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know she’s always liked you, but I didn’t know you liked her.”
    “No, Suz, I don’t like her and I didn’t kiss her, she kissed me. I kinda thought...well, never mind.”
    “You thought what, Cade?” I asked.
    “Well, I kinda thought you’d be my first kiss.” He grabbed a piece of lemon bar from my hand and popped it in his mouth. I couldn’t take my eyes off his lips. Apparently he didn’t count the kiss on the cheek in the third grade as our first kiss, but I always would.
    Cade leaned my way and whispered, “Maybe I could be your second kiss?”
    I could feel his breath on my face. He smelled like lemon bars and bubblegum. Bubblegum? I looked at his mouth, his lips were pink. He had Anna’s bubblegum flavored lip gloss all over his mouth. He wasn’t going to kiss me with that on his face, or at all. We were best friends. We shouldn’t be kissing anyway.
    “No, Cade. We’re best friends. Best friends don’t kiss. That would only screw stuff up. I just came over to tell you I was sorry for stealing your trunks and to bring you a lemon bar as a peace offering.”
    He popped some more lemon bar in his mouth and we sat there quietly eating.
    He finally broke the silence. “I’m sorry you saw us kissin’.” He sounded really sad.
    “Me too.” As hard as I tried to not sound sad, I didn’t think there was any way I couldn’t. I didn’t cry because, as sad as I was, I was still a little angry. I was angry at him for kissing Anna and angry at me for kissing Branch. It felt like I had really screwed everything up today. If Cade hadn’t seen me kiss Branch, maybe he wouldn’t have kissed Anna. Guess we wouldn’t ever know the answer to that. I wanted him to be my first real kiss, but it was too late. Branch was mine and Anna was his. That was done. It couldn’t be changed.
    When I got to school the next day, Callie was waiting for me. She was a petite little thing with really long straight blonde hair. It was almost white and she had really big blue eyes. She was exactly what you would expect a cheerleader to look like. And she was about that perky, too. I was not known for being perky. I was more snarky than perky.
    “So, how was your weekend?” Before I could even answer, she started in. “I’m sure you spent the whole weekend with Cade. God, that boy is so cute! I do not know how you can spend so much time with him and not just wanna kiss him and hug him!” She was just plain giddy. It was too much for this early in the morning.
    “You know that Cade and I are friends, ya know, like we’re friends. I ain’t gonna kiss and hug on you either.” I was laughing, but not for long.
    She grabbed me in a big ole bear hug and started jumping up and down. “You will hug on me...because you love me. Now give me a kiss.” She had her lips all puckered up, I was just glad she had quit the hopping.
    “You’re a crazy girl,” I snickered as I turned away from her and starting pulling books out of my locker.
    “Mornin', girls.” Cade was walking to his locker, which happened to be right next to mine. “Ya’ll have a good weekend? Well, I know Suzanna did, did you, Callie?”
    Callie always got a little tongue-tied when Cade was around. I thought it was really funny, she did not.
    “Um, yeah - sure - uh- yeah- weekend - good.” She was beet red and I’m pretty sure she was shaking. It totally cracked me up. I had to laugh out loud at her. She slapped my arm and Cade just grinned and started down the hall to homeroom.
    “So, what did Cade mean by that?” Callie asked when she finally pulled herself together.
    “Um, by what?” I was trying to act like I didn’t know what she was talking about - yeah, she saw right through that. She pulled me into the hallway by the cafeteria.
    “What did you do this weekend, Suzanna Marie Mallory?” She was holding on to my shoulders for dear life. This felt like the Spanish inquisition.
    “Nothing. I didn’t do anything. I don’t know what he’s