A Man for the Summer Read Free Page B

nice. It would be the decent thing to do to help her out, that’s all, he tried, but the inner voice chided him. Griff had the conscience of the altar boy he’d once been, and as hard as tried to shake it off, it was always there.
    And it was his pesky conscience that caused the lovely image of Junior to slowly fade to another, the red hair giving way to dirty-blond shag, the luminous blue eyes morphing into a set of huge Granny Smith green ones, one of which sported a mean shiner.
    Yes, he’d given Maggie Goldman that black eye, but it was nothing compared to what she’d done to him. They’d known each other for every damn one of their eleven years and been at each other’s throats the entire time. When they couldn’t fight in person they just leaned over the fence separating their back yards and yelled.
    She’d taunted him from the top of the jungle gym at school that afternoon, standing with her bare sunburned feet precariously set on the gray metal bars, swinging her skinny hips back and forth and calling his middle name for the whole damn world to hear.
    “Maurice! Mauriiiiiice!” she shouted, delighted to have discovered his most closely-guarded secret. She’d learned it from Ruby, his family’s housekeeper, to add insult to injury, over a glass of lemonade that very morning. What could he expect—he’d long suspected that Ruby loved Maggie every bit as much as she loved him.
    He went after Maggie, fueled by rage and embarrassment. He was up the monkey bars in about two seconds flat, but Maggie waited until he was at the top before she knelt down. Light as a cat, she kept her balance as she gave him a huge shove and sent him crashing to earth, bruising just about every bone in his body and opening up a four-inch gash on his shin.
    Even then he wouldn’t have hit her, except as he was sitting there, rubbing his elbows, tasting blood where he bit his lip, she scrambled down and regarded him with hands fisted at her hips and challenge in her eyes.
    “Dang, Griff, are you gonna cry?” she yelled.
    So he’d had no choice.
    That argument didn’t wash with Ruby, though.
    As she jabbed him with an excruciating stream of Bactine and bandaged up his gash, she didn’t let him get a word in. Just let him know in no uncertain terms that she expected her boy to be a gentleman. And now he was facing the greatest humiliation of his life, sitting on Maggie’s front porch, trying to work up the apology he’d promised he’d make, and nearly choking on it.
    It wasn’t fair. Anyone could see that. Even Maggie. He could tell from the way she waited with a half-smile on her face. Her eye was just going purple, and it wasn’t even swelling up all that bad. He’d seen worse. Way worse.
    “Hey, Griff,” she finally said. “It’s okay. I know Ruby made you come here.”
    Griff shrugged, but relief flooded him and his hatred of Maggie Gold lifted just like that. Just as it had a hundred times before. After all, it was kind of tough to hate your best friend. Not that he would ever, ever admit to anyone that’s what Maggie was.
    “Thanks,” he said. “And, you know, I probably shouldn’t have hit you in the face and all.”
    Maggie shrugged.
    “It’s all right. I know you didn’t mean it. Friends, right?”
    Relief made Griff feel magnanimous.
    “Yeah Maggie. Friends.”
    He held out his hand and when he took hers to shake, it was warm and soft.
    A girl hand.
    He gave it a shake anyway, gave her his best grin. She was all right.
    Maggie didn’t give his hand back right away. She held on a second extra and then let go reluctantly.
    “I was wondering, Griff. We known each other forever, right?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Uh huh. I thought, well, there’s something I want you to do.”
    “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”
    Maggie’s gaze dipped down, and her hands gripped each other in her lap.
    “Kiss me,” she whispered.
    Griff was too stunned to speak.
    It wasn’t like he’d never thought of kissing a girl. Only, it