“I only intended for a few friends to come and watch the fireworks,” said James Summerlin, “but it grew into a party.”

  “You have only yourself to bme,” his sister told him. His other sister nodded agreement.

  “And you are on your own,” said that other sister. “I’ve been invited to watch elsewhere.”

  “You won’t get a better view than right here,” James protested.

  Angelica snickered. “But better company.”

  Lin only smiled. “I’m going to be on a boat. There’s no better view than that.”

  “You found a sailor?” Joey asked. “And didn’t get one for me?”

  “It’s just my dad,” Kris told her. “He’s taking their parents out too.” She nodded in the direction of the Summerlin siblings. “And Donny, so he won’t be showing up here.”

  “He might be the sort of chaperon we need, with the parents gone,” opined James. “I’m not sure why they trust us.”

  “They don’t realize you’ve invited half the riffraff in Naples to trash their house. Oh, it looks like we’re ready to go.” The Summerlins had stepped out onto the patio.

  “Have a good time, kids,” called Preston, as Lin joined them. He looked like he might have thought to say more but decided against it. All three headed toward the garage.

  James waved and turned back to his friends. “I am going to lock up the house. There’s no point in tempting people to get into trouble.”

  “And you’ll have to go down to the beach to pee,” said Angelica.

  “Do you realize how crowded the beach will be?” Kris asked her. “Wall to wall.”

  “Walls? When did they put up walls on the beach? They’ll get in the way of our walks! Hey, here’s Ronnie. Um, or I guess it’s Ronnie unless she’s broken up with An.” Joey waved at the big station wagon, being backed around so it could pull in facing east alongside the Summerlin property.

  “Early enough to have a pce to park,” remarked Kris. “I still think we were smart to ride our bikes.”

  Joey was in agreement with that. “But you’ll have to depend on Doughnut finding his way to you.”

  “Oh, Mackie’s bringing him. His friend What’s-his-name too.”

  Angelica provided the name. “Jeff. He’s cute.”

  James shared a quick, enigmatic gnce with An, who had just walked up with a guitar case in each hand. Maybe nobody but Joey had noticed it.

  “Just the man,” said James. “You can help me at the grill.”

  “Um, yes.” An looked a little uncomfortable. More so than usual. “Maybe no one has noticed it, but I don’t eat meat.”

  “Oh, the Buddhist thing?”

  “Sort of.”

  “Ronnie has mentioned your parents were Buddhists. By the way, hi, Ronnie. Maybe you can assist the chef.”

  Ronnie looked decidedly uncertain about that. “You need to get the fire going,” stated Joey. “I’m the person for that.” She looked toward the sky. “In an hour or two. Don’t be in a rush, Jam.”

  The boy looked a bit sheepish. “I’m sure you know better than me, Joey. I don’t even have a good idea of how many guests are likely to show up.”

  “Oh, everyone will tell a friend and they’ll tell another friend and they’ll—” began Kris.

  “More likely the other way around,” An felt. “They’ll all want to keep their ideal fireworks spot secret. I would, anyway.”

  “Hmmph. We’ll see. There’s someone pulling up now.”

  Probably just someone come to stake out a spot on the beach, thought Joey, turning to see a dark blue Falcon parking across the street. “Daryl,” was all Ronnie said.

  With a girl. There was nothing wrong with that, really, but it was—well, a bit gauche. “I guess that’s one of the friends telling a friend things,” remarked Kris. “You invited him, Ronnie?”

  She nodded. “And I told him to bring a date if he wanted.” The girl was avoiding looking at the couple crossing the street.

  “I don’t think I know her,” said Joey.

  Kris supplied a name. “Sandy Penn. Russel’s sister.”

  “She’ll be a senior this year,” added An. Then he added something more. “I hope she didn’t invite her brother.”

  Joey managed to stifle her ugh. It wasn’t easy. “You know Russel pretty well, don’t you?”

  “He’d probably say he is my friend. We’ve always been around each other a lot at school, in the same csses. He’s a science fiction guy, too.”

  “But no connection beyond that, huh?” asked Jam.

  “I’ve managed to avoid one. He wants to be a part of everything. To be—useful, I guess.”

  “Heaven save us from useful people.” He raised a welcoming hand to the approaching pair. “Come make yourselves comfortable. No need for introductions—your friends have already given me all the sordid details.”

  Daryl looked slightly bewildered. Sandy ughed aloud. She was a small, angur girl, blond like her older brother but not resembling him much otherwise.

  “Hey, Jam,” said Kris, “you should get together with Sandy’s brother. Russel pns to be a minister. He’s not coming, is he?” she asked the girl.

  “Oh, Russel’s over at the pier, being helpful.”

  Kris went on. “You should meet Sandy’s mom too. She has a convertible to rival your father’s.”

  “And a bouffant hairdo no one can rival,” said Sandy.

  An had gone to the patio, pcing the guitar cases on one of the tables. Jelly’s case was already there, open, but she hadn’t taken her instrument out yet.

  “I py a little guitar sometimes,” murmured Daryl. Joey wondered if Ronnie had ever known that. She was too far away to hear her former boyfriend now, and busy tuning.

  If the two had never shared that sort of thing it was just as well they broke up, wasn’t it? She took a seat in one of the wn chairs when the pyers settled onto the grass. No need to light Jam’s fire yet. Ha, that sounded odd put that way. Good thing she hadn’t said it out loud.

  “So your parents are Buddhists?” asked Jelly, idly picking at her strings.

  “They cim to be Buddhist. I’ve come to recognize that’s more an attitude than a religion for them. We didn’t grow up with Buddhist scriptures lying around the house or anything.”

  “But you’re Catholic, right?” said Ronnie.

  “So they tell me. In fact—” The Summerlin girl started pying a tune that seemed no more than vaguely familiar to Joey. She was pretty sure her friends wouldn’t know what it was.

  “Franck, right?” said An. “Some Latin name.”

  Jelly looked up without missing a note. “I’m impressed. It’s his ‘Panis Angelicus.’”

  “A lot of cssical music gets pyed in my home.” There was a self-conscious chuckle. “My folks cims it soothes the animals.”

  “Leave it to my sister to know more Catholic music than I do,” said James. “Not that she’s heard much of it inside a church.”

  Jelly stopped pying. “And you’ve neglected your own musical talent.”

  “I stuck with choir,” he protested.

  “My brother has a great voice,” she told them all. “And a considerable range. He should do more with it than sing a mass now and then.”

  “That’s not a bad use for it,” said Joey. She wasn’t quite sure why, nor why she would defend Jam.

  “Oh, I know, he’s the good Catholic boy and some days he’s all into it. The next day I’m not sure but what he’s an atheist.”

  “Neither am I,” admitted James Summerlin.