffet of chip choices. “Um,” he said.
    I let out my breath, maybe impatiently. I was starting toget cold in there, waiting for him to choose his damned snack. He stood up, and his face was moving toward mine before my mind registered what he was doing.
    In fact, I wasn’t sure what was happening until his lips touched mine.

11
    I T CAN’T HAVE BEEN MORE THAN a minute before Gosia called my name. I pulled my face reluctantly back from Luke’s but didn’t answer her. He blinked twice at me when she yelled my name again. His body was so much warmer than mine, and his mouth tasted so good.
    “What!” I yelled.
    “Dinnertime,” Gosia yelled, right outside the pool house door.
    Luke turned away.
    “Okay, okay,” I yelled, and then whispered, “Sorry.”
    “No, that’s…” He went into the changing room and grabbed his stuff and William’s. “We should…” he said.
    “Yeah,” I agreed, and realized I wasn’t sure what I was agreeing with, so I added, “I mean…”
    “Mm-hmm,” he said, eyes on the floor, and wiggled past me to get to the door. I followed him but it turns out he wasn’t holding it open for me so it kind of slammed inmy face. By the time I got out, he was diving into the pool, the pile of clothes dumped on the side. Gosia gave me a quizzical look. I shrugged and looked back at the pool to see Luke swimming fast to the shallow end. He climbed out and said to William, “Let’s go.”
    William looked back and forth between me and Luke as he scrambled out of the pool and into his clothes. “I’ll just call my mom to pick us…”
    “Use your cell,” Luke said. “They’re having dinner. Come on.”
    “If you…” I started.
    “Thanks for…” Luke looked up at me for a second. “I mean, thanks.” His cheeks turned deep red on the sides. He grabbed William by his damp T-shirt and pushed him. “Their dinner is ready!”
    “Dude,” William said with a laugh in his