few of her other neighbors but mostly kept to herself.

Dunc and his friends seemed to be close. They worked well together, and there was occasional tomfoolery. Some of it even included Dunc. Someone nailed his shirt to the decking when he sat down to take a break on an unfinished section. Dunc started flailing around and cussing out everyone in sight. It was more entertaining than offensive.

The paint ended up on everyone except Amanda. Nobody would touch her or mess with her. Her reputation was well known among the group. Lola managed to trick Trey into asking Amanda if she would go out on a date with Dunc. She did it under the pretense that Dunc had asked Lola to ask Trey to do it. Dunc had been standing right next to Amanda with his back to her when he did it.

Amanda had been staring at Trey as the gawky young man had stammered out, “Dunc wanted, wanted to know-”

“Stop!” Dunc had spun around and almost knocked Amanda down to make him stop talking. Then he sent both Lola and Trey off to help his mother.

When Dunc’s friends were near Amanda and out of Dunc’s earshot, they would whisper comments to her about him. Most of it was that Dunc was a nice guy. He liked Amanda. He was afraid of her. He felt like she had saved his life over the summer with the incident. That one was surprising. It had never occurred to Amanda that if she had not gone outside to help him, he might have passed out somewhere unknown and died.

It made her feel guilty for judging him the way she had. “He could have died?” Amanda thought to herself. Her shy, sweet crazy neighbor, could have died if she had chosen to ignore him and went back to bed? The thought kept repeating itself as evening neared and most of their work was done. There was still painting to be done, but Dunc would finish that the next day. Dew and Sallie both volunteered to help.

***

Then the party began. Dunc’s mother had been slow-smoking ribs and full chickens in the backyard since early that morning. Now the back yard was lit up with ropes of golden lights. Tables had been set up to hold dinner, and it was laden with half a dozen side dishes and even more desserts. Dunc’s mother had been as busy as them with baking and preparing for that night.

The music came on, and everyone was having a good time eating, talking, dancing, and relaxing after a hard day’s work. Amanda had often seen the lights. She knew these types of get-togethers were frequent for Dunc and his friends. She had never been invited. There were bottles of wine set up on one table and an assortment of beers and other drinks. Amanda planned to encourage Dew and Sallie to leave soon. She didn’t want to be around a group of rowdy drunks.

***

“So, about my shirt.” Dunc sat down on the porch seat swing next to Amanda. There were two swings, and Lola and Trey occupied the other one. They were obnoxiously cute and snuggly. “I sort of need it back.”

Amanda smiled at Dunc with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Right now? You want me to take it off right now?”

“Just give it back to me tomorrow. You don’t even have to wash it. I’ll take care of it.” Dunc took a drink of the soda in his hands.

“I should wash it.” Amanda grinned.

“There’s a specific way to wash it.” Dunc didn’t look her in the eyes when he said it. It was an ordinary t-shirt. He had no intentions of washing it once he got it back from Amanda. “I only have a few shirts with printing on them because finding clothes that fit me just right isn’t easy or cheap.”

“I’ll check the label.”

“I would prefer to handle it.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“No.”

“What? I heard that I saved your life!” Amanda shifted in the seat and closed the space between them. She bumped her shoulder against Dunc’s. He flinched away from her and gave her a questioning look. His face took on a light shade of pink.

“Do you know what it’s like to go out with your friends, not even have any alcohol, and be dropped off at home completely wasted?” Dunc mumbled, looking at everyone else in his backyard enjoying themselves. “Because I don’t remember anything about it. You do.” He paused in thought. “I seem to have a pattern of doing everything right and still ending up with a bad outcome.”

Despite Dunc’s superior healing ability, substantial doses of drugs like GHB could kill him. It took more than expected, but it could have happened. In that case, it wasn’t the drug itself that was deadly. It would have been falling into any amount of water face down or vomiting and suffocating. Any of those things could have happened if Amanda had not intervened.

“I’m sorry,” Amanda whispered. “I really am. I shouldn’t have treated you the way I did.”

“Doesn’t matter. Thank you for helping out today. Now maybe you can change out of my shirt and give it back?”

“Yeah.” Amanda slid off the swing. “I’ll go do that right now.” Dunc got up to follow her inside. He wasn’t in the partying mood but wanted to stay around Amanda as long as she was in his home. She looked adorable in his shirt. Every time he had looked at her and seen it on her, it made him feel odd. Good, but weird.

***

Amanda handed Dunc his neatly folded shirt. He nodded and headed to the stairs. “Going up to my room for a moment. You can stay here, go back out and enjoy the party or go on home.” Amanda couldn’t help but hear a sad tone in Dunc’s voice. She chose option

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