“WHAT,” Colt bellows.
“You’re fucking with us,” Luke breathes.
“I didn’t know!” I throw my hands up. “She didn’t know either! It was anonymous—usernames only! She just called me Fireboy!”
“Fireboy?” Evan doubles over laughing. “Shit, that’s so much worse.”
I glare at all of them.
“Oh mygod,” Colt groans, his laugh half-horrified. “You’ve been sexting Eli Parnell’ssister-in-lawfor a monthand didn’t know.”
“And then youghostedher,” Beck adds.
“I didn’t mean to!” I shoot back, defensive. “I freaked out, alright? You know I panicked.”
“So let me get this straight,” Luke says, counting on his fingers. “You ghosted a mystery girl you’d been voice-sexting for weeks, then showed up toChristmas lunchat the Parnell’s and met Frankie, realized she was Voice Girl, then got snowed in with her. And now you’re what—madly in love?”
“...Basically,” I admit.
And that’s how I know I’m fucked, because I don’t even hesitate.
“Goddamn,” Colt says. “Fireboy’s in love.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Beck exhales loudly. “Holy shit man, how...”
“She was furious at me, but when I showed up and we got snowed in, we—”
“Nope.”
“Reconciled.”
Colt holds up a hand. “No further detail required.”
“I’m proud of you, Fletch,” Evan says, slapping me on the shoulder. “You were a dumbass, but you’re owning it.”
“I’m trying,” I mutter. “I just hope she shows up at the lake today, too. Wanna see her again.”
“You just saw her.”
“I mean I wannakeepseeing her.”
There’s a beat where they all exchange a glance, but it’s Beck who turns to me.
“Does she know that?”
“Hope so.”
They go quiet at that, and the teasing fades, but the question hangs.
Does she know?
I realize I don’t have her number, I can’t text her, can’t call her—not unless I message her on that damn app. But now that feels too impersonal for where we’re at.
I reach into my pocket for my phone, but it’s not there. My head snaps up, eyes scanning every surface in the bay where I might’ve left it, but I don’t see it.
“Anyone seen my phone?”
