maybe this was my chance. I'd never stayed in one place long enough to have a

boyfriend before.”

She paused, looking away. “I should have known better, considering how

much he talked about you. Katie this and Katie that…” She sighed and shook her head. “Girls can be so stupid. Guys too, I suppose. I knew Peter was probably just helping you with your scholarship project because he liked you, but when I had a chance to try to put you out of the picture, I took it. I told the judges you'd cheated, you'd gotten help from him when I knew you hadn't, not

really.” She took a deep, halting breath. “It's the one thing in my life I'm most ashamed of.”

Then she looked at Kate, her blue-eyes rimmed with tears. “I know it sounds

pretty desperate. Who wants to get a guy that way? But I was seventeen, and he

was cute, and I was lonely and afraid. I was sure you'd want nothing to do with

him after that. That part worked great. You barely spoke to him senior year. I didn't count on one little thing about Peter though.”

“What's that?” Kate asked, her brain spinning.

Penny smiled, then laughed. “What do you think? He loves you, Kate.”

Loves? Kate's heart buzzed an alarm. “In high school, you mean. Don't be silly.”

“Then, yes, but now too.”

No. Don't trust her. She's Penny Fitch, the wispy witch. She's playing an angle.

“Oh,” Kate said weakly. “No, we're just friends. We were just friends. He's nice to everyone.” Remember?

Penny reached out, touching her arm, squeezing it. “C'mon, Kate. We're not

in high school anymore.” She laced her fingers together in front of her. “After my divorce, when I moved back here to work for Nitrovex, I admit I gave Peter

some thought. It probably seems funny, but Golden Grove was always the

closest thing to home for me.”

Kate realized her fingernails were biting into her palms, unclenched them.

“And, yeah, Peter and I went out for coffee a couple of times, He was always

so nice,” Penny said.

Yes, we've established the niceness factor, Kate thought. “Are you still in love with him?” she asked in a careful voice.

“Still? I was never in love with Peter. I liked the idea of him, sure. It's like,

something can look good on paper, you know? Like it should be, right? And then

it just…isn't.”

Kate took a deep breath, couldn't think of anything to say. But she knew perfectly, exactly what Penny meant.

“I guess you could say there just wasn't any…chemistry?” She said it as a question, as if Kate could somehow provide the answer.

Kate nodded. Chemistry. Then her eyes narrowed. Chemistry? Moles.

Angstroms. Molecules. She swallowed. Heart-melting blue eyes. Crooked,

disarming smiles. Calm, smooth, small-town reassuring voices that made you feel like you were safe at home. Chemistry.

“So, I guess you're kind of mad at me, huh?”

Kate realized she'd been staring off, down the hall, into nothing. She looked

at Penny. And the wispy witch was gone. Just another woman, like herself, someone who had only been trying to make her way from girl to grownup.

Kate had said it herself. Everyone needs to grow up sooner or later. Penny had, and maybe Kate needed to as well. She smiled, shaking her head. “No apology necessary,” she said. “Actually, I'm sorry, too.”

Penny cocked her head. “Sorry? For what?”

Kate smiled. “I guess for not inviting you to a pool party that summer…let's

just keep it at that for now.”

Penny gave her a smile and a nod. “Okay.” She turned and left.

Kate stood for a moment. She felt like she had when she was eight and her

mom had caught her making fun of Elizabeth, the girl in her third-grade class with the lisp. It was not a feeling she had ever wanted to repeat.

And it struck her, and she flinched inside. Take Penny the wispy witch out of

the past, and Penny Finch was basically a normal, nice person doing her job. Just

like Kate. Except for maybe, at the moment, the nice part.

Now she was studying the floor. Everyone needs to grow up sooner or later.

They were her own words, and she hadn't even listened to them herself.

What else had she missed?

He loves you, Kate. She didn't dare believe that. Not now. That would mean too much. More than an impromptu kiss in a museum. Or under the stars. Or anywhere.

Too much. It didn't matter what Penny believed. Grownups had

responsibilities after all.