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Levi set out a blanket under the cottonwood tree and took out more foil-wrapped hot dogs. “I made one with ketchup, mayo, and double pickles for Josh.”

And just like that the feeling of being special vanished. My shoulders slumped. Levi was always thinking about everyone else. There was nothing special about me. I should have learned that lesson then.

“Josh is coming too?” I asked settling down on the picnic blanket. I couldn’t hide my disappointment. It was so rare I got Levi to myself, and I wanted to hold on to this moment for as long as I could. Levi and Josh had been joined at the hip since they met three years before at space camp. When Josh came home after two weeks in Florida, all he could talk about was this boy his age who shared his obsession with science fiction books and black holes. When he told our parents that Levi wanted to be a pilot like my dad, they insisted we invite him to stay for a couple weeks the following summer.

When I first saw Levi I was speechless. I’d been reading Homer, teaching myself ancient Greek, and this boy looked exactly how I imagined Achilles would look. He was the most beautiful boy I’d ever seen—granted I hadn’t paid much attention to boys before that summer. But I found every excuse I could to spend time around Levi and so I couldn’t help but notice that there was always a touch of sadness in Levi’s eyes and behind his easy smile. It was ghostly but it was there. And it wasn’t long before Josh whispered the secret to me—that Levi had lost both his parents and was living with his great aunt in a small town in Michigan. My heart, which had already slipped open for him, created an even larger space to enfold him.

And that space continued to grow and grow with every summer he stayed with us. My dad had been a pilot in the Air Force and was now an instructor in Colorado Springs. Josh wanted to follow in his footsteps. So did Levi.

And I was selfishly glad of it. That meant Dad had taken him under his wing. That fall, he and Josh were going to the Academy which meant he’d be around all the time. He’d promised to take me driving in his car, Francine, and we were already planning a special surprise for my parents’ anniversary.

A dance that we’d never get to perform. But I didn’t know that then. As far as I knew at the time that summer was full of promise.

I snuck a peek at Levi while he stretched out beside me, all lean muscles and smooth skin, and let myself daydream about stretching myself out on top of him.

“Josh went to get your cousin at the airport.” Levi yawned and slid his dark sunglasses over his eyes. “They’ll join us here.”

“Ashleigh’s coming here?” I gestured to the creek and the rocks. “This isn’t her natural environment. There isn’t a Claire’s in sight.”

Ashleigh was a year older than me and my opposite in every way—a girly girl, obsessed with makeup and boys. Last year she had even competed in the Miss California Teen pageant. So, to say that she wasn’t outdoorsy was a huge understatement.

Looking back on this moment, I should have taken Levi by the hand and run. I should have told him I loved him.

Why hadn’t I told him I loved him?

How innocent and unsuspecting I’d been. Not much had changed. I’d never learn. I was mostly worried that Ashleigh would embarrass me by revealing my crush to Levi since she was the only person I’d really confided in about him. I even thought she’d give me a makeover to help me win him over.

“You mean not all girls like digging in the dirt until their fingers bleed? Or baking under the hot sun all day until they’re red as a lobster? Which reminds me . . .” Levi sat up, reaching for his backpack to retrieve a tube of 50+ sunblock. “You forgot this. Gingers like you shouldn’t be outside unprotected. I bet you’ve got a hundred new freckles. Here let me count.”

My breath hitched as his long fingers cupped my chin. He inspected me through long eyelashes, turning my head gently to the right and then the left. “Aha, just as I suspected. There’s a new colony right here.” He tapped the bridge of my nose—I started to pull away. I had so many new hang-ups about my nose—it was too long and thin, with a slight bump in the middle that I rubbed when I was nervous. It was an Italian nose, my dad said proudly whenever I complained about it. All I wanted was a cute little button nose like Ashleigh’s.

Before I could protest Levi had squirted a thick white blob of sunscreen on his fingers and painted my nose with it. I couldn’t speak. The butterflies in my stomach had reached biblical plague proportions. I wondered what he would do if I bent forward and kissed him. I’d never kissed anyone before. Levi had probably kissed dozens of girls by now. My face inched closer to his as he placed two cool dots of sunscreen on my cheeks and forehead. I closed my eyes . . .

A rustling in the bushes startled us both, and Levi dropped his arms like he’d been burned.

“There you are,” came my brother’s voice.

In the present moment, back in the stale air of the Etruscan tomb, I squeezed my eyes shut and held on to that image that Josh made as he emerged from the trees, his red hair, the same dark auburn as mine like fire in the sun, a halo of golden light around him.

If I reached out now, I could touch him. In the cool air of the tomb, I could almost feel the warmth of his energy.

“Hey, check out at what your sister’s been up to,” Levi stood and wandered over to the hole I’d been digging to pick up Josh’s toothbrush. As he bent down, he paused. “Holy shit, Indy. Look what you found!” He dropped to his knees and dug out my “treasure” and held it up to the light. It wasn’t an arrowhead. Just a sliver of rock. A big shiny one, but a rock nonetheless.

“Let me see that!” said Josh, grabbing it from Levi. “It’s a meteorite.”

“It is not!” I protested, snatching it from his fingers. Now that I looked at it closely it did have a weird shine, almost like black crystals. Leave it to space-obsessed, future astronaut to find a piece of space in my archaeological dig site. I felt like a complete idiot for not having noticed it. “You really think it is?”

“Yeah, absolutely. It’s a pallasite. Look, at the pattern here.” Josh turned it over in his hand brushing away the dirt. Flecks of silver and blue made a leopard-like pattern across the rough surface. It was otherworldly and beautiful.

“Good work, Jones. Do you know how rare this is?” Levi high-fived me. I would have preferred a kiss, but I guess I’d settle for that. The huge grin on Levi’s face was infectious, and I started smiling too. I’d found something. We’d found something.

“You keep it,” I said impulsively.

“No way. It’s yours.” Levi placed it in my hand.

“We don’t have to argue over it,” said Josh, scooping up two more pieces that had broken off. “There’s one for each of us.”

Levi hooted and he spun me around.