She looked at his book, at the place where he was using his finger as a bookmark. "You do, too."

"I've always loved to read," he told her. "As long as I've got a book, it doesn't matter where I am. I can instantly be a million miles away, in a completely different place, on a different planet even. I can be someone else, you know? When it gets too complicated to be myself."

Mallory nodded, but then she looked away, as if she were afraid she'd given too much away with that one little gesture of agreement. "God, I need a cigarette," she breathed.

"It's hard to quit, huh?"

"You wouldn't happen to have one, would you?"

"I don't smoke."

"You wouldn't."

It was meant to be an insult, but David let it slide. Mallory Paoletti had created some pretty staunch defenses to keep people out of her world. If he wanted in-and he did-he was going to have to ignore the scratch of the verbal brambles and step lightly over the passive-aggressive minefields.

He unzipped his pack again and dug into it, searching for the book he'd put in this afternoon. He found it underneath his camera, and held it out to her. But she didn't take it, and he ended up just setting it down in front of her, an offering to the goddess.

"I started reading this book-" He gestured to the one he was reading, the book she'd recommended. "-and it occurred to me that you might have never read anything by Heinlein. I thought you might want to borrow one of my favorites."

Mallory looked down at the book he'd put in front of her but she didn't touch it. She just looked at the cover, looked back at him. "What do you want from me?"

The question was so point-blank that David didn't quite know how to answer it. He couldn't answer it, not caught the way he was in the intensity of her eyes.

"Do you really think that if you sign me up for some little private book club, I'll let you slip me something besides a book every now and then? Is that what this is about? You want to do it with me, geek-boy?"

Geek-boy. Ouch. But David didn't get a chance to respond. She was spitting mad and she wasn't done yet. He found his voice but all he could get out was "N-"

She pushed herself to her feet, savagely kicking his book back toward him, gathering up her crumpled bag, her half-finished soda, and her own book.

David had envisioned himself taking days, weeks even, to make friends with Mallory. And only then, after they were friends, would he tell her about Nightshade. But he realized now it wasn't going to happen that way. It was now or never.

And so he stood, too, fumbling in his pack for Wingmasters Two, pulling it free. "I do want something from you, Mallory. You're right about that. But it's not what you think. See, I want you to model for me, for my next project."

He held it out and she stared down at the dark colors on the cover.

"Wingmasters Two?" she read. She looked up at him. "A comic book?"

"It's a graphic novel. We try to make it higher quality than a comic book. But you better believe if we got an offer from D.C. or Marvel, we'd proudly become a comic book in an instant." He pointed to names on the front. "By Renny Shimoda and David Sullivan. Artwork by David Sullivan. That's me."

She gave him a disbelieving look as she pulled the book from his hands to take a closer look.

"Wingmasters One and Two both had limited printings-a few thousand copies each. We started our own publishing company to distribute them," he told her as she flipped through it. "We had to pay for the printing up front, but we've made back most of our initial investment. Unfortunately, the series didn't catch on quite the way we'd hoped," he continued, "even though it's a cult favorite."

She was standing there, flipping through the pages, probably only half listening.

"For the past two months, I've been developing a new series. Nightshade. This one's all mine. The story's mine, too, not just the artwork. It's about this high school girl, Nicki Sheldon, who realizes she has these superpowers. Kind of Buffy meets the X-Men."

Mallory frowned up at him. "So I'm just supposed to believe that you're this David Sullivan. The one whose name is on the front of this thing, this graphic novel."

David took out his wallet, took out his driver's license.

She took it from him, squinted at his name and his parents' address in Newton. "God, this picture sucks." She looked up at him again. "Well, maybe it doesn't." She handed it back to him, still unconvinced. "David Sullivan's a common enough name."

David knew how to prove he was who he said he was. He sat down on the grass, searching through his pack for a pencil and his sketch pad. He opened to a clean page, balanced the pad on his leg, looked up at Mallory, and started to draw.

"Do me a favor and sit," he ordered her. "My neck's going to break."

She was watching his pencil moving across the page, and she slowly lowered herself to the ground. She sat forward, on her knees, so she could watch him draw.

"Oh, my God," she breathed. "That is so cool."

It wasn't that good. He could do a lot better when not under so much pressure. But it wasn't bad, either-a rough comic-book version of Mallory's face, complete with her trademark scowl. He added a body-an exaggerated, stylized, superhero type body, in a superhero pose. Hands on hips, legs slightly spread in a powerful stance, muscles rippling, chest out.

