That wasn’t worth an answer so I didn’t bother giving one. Instead I pushed with my hands, trying to get up but his booted foot held me down firmly.

“Jesus, Boonie. What’s your problem?”

“Five bucks. Pay up.”

I sighed, wondering why the hell I’d let him goad me into this. Time to ’fess up.

“I don’t have the money,” I admitted. Boonie didn’t say anything at first, then he lifted his boot slowly, setting me free. Shit. Was he going to be a dick about this?

“Roll over,’’ he said. I rolled over and looked at him, wishing to hell I’d never opened my stupid mouth. Boonie wasn’t a guy to mess with. He got in more trouble than any of the other freshmen. Even worse, he’d started running around with some of the older kids in the trailer park ever since he’d shot up last summer. Now he was six feet tall. It occurred to me that I didn’t really know him that well anymore.

We were only six months apart in age, but I was just a lowly eighth grader.

Crap.

“Can I get up?”

“Do you have five bucks?”

“No,” I admitted, feeling a little sick.

Boonie dropped to his knees next to me, a knowing smirk on his face. “I knew you didn’t when I made the bet.”

“What do you mean?”

“You had to borrow a dollar from Erin to get a drink and there’s no way you’d leave any cash at home. Your dad would take it.”

Well. Looked like Boonie knew me a little too well.

I sat up and we faced each other, our faces a little closer than felt comfortable. A strange tension had come into the air. I’d known him most of my life, but these last few months he’d been more distant. Now I didn’t know how to act around him or what to say.

Erin had a crush on him, said he was hot. Studying his face I could see it—he had strong features, and his short, dark hair was just shaggy enough that I wanted to touch it. Push it back, away from his face so I could see him better.

This was totally messed up—I shouldn’t be thinking shit like this about Boonie. We’d always alternated between being friends and enemies.

This was different. Scary.

Boonie lifted a hand toward my hair and I flinched, feeling my cheeks heat.

“What do you want?” I whispered.

“What do you think?”

I licked my lips and his eyes followed the movement. My breath caught as he leaned forward just a little.

“You guys up there?’’ Erin called, her voice shrill. “Darcy! Where are you? Is Boonie with you?”

I eyed him warily. “Erin likes you.”

He shrugged.

“So?”

“She’s my friend.”

“Come here.”

“We should get going,” I said, scooting back across the pine needles. My jeans caught on a branch, stopping me. Boonie leaned forward, crawling up and over my body. He wasn’t touching me, but his knees straddled mine. Then his hands came down on either side of my head.

“Give me a kiss and we’ll call it even.”

I didn’t know what to say. His eyes were dark, intense. I knew he’d kissed girls before, maybe even more than kissed. I’d even seen him coming out of Shanda Reed’s trailer a few times. She was sixteen and everyone knew she slept around. Not that I judged her for it—she’d baby-sat me a couple of times when I was little and used to build tent forts for me. I liked her.

But I had a feeling she wasn’t building forts with Boonie.

I licked my lips again, knowing I should kick him in the balls. Instead I watched as his head came closer. Then his lips brushed mine, ever so softly. Something strange and new started to uncurl deep inside. Something restless and needy. When his teeth nipped I opened my mouth with a soft sigh.

Then his tongue slipped inside.

Holy. Shit.

Erin said open-mouthed kissing was slutty. No wonder Shanda was slutty, because this was amazing. Boonie’s body lowered over mine and I felt his weight press me back down into the pine needles.

The kiss was harder now, his tongue plunging deep into me and his fingers tangled into my hair. I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything but feel as he thrust one of his strong thighs between my legs.

That’s when I felt it.

Something hard, pushing against my stomach.

Was that . . . ?

Ohmygod!

“Darcy!” Erin yelled again. She was almost on top of us and we both froze. Boonie lifted his head, staring down at me in heated silence. Whole worlds burned in his eyes and I knew things would never be the same between us again. His hips shifted once, restlessly.

“Darcy, where the hell are you?” she shouted again. I opened my mouth to reply, but before any sound could come out Boonie put a finger across my lips.

“Stay quiet. She can’t see us,” he whispered. His pelvis pressed down into mine and suddenly I knew exactly where this was going. Boonie might only be six months older than me, but he was years ahead of me when it came to this kind of game.

I wasn’t ready. Not at all.

“I’m coming, Erin!’’ I shouted abruptly. Boonie’s eyes narrowed, but he pushed away, letting me sit up. Then he was pulling me to my feet. Watching him warily, I reached for my backpack and slung it over my shoulder.

“I’ll be right down!” I yelled, backing away.

“Stop,” Boonie said.

I shook my head.

“Your hair is full of pine needles,” he added quietly. “Let me fix it. Otherwise you’ll catch shit.”

Crap. He caught my shoulders and turned me around, fingers combing through my hair. The touch sent shivers running down my spine. I wanted to lean back into him, to feel him wrap his arms around me.

Instead I waited for him to finish then started down the hill.

“Erin, I’m headed down,’’ I called, glancing back at him. “Wait for me and I’ll be right there.”

Boonie watched as I left, making no move to follow. That was different, too. We’d fought with each other as much as we’d played through the years, but more often than not it’d been us against the world—I was used to having him at my back. That boy was gone now. He’d turned into someone else. Someone hard and fierce and maybe even a little scary.

I wanted him to kiss me again. Desperately.

Erin started babbling about the eighth-grade graduation dance when I reached her, oblivious to the world-shaking events that’d taken place farther up the slope. I followed her down the hill to the road and we started walking along the gravel toward the trailer park.

“Everyone else already went home,” she declared. “It took me forever to find you. What were you doing?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t have five bucks. I couldn’t let Boonie find me.”

“Whatever,” she replied, and I wondered if she’d even been listening. Probably not. She never did. That usually pissed me off but today it was exactly what I needed.

It was just after five when we slid through the ancient wooden fence surrounding Six Mile Gulch trailer park, which was missing at least half its boards. My dad would be zoned out in front of the TV with his beer and Mom was working swing shift at the grocery store. That gave me plenty of time to get dinner started on a normal night.

But as soon as we reached the central dirt driveway I realized this wasn’t a normal night.

My steps faltered as I took in the clumps of anxious, upset adults. Some of them were crying. Children sat on steps, watching with wide eyes. Over at the Blackthorne place, Granny Aurora stood on the porch looking lost. I’d never seen her like that—usually she was the rock holding all of us together, always ready with a hot cookie and a cold glass of milk. My stomach sank. This was bad. Really bad. Fear and something worse hung in the air.

“What’s going on?” Erin asked, her voice wavering. Shanda ran over to us, her face smeared with streaks of black mascara.

“Have you seen Boonie?” she asked breathlessly.

“He’s probably right behind us,” I told her, ignoring Erin’s sharp look. “What happened?”

“There’s a fire at the silver mine—it’s bad. Real bad.”