Justin started to turn his head to confirm it but Danielle clasped her hands on both sides of his face and said, “Don’t look, silly. He’ll know we’re onto him.”
Then she stood up. “Now just keep an eye on him. I’ve got to go pee.”
“Again?” Gracie said.
Danielle narrowed her eyes at her sister and said, “This time I’m not going up to that stupid toilet. I’ll be back in a second. Don’t try to steal Justin away, as if you could.”
After she was gone, Gracie and Justin sat together uncomfortably. Or at least Gracie did.
Justin said, “Your sister seems nice.”
“She isn’t.”
Justin chuckled. “I guess what I mean is she could be nice, if she tried.”
“Don’t count on it,” Gracie said, warming to him. “I know her.”
“There’s good in everybody, Gracie.”
She looked over to see if he was serious. He was. He said, “I always expect the best out of people. I think when you do that, you get the best most of the time. I just kind of bump along, expecting the best, and good things just happen. That’s my secret.”
She said, “Why are you telling me your secret?” She was flattered. She thought a strapping, good-looking guy like Justin would be unapproachable in every instance. He was too handsome, too confident, and too cool.
“I’ll tell anyone who will listen,” he said softly. “What I can’t figure out is why everybody doesn’t do it. Look for the best, I mean. It’s easy, and it makes life go easier.”
Gracie just stared. He was too good to be true, she thought. Her instincts were not to trust him.
“That’s a nice thing, I guess,” she said to her shoes.
“Sure it is. Just accept yourself and look for the good in others. It’s not complicated.”
“Do you see good in me?” Gracie asked.
He smiled. He even had a nice smile. “Of course. You watch out for your sister and your dad, I think.”
“So who watches out for me?”
“I will, if you want,” he said sincerely.
Gracie shook her head. She’d never met someone so comfortable in their own skin. It weirded her out. There must be more to him, she thought. A dark side. But when she looked into his open face and that impossible smile, she couldn’t see it. No one was that good. Maybe he was a
“See how it works?” he said, as if reading her mind.
Gracie was grateful when Danielle suddenly reappeared and grasped Justin’s face between her hands before sitting back down.
Justin didn’t pull his face away, and smiled at Danielle sloppily. He liked it. Gracie rolled her eyes again and looked back to the fire. “Hey, look,” Justin said to Danielle, “out on the lake. Can you see what’s going on?”
“What?” her sister asked.
“The fish are rising.”
Gracie followed his outstretched arm. The moon lit the still surface of the lake in light blue and sure enough, ringlets were appearing everywhere, as if it were raining upside down.
Justin said, “Want to go down to the shore with me and see if we can catch one?”
Danielle was up like a shot. She stood in front of Gracie and blocked the light and heat, and Gracie felt as if she’d been plunged into cold. She started to stand but Danielle reached back and put a hand on her shoulder, preventing her from rising. Danielle turned and bent over close to her ear, and said, “Not you.”
Justin winked and asked Gracie, “Do you want to come along?”
“No,” Danielle said. “She doesn’t.”
And Gracie thought,
After they’d left, Gracie considered asking Dakota to help her find that snake so she could put it into the bottom of her sister’s sleeping bag.
* * *
She hugged herself against the chill, now that her sister had abandoned her. It seemed very late but it wasn’t even ten yet. The sky was a bright smear of stars she’d never known existed before, and the busy sky above and the absolute darkness of everything beyond the fire made her feel smaller than she’d ever felt.
The campfire was the hub that held everyone in place. When it started to die Dakota or Jeb would leave their place behind the cooking station where they were washing dishes and toss another piece of wood on it.
She observed the others without staring at them.
The Glodes kept to themselves. They were the farthest away from Gracie, on the opposite side of the fire. Tristan Glode smoked a big black cigar, and the glow danced in the darkness. Donna stared into the fire as if she were comatose. Gracie thought that although they were by themselves they weren’t really with each other. It was as if there were a wall between them even though they were a couple of feet apart. How sad, she thought.
Two of the three Wall Streeters, Tony D’Amato and Drey Russell, were whittling on sticks and joking about it. Everything, it seemed, was a joke to them. Little light-colored piles of shavings gathered on their boots, and the blades from their pocketknives flashed in the firelight.