"Nightshade," Mallory read aloud as he printed the name in block letters beneath his drawing. She looked at the similar drawings on the cover of Wingmasters Two, then up at him. "Holy shit, you did draw this, didn't you?"

He turned his notebook around so that it faced her. "What I'd like to do," he told her, "is take photos of you. All kinds of poses, from all angles. The hardest thing is drawing realistic-looking bodies-you know, anatomically correct bodies that move and bend and flex the way real people do. I took an anatomy class in school last year, and that's helped a lot. But getting the right perspective is hard, too. Still, if I can have a few hundred photos of you pinned up around my drawing table, it makes it that much easier."

She laughed as she gazed at the drawing. "That really looks like me. That's so weird."

"Here," David said, moving closer to her. "Let me show you what I mean."

He took his camera out of his pack and placed it gently on the grass as he dug for the pictures he'd just got back from the developers at the drugstore.

"Oh, man, that's one huge camera."

"The camera's actually pretty small." He picked it up again and handed it to her. "It's the lens that's big." He pointed to the viewfinder. "Look through there. Check it out. And move this, here, to focus."

Their fingers touched, and she didn't pull away. He was close enough to smell the sweet scent of peanut butter on her breath.

She laughed. "This is one of those paparazzi lenses-the kind photographers from the National Enquirer use to get pictures of Fergie sunbathing topless from, like, five miles away." She looked up from the viewfinder, and at this proximity, he could see flecks of green and gold mixed in with the light brown of her eyes. She was gorgeous from forty feet away, stunning from four feet. From four inches, she was heart stopping.

David felt his IQ drop into the single digits as he stared into her eyes.

"So who were you taking pictures of with this superlens?" she asked. "Prince William in town?"

"No," he managed to say. "No one-I mean, not yet. I mean, I was going to take some pictures later this afternoon."

Pictures. Right. He was going to show her his pictures. Come on, brain. Don't fail now. She was sitting here, she was listening to him, she was interested in his project.

She handed the camera back to him, and again their fingers touched. "I was in media club in middle school," she told him. "I loved it-I got to borrow this really cool camera and take all these freaky black-and-white pictures. Well, I did until Mark Fritz stole the camera from my locker. He told me he took it, but then he denied it when I told Mr. Marley. It was Mark against me, and he got straight As and was captain of the middle-school tennis team, so I was blamed. I wasn't kicked out of media club, but I wasn't allowed to borrow the equipment anymore, so what was the point? My mother bought me some little Instamatic piece of shit to try to make me feel better. She didn't know the difference between that and a Nikon."

Both Mark Fritz and Mr. Marley deserved a sound thrashing. "You can do a lot with an Instamatic," he said. "Or even one of those disposable cameras you can pick up at the drugstore. Especially if you work with natural light. Do you still take pictures?"

She shrugged evasively. It was hard to say whether it was a yes shrug or a no shrug. She glanced at her watch. Damn, he was losing her.

"I have to head back to the Ice Cream Shoppe in about five minutes."

David found the packets of photos in the front pocket of his pack. "Here, let me just show you these really quickly."

Some of them were pictures he'd taken here in town. But most were from his recent photo session with Brandon.

"I took these in my apartment," he told her. "This is my friend Brandon Crane. He's a lifeguard over at the hotel. Basically, what I do is have him come in, he puts on a bathing suit-"

"Oh, is that what you call that?" Mallory asked. "It doesn't leave a whole lot to the imagination, does it?"

David laughed. "It's a Speedo. It's legal. Guys wear 'em all the time."

"Yeah, maybe in Provincetown." She flipped through the photos. "God, what are you going to have me wear?"

His pulse kicked into gear. The way she'd asked that question, it was as if it was already a done deal, as if she was ready to sign on. But he couldn't assume that. He had to play it cool, play it out.

"Do you have a bikini?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I burn so I don't do much sunbathing."

"I've got a costume box, with bikinis in just about every size. If you found one you liked, you could even keep it after."

She went back through the pictures of Brandon, looking at them more closely. "I'm not sure I'd want to keep it after. Besides, what if it was the one you like to wear?"

Was that lighthearted teasing or was her comment intended to belittle, to cruelly mock him? David couldn't tell.

"Personally, I'm fond of my pink ballerina tutu," he said lightly, choosing to believe she was teasing. "That and the chicken suit. As long as you stay away from those . . ."

