She stumbled backward. “This isn’t about me or—Or Billy. This is about a little girl,” she stuttered. “And her mother.”

His face burned red. “You’re damn right, it is. So why don’t you just stay out of it?” He reached across the desk as though he was going to choke her.

She backpedaled out the door and ran through the Pavilion. People turned to stare. She ignored them and hustled down the stairs and into the parking lot. Heil was nothing but a pervert trying to scare her. That was all. He didn’t know anything about her or Billy.

Heil was a dirty money-loving piece of shit.

*   *   *

Jo picked up a rock at the water’s edge and launched it into the lake. Plop. She picked up two more and threw them as hard as she could. Plop. Plop. She tried not to think about Heil and his accusations. She stared at the floating pier. On certain nights in the light of the moon, under a star-filled sky, the pier became a beacon in the center of the lake.

When she had been younger, there had been countless times where she’d swim out to the pier and lie under the stars on a night much like tonight. Sometimes Billy had been with her. Sometimes Kevin had been there too. Other times, her favorite times of all, were the times when she had been alone, her thoughts drifting, floating on the water, at one with the universe. She missed that girl, the one with dreams, confident and strong—the one with hope for a future.

She folded her arms. The water kissed her toes. She continued staring out at the lake, wondering what had happened to that girl she used to be, where she had gone wrong, remembering the very last time she had swum to the pier, the very last time she had seen Billy.

*   *   *

They had been drinking, all of them, under the steps of the Pavilion. Eddie had pulled a long shift at the bar, carrying cases of beer, rolling out empty kegs, exchanging the barrels for full ones, busing tables. But it had been a special night for Kevin. He had been asked by Tony, one of the guys in the band, to play a few songs and warm up the crowd. It had taken some coaxing, mostly from Billy to get Kevin to do it.

“Don’t be a wuss,” Billy said. “You’re really good. You should be playing to a crowd.”

Kevin had looked at Jo. She believed he was asking what she thought he should do. Of course she wanted him to play, but she also wanted to be sitting in the bar listening, not outside under the steps hearing his voice as though it were secondhand smoke. No, if he was going to play on a stage in front of a crowd, in front of other girls, she had to be there, front and center, listening firsthand, smoking the cigarette herself.

“Why do you keep looking at my girl?” Billy asked, and ruffled Kevin’s hair as though he was a child and Billy a man. Although Billy was messing around, the tension between the two was palpable. She felt sure Billy sensed there was something between her and Kevin the last few days, something much more than friendship.

“You should definitely play,” Jo said to Kevin. She moved to stand next to Billy, touching Billy’s arm and shoulder as she spoke. “It drives the girls wild when you do.” She was teasing Kevin, or maybe she was goading him to see what he would do, who he would choose, her or some other girl in the bar. Or maybe she was trying to hurt him because she really didn’t want him to play his guitar for anyone but her. She pressed her body against Billy, wanting to show her feelings for him, too. He was more than happy to wrap his arm around her and pull her close.

“Go on,” she said to Kevin as though she didn’t care what he did, and nibbled Billy’s ear. She wasn’t playing fair, but she couldn’t help herself.

Kevin’s eyes burned through her. “Yeah, I think I will play,” he finally said to Tony.

“Well, all right. Let’s go,” Tony said, and Kevin followed him upstairs.

She stepped away from Billy and lit a cigarette.

“What is it with you lately?” he asked.

“Oh, Billy. It’s nothing.” She ran her free hand through his thick blond hair and kissed his cheek, tasting the earthiness of the lake water on his skin. She buried her nose in his neck wondering what she thought she was doing. She wasn’t eating, barely sleeping, bouncing back and forth between the two. It was tearing her up inside, and yet she couldn’t stop. Her feelings for both were strong, but for very different reasons. Billy was her first love and would always have a place inside her heart. But it was with Kevin that she shared her private thoughts and where her hidden desires flourished. What was she supposed to do? She no longer knew what could make her happy. All she knew was that she couldn’t carry on this way much longer.

They continued their little party under the steps—Billy, Jo, and Sheila—while Kevin’s guitar sang out through the night air. She longed to go upstairs and listen, but at sixteen and under the legal drinking age, she was sure to be thrown out.

By the time Kevin finished his set and Eddie’s shift had ended, Sheila was bent over, throwing up most of the beer she had drank.

“I better get her home,” Eddie said, and held Sheila’s hair from her face as she bent down and wretched again.

After Eddie took Sheila home, an uneasy silence settled between Jo and the two boys. Kevin quietly leaned against the back wall in the shadows, nursing the same bottle of beer. Billy picked the label from his bottle.

She suddenly felt tired of the whole damn thing. Or maybe she imagined the tension brewing between them. The ground tilted beneath her feet. How much did she have to drink? There was no way of knowing. She stumbled out from under the steps, stretched her arms overhead, and spun around. Maybe she should make them choose. Maybe she should make them fight over her. Maybe it was the alcohol that made her do it.

“Catch me if you can, Billy,” she called. “You too, Kevin,” she said, and raced to the beach. She didn’t think about what she would do when they both reached her. Instead, once her bare feet hit the sand, she stripped down to her red bikini, wanting nothing more than to swim under the light of the moon and stars.

She rushed into the cool water and dove under. She was a good swimmer, a strong swimmer. Gram had made her take swimming lessons ever since she was little. She had learned the basic strokes, how not to panic when she was in trouble, like the time her legs got tangled in lily pads and threatened to pull her under.

It was safe to say she was comfortable in the lake as long as she didn’t dive too deep. Even the strongest swimmers, the lake regulars, lost their way in what lay below, in the dark, murky depths of the bottom.

She swam to the floating pier with clean even strokes, despite the alcohol that made her clumsy on land. She climbed the ladder and pulled herself up, thinking it was up to the boys now. Let them fight it out and make the decision for her. She stretched out on the pier—one leg bent, the other straight. She flipped her long wet hair from her shoulders and leaned back on her elbows, posing in a way, and waited. And waited. What were they doing?

She could see them on the beach, talking or arguing. It was as if they were deciding whether to join her. She was irritated. Fine, if that was the way they were going to play it, then neither could have her. She lay flat and looked at the stars. For a brief moment she tasted something sweet on the tip of her tongue. She licked her lips. In that second she felt totally, utterly, completely free. Her breath moved easily through her lungs. Her chest expanded, her heart swelled. She was free.

Until she turned her head to the sound of splashing water and watched her freedom slip away as Billy and Kevin raced toward the pier to claim her.

*   *   *

Tonight, under the same moon and stars, the lapping water against the shore told a different story. She smoothed her wavy hair away from her face. The humidity made it frizz and crowd her cheeks. She should leave this place. She shouldn’t have stayed this long. What was keeping her here? So what if they had found some old bones?