Her Sexiest Mistake

did want, and wasting time on the court with a girl was not it.

But Adam was so cute, cute enough for her to pretend she liked what he liked. He'd been playing football for a few years, putting on muscle where most guys her age were still too skinny. He was big and built and all the girls wanted him, including that beautiful Amber, but Adam wanted Hope. The rush of that!

God, she wanted a smoke bad. She wasn't addicted, though. Nope, she would quit anytime. She pulled the pack out of her pocket with fingers that shook, then stared down at her hands in horror. Shaking, like her momma's. Maybe she should quit.

Tomorrow.

She looked down again and got dizzy. If it hadn't been for Adam, she'd have just sneaked a puff or two inside. And she'd started to, but then she looked around her at the wide-open, uncluttered, beautifully decorated house and faced the truth: she loved it here. It was clean and smelled good and so big she could be by herself whenever she wanted, without hearing another soul snore or yell. And the air conditioner, pure heaven on earth. No plastering her face to the inside of the freezer, she could get cool in any room of the house.

No, she couldn't smoke in there.

She could have just told Mia she was going outside; Mia didn't have any hold on her or anything. But it just felt good not to ask. Or tell. Or talk at all.

And that, if she was admitting stuff, was the most beautiful thing of all about this trip west. Mia, for all her faults-and there were many-didn't bother her with the little stuff, or expectations at all, for that matter.

So she straddled the ledge, looking down at the screen. Somehow she had to get it back up to the window. Closing her eyes, holding her breath, she jumped.

Luckily, the screen broke her fall. Unluckily, the screen didn't take it so well. She lay there for a moment and took stock. No pain anywhere, and she could still feel her arms and legs.

Plus her cigarette was only kinda bent.

With a wince, she stood up, then moved out of the bushes. She walked around to the side of the house where she couldn't inadvertently be seen by Mia out one of the windows, then headed toward the basketball court.

It was empty. She sat back against the steel post of the basket, then lit the cigarette. She'd just deeply inhaled when someone said, 'And here all this time I thought you were so smart.'

She nearly dropped the lit cigarette into her lap. Kevin. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. She clamped her mouth shut, trapping the smoke, wondering how to get rid of him before she had to breathe.

But he sat on the ground next to her, then leaned back, raising a brow, signaling that it was her turn to talk.

Hard to do with a mouthful of smoke and holding her breath. She went for a smile that she hoped didn't look like a grimace. Look at me, I'm fine, and I'm not smoking or anything.

Only suffocating.

'Pretty night,' Kevin said casually, putting his hands behind his head, crossing his feet. He had those old boots on, laced only halfway. They looked comfortable, like the man.

Not her, though. Completely. Out. Of. Air. Turning her head away from him, she tried to let out the smoke slowly, but the problem was her lungs. They were demanding more air. Right now. So she ended up trying to drag more in before she let the smoke all the way out, and then choked for her efforts.

Coughing, eyes watering, she bent over, trying to wheeze a lungful of air in.

Anybody would have laughed at her. Anyone. After all, she was being totally stupid trying to hide the smoke.

But Kevin didn't laugh. He put a hand on her back and patted her lightly as she coughed. And coughed.

'Better?' he asked when she finally could breathe again.

She swiped at the tears streaming down her face and nodded.

He still didn't seem to expect her to make excuses, or even speak. He just waited until he was sure she wasn't going to die, and then leaned back, once again making himself perfectly at home in the dark night.

Something hooted. A light breeze blew, brushing the bushes together with a soft, wispy sound. An insect buzzed her face.

And still they sat there in shockingly companionable silence.

'Don't you love it out here?' he finally said with a sigh. 'The quiet. The noise.'

She couldn't stand it another second. 'I was smoking.'

'Yeah. You were turning an interesting shade of blue, too.'

She didn't get it. 'Aren't you going to, like, yell at me?'

'If you want to be stupid and kill yourself, that's your business.'

'I'm quitting tomorrow,' she heard herself say.

He turned his head and smiled at her. 'That's good.'

The warmth of his approval washed over her. They watched the night some more. 'At home,' she said after a few minutes, 'we'd be attacked alive by the mosquitoes, and sweating like crazy.'

'You should see August. Plenty of mosquitoes then.'

'I'm going back.'

'You know, you could always just ask to stay.' She wanted to, God she wanted to, but she just shrugged.

'Your call.' Kevin went back to his easy quiet.

Then came the sound of a front door opening. And then running footsteps. Hope straightened to see Mia flying down the sidewalk, her bathrobe swirling behind her, her fancy high-heeled mules slapping down on the concrete as she came to a skidding halt between the Diplomat and the Audi.

Uh oh.

Hope glanced at Kevin. 'Maybe you should have left a note,' he suggested.

Mia whipped her cell out of her pocket, her breath rasping loudly as she stood beneath the streetlight, trying to hold her robe closed while dialing at the same time.

'Mia,' Kevin called out as he rose to his feet. 'Over here.'

Mia's head whipped toward them, but Hope could tell she couldn't see in the dark.

Mia's hair wasn't in its usual perfect state. That is, it was piled on top of her head, precariously perched there with pieces hanging down in her eyes, and it was damp as if she'd been in the bath or something. She wore no makeup, and if Hope's eyesight was correct, she wore nothing beneath the gown. Wow. Her Aunt Apple had it going on.

'Hope?' Mia squinted toward them. Breathing heavily, she put her hand to her chest. 'God. I thought-' She moved on the sidewalk until she came to the gate at center court. Slipping inside she came right up to them. 'I really thought-'

She broke off when her voice cracked.

Kevin reached out for her, putting his hand on her arm and squeezing, and shockingly, for a moment, Mia leaned into him.

'You thought that I'd what?' Hope asked. 'Stolen your car?'

Mia grimaced. 'More like rewired the thing so that when I started it the horn would go off or something. Don't even try to tell me you couldn't do that if you wanted.'

Hope jerked a shoulder.

'You so belong in my science class,' Kevin said with a low laugh.

Hope hugged herself. 'Whatever.'

'Hope, you can't just vanish on me,' Mia said. 'It gives me gray hair.'

'You vanish, too. To go to his house.' She jerked a shoulder toward Kevin. 'You're totally crushing on him.'

Kevin eyed Mia with interest. 'Really? Crushing?'

But Mia's nostrils were wriggling. 'Is that smoke- Hope, were you smoking again?'

Shit. 'Yeah. But I didn't inhale.'

Mia about had a coronary. 'You think this is funny? Smoking