his super-short hair, and his cute orange-and-green sneakers.
“Hi,” I said. My voice sounded hesitant and a little raspy after talking over the clatter of dishes all day.
“Hi,” Josh said, sounding just as nervous as I felt. Feeling clumsy, I grabbed my hair elastic off the sidewalk. Then Josh pointed behind him. “Are you walking this way?”
I nodded and started down Main. Josh fell into step beside me, and it felt . . . wonderful. He was so close that our arms almost touched, so close that I could feel the warmth radiating off his body.
I guess that was what made me turn off Main and head down Althorp. Suddenly, instead of wanting to get home as soon as possible to shower, eat a mayo-free dinner, and puzzle out this Josh business with my sister, I wanted this walk—with Josh—to last as long as possible.
When we were a few feet from the end of the block, Josh stopped, turned, and looked down at me. He really was tall. His face looked sweetly sheepish and a little aggravated.
“Listen,” he said. “I know you must think I’m crazy. I mean, I haven’t exactly been, um, consistent. With you.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“I guess it’s safe to say,” Josh went on, “I’ve been a little, how do I say this . . . taken aback.”
“Taken aback?” I asked. This did not sound like a positive thing.
“See?” Josh said, wringing his hands. “I never say the right thing to you. It’s like I don’t have control over my mouth.”
See? I thought. He all but said it—he did kiss me by accident!
I bit my lip, bracing myself for heartbreak.
“Chelsea,” Josh said, “here’s the thing. You tried to rescue those books from me. And you think Coconut Dreams is as fabulously horrible as I do. And you wear those vintage clothes, and you have that hair—”
“I hate my hair,” I said, my hand instinctively springing to my head to smooth it down.
“See?” Josh repeated. “I did it again.”
He looked down at the ground, suddenly even shyer.
“And then I went and . . . you know,” he said. “Earlier.”
“Yeah, earlier,” I whispered.
“So anyway, about that,” Josh said. “I’m sor—”
Josh didn’t get to finish what he was saying.
Because I grabbed him by the shoulders and sprang to my tiptoes—and kissed him!
Josh stumbled backward. I started to pull away from the kiss, but he plunged his hand into my messy mane of hair and pulled me closer.
And now I wasn’t kissing him and he wasn’t kissing me.
We were kissing each other.
My eyes fluttered closed. I let my right hand trail down Josh’s arm—which was thin but muscular and so smooth and warm—until my hand found his. Our fingers intertwined.
Josh tilted until his shoulder blades touched the brick wall behind him. I tilted along with him.
And now “melty” took on a different meaning. All the confusion and hurt I’d been feeling? All those mixed signals Josh had given me? They all melted away—canceled out by one perfect kiss after another.
My dad woke me and my sisters up early the next morning.
“I’m commandeering you for the morning,” he announced. “Your mother wants some time to herself, and I want some time with my wayward daughters.”
“Dad,” I said, shoving a curl out of my eyes as I slumped out of my bed, “me having a job doesn’t exactly make me wayward. You and Mom are the ones who make us earn all our own money.”
“Well, then I guess I’m only talking about Hannah,” Dad said lightly. “Anyway, be in the kitchen in five. No primping!”
I laughed as he hurried down the hall, then I whispered to Abbie, “What does he mean ‘Hannah’? What’s she been up to?”
“Didn’t you know?” Abbie said, throwing off her covers and sitting up in bed. “She had a date with Fasthands last night. She got home after you were asleep.”
“Liam?” I said.
“Yes, Liam,” Abbie grumbled. “When she got home, she was all giggly and floaty. Very un-Hannah-like.”
“Oh!” I said.
I hurried over to the closet and ducked inside it, ostensibly to throw on some clothes, but also because I had to hide my incredulous grin.
How had this happened? Instead of Hannah and Abbie doing all the dating, it was Hannah and me who’d been with boys last night.
That was very un-Chelsea-like, too.
Part of me wanted to dash to Hannah’s room and ask her if she felt just like I did—all dreamy and incredulous. I kept wondering if the previous night had really happened. Then I’d touch my lips and remember