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“Do you?” he asked, as if he thought I was patronizing him.

“Yes. My stepsister would say the same thing, and for her, it would be very true.”

“I’d like to hear about that.”

“All you seem to want to hear is bad, ugly, or dark news.”

“It’s like flies attracted to garbage,” he muttered.

I can’t say I wasn’t used to other students staring at me from time to time, but walking with Ryder, I felt the eyes of our classmates so glued to us I wanted to flick them off the way you might flick dandruff or dust. He either was oblivious or simply no longer cared.

“I think we’re going to need more time to get to know each other,” he declared at the classroom doorway. “These little intermissions between classes don’t do it.”

I was speechless a moment, recalling my first dream about him. He had used almost the exact same words in the dream. Neither of us moved or spoke for a moment. Other students brushed by us, all of them looking at us as we stared at each other.

“What do you suggest?” I asked.

“Well, you have your own car, so I can’t offer to drive you home, and I have to take my sister home first, anyway.”

“Let me think about it,” I said.

“Yeah, do that,” he snapped back, and entered the classroom.

Did I really want to have anything to do with anyone who had such a hair trigger, I wondered, no matter how good-looking or interesting he was?

I entered the class and took my seat. I could see the girls smiling at me and laughed to myself. If they only knew how hard to know Ryder Garfield was, they wouldn’t be anywhere nearly as envious, I thought.

He grew calmer as the day came to a close, and before we left to go to the parking lot, he gave me his cell-phone number.

“Let me know whatever you decide,” he said. He looked toward his sister approaching. “Unfortunately, my life isn’t exactly my own right now.”

“I’ll call you,” I promised.

My thought was to have him come over after school after he had dropped off his sister, but I wanted to get permission from Jordan first. I always got her permission before I invited anyone to the house, even though she had told me countless times to consider the March house my house, too, and not to stand on any ceremony. Despite the years and the many, many wonderful things they did for me, I couldn’t take that final step she so wanted me to take and truly see myself as her and Donald’s daughter. It didn’t have to do with their not legally adopting me yet, either. Even if and when they did, I was sure I still wouldn’t get to the place Jordan wanted me to get to. I doubted that I ever would or even should.

The moment Ryder left me, Charlotte Harris, Jessica, and Sydney pounced.

“Wow, what’s going on with you and Ryder?” Charlotte asked.

“You two were pretty tight all day,” Sydney said.

“C’mon, tell us,” Jessica whined.

“Nothing’s going on. We simply got to know each other a little more. And we weren’t that tight, Sydney.”

They stared at me, waiting for something delicious to add.

“I don’t know if it’s going anywhere yet, so don’t go blabbering about us,” I said.

“Did he invite you to his house? Are you going to meet his father and mother?” Charlotte asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, and started for my car.

“You don’t know what?” Sydney asked. The three of them followed me like cans tied to the back of a newlywed couple’s car.

“Stop making something of it. It’s nothing.” I paused. They waited, and with a smile I added, “Yet.”

They all squealed as I got into my car.