“You can’t just bring a couple of pairs of shorts and T-shirts. What if the Minors want to take you out to dinner somewhere fancy?”

Gray snorted and tossed a pair of rolled-up socks in the open suitcase beside her on the bed. “The Minors aren’t going to be home. Think you’re missing the point, squirt. This is the final party before college. A long weekend to rip it up on the beach—”

“Yeah, because there are no beaches here.” Jazz dug a pair of his board shorts out of the suitcase. “These are surfer shorts. You don’t surf.”

“Sure I do. Just not particularly well.” Grinning, he snatched the shorts and tossed them back in the suitcase. “You should be happy I’m leaving. Now you’ll get a whole long weekend to yourself to practice Krystal Sword’s latest material in the basement without me prodding you to take it up a notch.”

She wrapped her arms around her updrawn legs and dropped her chin to her knee. Moping wouldn’t do her any good. Her life was going pretty well. She’d recently joined Gray’s band for real—no more probationary period—and she’d made it through the school year with nothing lower than a C. She’d gotten her job at the waffle house, and it wasn’t completely sucky.

Hell, she even had a couple of friends. And none of them laughed when she brought her not-quite-brother with her to parties. They were kind of a fixture now. Gray-and-Jazz. Jazz-and-Gray. Where one went, the other wasn’t far behind.

Soon, he would be so far ahead of her that she couldn’t ever hope to catch up.

“I wish I wasn’t so fucking young,” she whispered.

“Say what?” He started to laugh, but then he must’ve seen her face because he fell silent.

“Nothing. Never mind.”

He sat beside her, too close as always. The boundaries between them seemed to grow thinner by the day, and a part of her rejoiced at that. The rest knew she couldn’t let it happen. Somehow she had to erect barriers strong enough to keep him out.

Not when it came to her body. Sex was easy. She’d finally had it for the first time a couple of months ago when Gray was gone for a weekend visiting Berkeley. It had been fine. No big deal. She and the guy were still friendly. But matters of the heart were a different story. She’d already let Gray in way too far, especially since he was going to leave.

Forget going to. Every time she looked into his eyes, she saw that his bags were already mentally packed. He was ready to move on from life in suburban Vista View.

Ready to move on from life with her.

“You know, it’s not going to be easy for me either,” he said quietly. “You’re my best friend. Do you honestly think I want to leave you?”

She couldn’t restrain her laugh. “Dude, you’re so eager to go. Don’t even try to hide it.”

“I’m eager to go somewhere new, try something different. But I’m not the least bit excited about leaving you.” He grabbed her hand and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “I have an idea.”

“Uh oh.”

He grinned. “Let’s you and me spend the weekend together. Somewhere far from here.”

She blinked. Blinked again. She wasn’t sure what he was suggesting, but the possibility made her tingles have little tingle babies. “You don’t mean…”

“Let’s go somewhere and get a room—a couple of rooms,” he said quickly. “Bring our guitars and sit up playing all night, writing fucking awesome music.”

And fucking. Please God.

But she didn’t say that, because that couldn’t happen for a million reasons. Not the least of which was that she wanted the Duffys to adopt her. Her screwing around with their son wouldn’t exactly show them she was worthy of the title of daughter. Plus, it seemed seriously squicky. She and Gray weren’t related, but if she legally became his sister, that would change things. And she really wanted to be a Duffy.

She also really wanted to have sex with Gray.

“You already have plans. Why would you want to break them to be with me?”

Lightly, he pinched the back of her hand. “You didn’t seriously just ask that, did you? Hello, I’ve broken plans this entire year to be with you. We have fun together.” He bumped her hip with his. “Don’t we?”

“Guess so.”

“Jeez, a little enthusiasm, please.”

“Yes, we have fun. Always.” She grinned and tried to tamp down on her growing excitement. “But where would we go?”

The width of his grin matched hers. “Anywhere. My graduation money’s burning a hole in my pocket so it’s dealer’s choice.”

“San Francisco,” she said immediately, thinking of the stacks of postcards she’d sent away for from Chambers of Commerce all over the country.

Imagining where else she could go had helped make the lonely nights in random foster homes seem more bearable. She dreamed of traveling all over the world, but the Golden Gate bridge had always called loudest and longest to her. She’d imagined standing on it so many times, looking out across the water, her hair blowing behind her in the breeze. Bright sunshine warming her skin, filling her up inside so nothing bad could ever touch her again.

“How come?”

“Because it reminds me of freedom.” She hadn’t meant to say it aloud. She waited for him to tease her, but he only nodded.

“Yeah.” He squeezed her hand. “Let’s go to San Francisco.”