“Wait, what? You think Dane James is hot?”

Cassie Shields was staring down the hall at him like he was a piece of chocolate pie with extra whipped cream. “Everyone thinks Dane James is hot, you dumb ass.”

That was news to me. Maybe because I’d always seen something special in him, I missed the moment in time when everyone else started seeing it, too. And that bothered me.

Even though I’d kept my distance since that night I came back from the rock to find Alton in my room, in some way I still considered Dane James to be mine. If we were in a different town, and I had a different family, he would be mine. And I would be his. My heart didn’t seem to care that we weren’t in a different town, or that I didn’t have a different family, or that he wasn’t mine. It only knew that I was his, that he owned me, whether he wanted me or not.

“Okay, fine. Whatever, but him being hot doesn’t change anything.”

I wanted to add, Does it?

But I dared not.

I couldn’t risk Cassie seeing that it mattered to me.

“It doesn’t make him marriage material. Or even take-him-home-to-meet-Momma material. But it sure as hell makes him take-me-now material.”

She made a guttural noise in her throat, a sound that told me she was on the prowl. I panicked. “Well, that’s ridiculous. Who would risk it?”

“Ummmm, every girl in school.” She swung to face me, frowning. “Where have you been? This is not news, Brinkley.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I just never thought Dane James was an option. That’s all.”

“Well, let’s see.” She started ticking off items on her perfectly manicured fingers. “He’s hot. Check. He’s the quarterback, and a kick ass one at that. Check. He’s hot. Double check. He’s pretty much running your step daddy’s operation now, so all the important people treat him like a prized stud horse. Check again. And he’s hot. Did I already mention that? Because he is. So hot.”

I gulped. “He still isn’t one of us.”

She sent a glare over to me. “God, when did you become such a snob?”

“Me?” I was incredulous.

“Who’s a snob?” Lauren’s face appeared between my head and Cassie’s, and she, too, stared down the hall at Dane. “Look at the ass on that boy.”

I turned to look at my best friend (who also happened to be my worst enemy at times). “Not you, too.”

“Not me too what?”

“You’re not on this Dane James kick, are you?”

“Not really. He’s hot, but he’s all wrong.”

“That’s what I was just telling Cassie and she called me a snob.”

“You are. But that’s not the point. Just because he isn’t one of us doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate him from a distance.” I saw her wink at Cassie. “Or maybe even up close and personal a time or two. I’d be happy to slum it for a guy like that. At least when no one is looking.”

Cassie and Lauren laughed, bumping hips in agreement, while I stood by watching, completely confused and utterly dismayed. What would happen if Dane suddenly came off the no-fly list? I’d have to watch all my friends go after him, listen to them talk about him, imagine all sorts of awful things, yet never be able to say a word. And never be able to walk the halls with him myself. Even if the town accepted him, I couldn’t. Alton’s ultimatum still rang in my mind. Unless he were to approve of Dane in a strange turn of events, he would always be off-limits to me. Even at night.

I felt sick.

I supposed I’d seen the signs. Dane James had exploded. Any time his name was mentioned, I took note. He’d become sort of a hero among the have-nots, and he was even well-tolerated among the haves. To his work peers, men decades older than him, he was admired and respected for his knowledge and his strength alike. To his social peers, he was almost idolized. Dane was like a Minor League Baseball player who’d been called up to the big show. And to the affluent, the people in Shepherd’s Mill who “mattered,” he was the prized stud horse that Cassie mentioned, a diamond that had been awaiting discovery in the pasture.

His sensation around town only intensified when he started playing football. He was smart, quick, and agile, yet had some size to him, so it was no big surprise that he did well. At least not to me. Then again, I’d seen the remarkable traits of Dane James since I was twelve years old.

After three games of the town watching him throw touchdown after touchdown, he was officially a star and everybody wanted a piece of him. Suddenly, he was good enough for the guys to befriend him and good enough for the girls to be seen with him. Well, all the girls except for a few. Girls like Lauren Stringer and Cassie Shields were still forbidden, by mothers, fathers, and society, to do much more than cheer for him or to say hello in passing. After all, the elite of Shepherd’s Mill had to maintain some kind of standard, and a guy like Dane James, no matter how smart, how capable, how valuable, or how talented, would just never be good enough. Keeping him in his place was their way of maintaining order in a time of chaos.

I just never thought any of my friends would want him. He’d always been invisible to them. At least I think so. Maybe all this was just invisible to me.

Dane James was my blind spot. I doubted I could be trusted to see clearly, to be rational when it came to him.

“I heard, like, fifteen different girls asked him to the Sadie Hawkins dance.” Cassie made the statement, and I could almost see the challenge in her eyes.

Lauren’s reply was weak, uninterested. She was already bored with the conversation, and probably with Dane. “Is that right?”

Angel Reynolds, probably the nicest girl in our clique, arrived just in time for Lauren and Cassie’s departure. “What are we talking about?”

“Brinkley can fill you in. Come on, Cassie. Let’s make a round through senior hall before last period.”

I was grateful they were leaving. All the talk of Dane was making me a nervous wreck.

When they were out of sight, Angel turned to me, her smile gentle and kind, a lot like the girl herself. Of all of us, she belonged the least. Her parents were both lawyers, so she was an insider for sure, but her heart was pure in ways that the rest of us couldn’t claim. Not even me. As much as I’d hoped it wouldn’t, this town and the people in it had polluted mine.

“So what’s going on now?”

I smiled at the way she asked. It was like she was saying, What now? It’s always something. And it was. There was always some sort of drama surrounding Lauren and Cassie. Lauren especially. She was like the ringleader. That much hadn’t changed since the day I moved to Shepherd’s Mill.

“Oh, they were just talking about Dane James. Somehow he’s become the hot thing and I didn’t know it.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“By what?”

“That you wouldn’t see it.”

Suddenly, I felt a bit defensive. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

After looking left and right, Angel lowered her voice. “I know you’ve always had a thing for him. For you, he was always a thing.”

My mouth dropped open and I balked. Not because I was insulted, but because I’d been that transparent. “I most certainly—”

Angel leaned in and grabbed my arm. “I won’t tell. I haven’t told anyone yet, have I? Your secret is safe with me.”

“But I…I…” When Angel just kept smiling at me, I gave up trying to fumble through an elaborate denial. “How did you know?”

“I know you. And I see the way you look at him when you think no one is watching.” An embarrassing blush rose to my cheeks. “It’s the same way he looks at you.”

My belly flipped over at her words. “He does?”

“He does. He has for years. Probably since you moved here.”

Maybe Dane James really was as much mine as I was his. Maybe he still wished things could be different, too.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Alton would kill me if I ever did anything about it.”

“You won’t be young forever. And I totally get the feeling he’ll wait for you.”

She gave me a reassuring pat, like she knew I was in need of it, and then she looped her arm through mine. “Now that that’s out of the way, who should I ask to the dance? I still don’t have a clue.”

I was happy to launch into a different discussion. Dane James was never far from my mind, but knowing he wasn’t far from the minds of other girls made me far too uncomfortable, especially when there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Better not to even consider it.