Her Sexiest Mistake

'We're not doing anything,' Adam said.

Kevin uttered one very unteacherlike word, and Hope squeezed her eyes shut. Please God, just kill me right now. Strike me dead with lightning.

But God wasn't listening.

Kevin took a deep breath and looked at Adam. 'You.'

Hope shifted uncomfortably. 'Kevin-'

'Zip it, Hope,' Kevin said without looking at her. 'You're next. Right now I'm talking to Adam.'

Hope tried God again. Please, I'm begging you. Kill me.

'This is the-what?-the third time I've caught you out here this week playing tonsil hockey?' Kevin asked Adam.

Hope stopped talking to God and stared at Adam. 'Wait. Third time?'

Adam backed up a step, eyes cool and hooded. 'Kissing isn't against any rule.'

'Being out here in the woods is,' Kevin said. 'You've been warned. You've been punished with extra assignments. Now you're going to be suspended.'

Adam lost his smugness. 'Hey, wait. I-'

'Too late,' Kevin said firmly.

'But if you get suspended from summer school, you don't get credit for the class,' Adam said. 'I need the credit.'

'Too bad.'

Adam just stared at him. 'I thought you were cool. I thought you cared about fixing us.'

'Oh, I care, Adam,' Kevin said quietly. 'But I can't fix you. Only you can do that. You need to stop smoking pot and you need to get your act together while you're still a minor and these mistakes don't count against you permanently. If I can help you, I will.'

'Funny way of showing it.'

Kevin shrugged.

Adam glanced over at Hope, who was still stuck on the third time thing and looked away. Adam kicked the dirt and stalked off toward the teen center.

Hope couldn't help it, she let out a relieved little sigh. Kevin, unaware that he'd just saved her from having to tell Adam no, was now glaring at her. 'You want to tell me how I've ruined your life, too?' he asked. 'Because-what the hell-I'm on a roll. Let's hear it.'

Hope shook her head.

Kevin sighed. Swore again.

And Hope worked up the nerve to ask her most pressing question. 'Are you going to tell Mia?'

'No.'

She sagged in relief that turned out to be short-lived.

'You are.'

***

That night Kevin brought Hope home on his motorcycle, which she loved, but she couldn't fully absorb the joy of it because she was freaking out about facing Mia.

Mia came home a little bit later, looking tense, tossing her purse to the table as she held out a bag of Chinese takeout. 'Moo shoo and pot stickers for everyone. Tell me you'll eat it,' she said to Hope.

'Pot stickers?'

'I defy you not to moan with pleasure at the first taste.'

Hope was used to feeding herself at home. Here it'd been a different story from the beginning. Having Mia even care brought a lump of guilt to her throat that she couldn't swallow away. 'Um, I have to tell you something.'

Mia had been looking at Kevin, doing that adult communicating thing without words. Again. Only for the first time since Hope had first seen them, it didn't seem sexual, it seemed like… concern.

Mia was concerned about Kevin.

Kevin just shrugged. 'I'm going to take a shower.'

Mia watched him go, then turned back to Hope. 'What's up? And is it going to ruin my appetite?'

'I don't know. Today I… sorta broke a rule at school.'

'Did it involve the police?'

'What? No. I… ' Suddenly it all purged out of her in a painful rush: Adam, the walk to the teen center that ended up not going to the teen center at all, the woods, the kiss… 'And really,' she finished, 'Kevin totally overreacted. It was just a stupid kiss.'

Mia sighed and sank to a chair. 'Oh, boy. Okay. First things first. There is never 'just a kiss.' Kisses lead to all sorts of… other stuff.'

'Sex?'

'Well, yeah.'

'But isn't that how all of us Applebys solve our problems?'

Utter silence followed this.

Hope clapped a hand over her mouth. She couldn't believe the words had come out of her mouth.

Mia sat there, stricken.

Remorse and regret and humiliation rose up and nearly choked Hope. She'd have to leave now, for sure. Mia would want her to. But she couldn't even speak to ask, because of the lump in her throat.

'Listen,' Mia finally said, her disappointment weighing the room down. 'Here's the thing. I'm an adult. That means I get to do what I want, when I want. I realize that sucks for you, but when you're grown up and done wearing Sharpie black ink as nail polish and eyeliner, then you get to do what you want. Get it?'

Hope looked at her fingernails and wished they were clear. She nodded.

'Do you? Do you really?' Mia asked. 'Because it seems like we keep having this conversation. Whether you like it or not, I'm somehow responsible for you.'

Hope nodded. She got that part. She'd come out here, uninvited, and put Mia in this position.

'Just eat,' Mia said wearily.

Hope couldn't have swallowed to save her life. She hated knowing that she'd given Mia a reason to send her back home. 'You could ground me.'

'Can I ground you from talking ever again?'

'I don't think so. Are you going to send me home?'

Mia looked away, and Hope's heart clenched.

From somewhere in the depths of the house, the shower turned off. Mia cocked her head, listening. 'We're not going to do anything right now. Listen, I'll… be back.'

Telling herself she didn't care about the sudden awkwardness between them, Hope grabbed her chopsticks. In her life, she'd pissed off a lot of people. She'd rather have Mia's anger any day over this clear disappointment, but she had no idea how to fix it.

Chapter 21

Mia let herself into Kevin's bedroom and shut and locked the door. She looked at the bed and ached. Instead of stripping and slipping beneath the soft brown and navy blue comforter like she really wanted, she sat on the edge and waited.

She already knew what had happened with Mike, and even if she hadn't, she'd get an earful from Tess. Mia's heart broke for all of them, but mostly for Kevin.

He'd looked so destroyed before she left for work that she cornered him in the pantry closet and did her best to