I know, I know—youre probably thinking it sounds impossible to be cornered on a wide-open beach. But that’s only because you dont know Brooke. “Hey Dani,” she said, a funny little half-grin dancing around on her face. “I just talked to Ryan. So what are you going to do?” I stared at her in horror. “He told you, too?” The previous afternoon I’d been so distracted by the whole fire-raft-rescue situation that I’d sort of lost my nerve about the whole letting-Ryan-down-easy thing. So far I’d managed to avoid him, even though it was pretty obvious he kept trying to get me alone. Of course, at the rate he was telling people the whole stupid story, it wasn’t: going to matter soon whether we were alone or not. First Ned had grinned at me after dinner last night, muttering something about Ryan being a cool guy. Then I’d passed Macy on the path to the stream and found out Ryan had confided in her, too. At least Macy had some sympathy for my predicament since she knew about my plan to get together with Josh.
