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so sweet you couldn’t hate her for being pretty and smart. We caught up with her near the snack bar.
    “Hey, sorry I couldn’t make it to the pageant. We were buried in moving boxes, and my mom was freaking out. Congratulations,” I said.
    “Thanks.” She made the whoop-tee-doo signal with her hand. “Whichever contestant looks the most like a gourd wins.” She performed a little curtsy.
    “No, she was totally the best one.” Emmy gave Shay’s shoulder a playful poke.
    “What was your onstage question? How to achieve world peace?” I teased.
    Shay laughed. “No. They asked where I would take a tourist visiting Deep River if I wanted to impress them.”
    We all giggled at the thought of anyone being impressed by anything in Deep River. “I thought for sure she was gonna say the Sonic.” Emmy laughed at her own joke.
    “Right. No, I b-s’d something about the railroad museum and the historic library building. I don’t remember exactly what I said—I was pretty nervous.”
    “You should have said you’d bring them here to check out the cute guys in their baseball uniforms.” Emmy shot a dreamy glance over at the dugout where Jake now sat with his teammates.
    “Yeah, or take them to drool over Nox, shirtless at the pool club,” I added.
    Just then, Emmy looked past me, high over my shoulder. “Hey Nox. What’s up?”
    I whipped my head around and stared right at the faded lightning symbol between the AC and DC on an ancient black t-shirt. I had to tilt my head back to see the face of its owner. This was the nearest I’d ever been to him. He was even better-looking at close range. Not goldenly perfect like Lad—Nox’s hotness was messy around the edges—but everything about him made your eyes very happy.
    He was a senior who looked old enough to be in college. Probably one of those guys who started shaving at thirteen out of actual necessity instead of wishful thinking. I’d never been close enough before to see his eye color, but they were a beautiful hazel, the light irises encircled by an outer ring of deeper color. He flashed me a wicked smile.
    Oh God . How much did he overhear?
    He addressed Emmy, but nodded in my direction. “So, what’s up tonight with Emmy and the Amazon?”
    So much for the pretty face. At five-foot-ten, I’d heard every tall joke in the book, “Amazon” the least funny of them all. He could’ve been a little more original. Besides, we’d never actually spoken before—it was awfully familiar of him to tease me when we didn’t even know each other.
    My irritation must’ve shown because he laughed and winked one of those mysterious greenish-brown eyes at me. I felt the blood rush to my face. He was actually looking down at me, though. That didn’t happen every day. I guessed he was about six-foot-four. So not my type. I usually preferred shorter guys who were a little more… manageable.
    “Nox, you know Ryann, right? And this is Shay Cook. I’m not sure if you’ve met,” Emmy said.
    Nox didn’t even glance over at Shay or acknowledge he’d heard her name. Instead he continued staring at me like a starving cat perusing a tank of overfed goldfish. It was completely unnerving.
    “Do you have plans tomorrow night?” Nox asked, his tone soft and low.
    “What?” My voice sounded as confused as my face must have looked.
    Nox seemed completely comfortable standing there, silent and studying me with those remarkable eyes. I, however, was anything but comfortable.
    “I… we, uh… I think we might be busy.” I looked over at Emmy and Shay for help, for all the good it did me. They offered nothing but silly grins.
    He puffed out a laugh and started to respond when a baseball came out of nowhere and hit him solidly in the thigh. It fell at his feet with a thud. We all looked around to see where it had come from. Two little boys, around four or five years old, stood a few yards away staring wide-eyed at Nox. It wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened.
    Nox