She laughed. And then she held up a particularly buff photo of Bran. "Is this guy really a lifeguard here in town? He looks like he belongs on a movie set in L.A. How'd you talk him into doing this, anyway?"

"We've been friends since fourth grade. He got this summer job for me as a breakfast waiter at the hotel. He poses for me for free-for something called deferred payment. We have an understanding that if I make it big, I'll pay him lots of money down the road. But I could pay you up front, if you want. Fifty dollars an hour is about all I could afford, with a two hour guarantee."

She was suddenly intently studying the photos again, as if she didn't want to look him in the eye. "That seems like an awful lot of money just for standing around in a bathing suit."

"Professional models get more than that," he told her.

She was silent.

"What I'd really like," David said, praying that he hadn't just screwed this up by talking about money, "would be to schedule a shoot with both you and Brandon. I'm going to want a bunch of individual shots of you, of course, but it would be good to get some of the two of you together. He can show you how it's done." Maybe she'd be more comfortable knowing she wasn't going to be alone with David in his apartment studio. "He's going to be Julian, your love interest in the graphic novel."

"Just how graphic is this graphic novel?" she asked suspiciously.

"No," he said quickly. "Not that way. Not at all. I'm targeting as wide an audience as possible. Some of the artists like to be, um, well, explicit. And while I imply certain relationships . . . I don't . . . I mean, sure, I'll show the two characters kiss, but . . ."

She looked down at the pictures of Brandon again. "So . . . you want to take pictures of me kissing your friend."

"Well, yeah, I mean, a few shots, sure. Kisses are hard to draw, so . . ."

"Is he, like, unattached?"

David's stomach twisted as he gazed at her. The question was posed so casually. Too casually. Oh, damn. This had happened too many times before. He and Brandon would be out somewhere, he'd meet a girl he really liked-and Bran would take her home. It was inevitable.

It was a pain in his ass.

Still, this wasn't about him liking this girl. This was about convincing her to pose for him. This was about Nightshade.

"Yeah," he told her, pushing up his glasses with one finger. "He's unattached. A word of warning, though-one look at you and he'll be hitting on you." He felt like some kind of backward pimp, trying to entice her to come to his studio with promises of a roll with his friend, Mr. Incredible Pecs.

Mallory shook her head. "No way. A guy like this only goes out with the Susan Thornridges and the Mary Beth Blacklys." She put the photos back in the envelope. "And even if he did ask, I wouldn't go anywhere with him. I don't need his kind of shit messing up my life, no thanks."

"Well, then I'll make sure I tell him to back off." David was ready to promise her anything. Whatever it took. Brandon or not. Of course he preferred or not, but she would probably change her mind with one face-to-face meeting with his charismatic friend.

She stood up, brushing off the seat of her jeans. "I'm late. I've got to go."

"How's tonight?" he asked, reaching into his pack for one of his cards. "I happen to know that Bran's got the night off. He could be at my place by nine. What do you say? Nine to eleven?" He wanted to drop to his knees and plead, but he knew he'd get further by staying at least relatively cool.

She took her time taking his card from him, but this time she actually read it. He'd written his summer address and phone number on it in clean block letters.

"The bathing suit stays on?" she asked.

"Swear to God," he said. "If you want, you can bring your father along as a chaperone."

"How about I bring my uncle?" she said challengingly. "He's a Navy SEAL, in town on leave."

David fumbled his sketch pad, dropping it onto the grass. A SEAL . . . "Really?" His voice cracked. "That's so cool. SEALs are built like gods. Definitely bring him. Do you think . . . wow, do you think he'd pose for me?"

Mallory laughed. "No," she said. "But I will. You just convinced me you're for real, Sullivan. God, your dork index is off the charts."

Yes. Thank God for his dork index, whatever that meant. David grinned at her. "Then I'll see you tonight." Oh, man, he had to get home fast and clean his apartment.

She scowled at him. "If I turn out to be wrong about you, I will kick you so hard your balls will come out your nose. Do you understand?"

David couldn't keep from laughing, the image was such an intense one. "Absolutely."

She glared at him one more time as if to prove that she was dead serious, then turned and walked away, heading back to work, carefully tucking his card into the back pocket of her jeans.

David waited until she turned the corner onto South Street, and only then did he do a victory dance around the tree.

She was his. She was his.

Well, on paper, anyway.

Chapter 8.

JUST KICK ASIDE the laundry, Kelly had said.