Chapter 2

I’d spent the past four years—my entire high school career—wishing Daniel would notice me but knowing he never would, not even to say hi; I wasn’t anyone special…just a staffer on the magazine and the guy who designed sets for the school plays. As it turned out I was good at the latter, and no one needed to know that I’d first gotten involved as a way to be in Daniel’s vicinity. 2

About four weeks before graduation, Daniel did notice me, asked me out on a date, and I…I was dazzled, walking on air until the evening I was to see him. I didn’t ask myself why a straight boy would be interested in me, but if I had, I’d simply have asked, why wouldn’t he? Aside from being a nice person, I had the blond looks from my mother’s side of the family; people didn’t run screaming when they saw me.

In preparation for our date, I had my hair styled, bought a pair of jeans with a zip instead of a button fly and a shirt that unsnapped so he could open my jeans and shirt easily, and found a cologne the nice woman at the fragrance counter promised would melt my young lady. Of course I couldn’t tell her it was to melt my young man.

Daniel had offered to pick me up at my house, but if Sir—my father had insisted I call him that rather than Father or Dad from the time I’d learned to talk—if he realized I was dating a boy…well, I was certain he’d order me to never darken his doorway again. So to avoid the Sturm und Drangit would cause, I told Daniel I would meet him in front of the Main Street Soda Shoppe, a very popular throwback to the diners of the forties and fifties.

I hadn’t been angling to get a meal out of the date as well, but Daniel took me inside and bought me a cheeseburger and fries, and we shared a chocolate milkshake.

He took me to the movies, up to the balcony, where he put his arm around my shoulders, and I was the one who melted. I spent the entire movie with my head on his shoulder, and from time to time he’d rub his cheek against my hair.

Oh God, I was so in love!

I was looking forward to the end of the movie, to a good-night kiss, but the best was yet to come.

After the movie, he murmured, “There’s a lunar eclipse tonight.”

There was?

“I know this wasn’t part of our plans, but…” He smiled at me, his teeth a brilliant white. “Would you be interested in watching it with me?”

I’d be interested in watching grass grow if it was with him.

“Yes,” I said, somehow managing to keep the anticipation out of my voice. I could have danced and done a fist pump, but I knew how to conceal my excitement. Even though I wasn’t my father’s favorite son, I knew what was due to the family.

So I sat beside Daniel in the classic Jaguar his father had given him, my hands folded primly in my lap while he made the drive to Lila’s Hill.

Martinsburg had been founded by my great-great-great-grandfather who’d chosen to settle in Pennsylvania in the middle 1800s, and we’d lived there ever since. Legend had it Great-Great-Grandfather Martin’s youngest daughter was a little…wild, and she often went there to spoon with her beaux. I wasn’t as wild as my great-aunt, not because I couldn’t be, but simply because I’d never had the opportunity: no one had ever wanted to drive up there with me.

Until now.

Daniel had lowered the top of his convertible, and the soft evening breeze blew in my hair. More than anything, I wanted to say something clever, wanted to show him what a brilliant conversationalist I was, but my mind was a blank. Instead, I simply watched him from the corner of my eye, watched his capable hands on the steering wheel, watched as he pursed his lips and whistled along with the music on the radio. And I grew more and more aroused.

No sooner had Daniel set the parking brake and turned off the headlights than I forgot my heritage, my upbringing, everything. I was out of my seat belt and all over him, licking his neck, nipping his earlobe, whispering passionate words into his ear. “You smell so good. I’ve dreamed of feeling you naked against me. Do you want to touch me?” I ran my fingertips over his fly. “I want to taste you.”

He turned his head away. “I don’t kiss guys.” I’d meant I wanted to go down on him—I’d jerked off in the shower to thoughts of us sixty-nining each other—but before I could tell him that, he said, “You’re going too fast, Kipp. A guy likes to make the first move.”

It was as if he’d doused me with a bucket of ice water. I didn’t even object that Iwas a guy. “I’m sorry.” Had I ruined my chance with him? Was that why he wasn’t hard? “I…I guess you want to take me home?” I started to slide off his lap, but he tightened his hands on my hips.