Can any readers from Canada tell me if Ontario residents use the 24-hour clock? I've looked it up and can't find an answer. I made an assumption about that at the end of this chapter and it might be wrong, so forgive me if it is.

Either way, this chapter was fun to write, so I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 5, Casey: The Call of the Wild

After five days of Day Camp, I'm definitely ready for the weekend. Derek and I both sleep in on Saturday, so before I know it he's off to work and I'm still lounging at home.

It's nice spending time with the family, and I have dinner with them, but I decide to surprise Derek by having dessert at Smelly Nelly's. Lizzie asks to come along, and of course I agree. The two of us haven't had much sister time in a while.

"He's going to be so happy to see you," Lizzie says as we climb into George's car. I make a mental note to start driving Derek to work more often so I can do things like this using my (our) own car.

"I think so, too. It's silly, but we really do miss each other when we're apart even for a few hours."

Lizzie shrugs good-naturedly. "I'm not even going to pretend to understand you two."

I smile over at her. "So what's new with you?"

Lizzie shrugs again. "Honestly, not much."

"No boy news?" I can see her squirm out of the corner of my eye, so that of course means yes.

"Um, there's something I have to tell you."

My chest tightens as I wonder what it could be. Good? Bad? It's a struggle to stay nonchalant. "Oh, really?"

"I, um, wanted to come with you to Smelly Nelly's tonight to point someone out to you. I need your opinion on one of the waiters." She grins over at me.

I bite my lip, trying to keep from giggling. It's still such a strange concept that Lizard is going into grade ten—so of course she'd be interacting with high school guys. Guys old enough to have jobs. I shudder inwardly at the thought. So weird. "I'd be happy to scope him out with you."

When we get inside, I can tell who she's talking about right away. There's a majorly cute guy at the counter who looks about sixteen, and his name tag says "Ricky." I try to think. I'm pretty sure this is the "new guy" Derek's mentioned when talking about work, and from what he says, Ricky is pretty great. I wonder if he'll keep saying that when he finds out Lizzie has a crush on him!

I give Lizzie a discreet thumb's up and she beams. I find us a booth, trying not to be too obvious about the fact that I'm watching her like a hawk.

"Hi Ricky," she says shyly, approaching the counter.

"Lizzie!" Ricky positively lights up at the sight of her. Good sign!

"I'm here to have dessert with my sister. What's good tonight?" Lizzie sounds strong and confident now. She's much better at talking to guys than I ever was. I'm so glad I never have to worry about that ever again!

Speaking of Derek, he comes up behind me and slips a hand behind my neck as he kisses me hello. "Der!" I hiss when we break apart. "Don't get in trouble!"

Derek shakes his head at me. "Case, look around. It's just Ricky and me tonight."

I look, and he's right. The restaurant is dotted with people still dining, but it's not too crowded. Figures Derek would step right back into a management position—they love him here.

He slides into the booth across from me and jabs a thumb at Lizzie and Ricky. "Please tell me there's nothing going on there." He rolls his eyes.

"There's nothing going on there … yet," I reply.

"He's too old for her," Derek says firmly, and I give him a hard look.

"Don't do this. She's fifteen, Derek. You remember being fifteen, right?"

Derek stares at me in disbelief. "Yes, I do. And I remember being seventeen, which is what Ricky is." His eyebrows shoot up when I refuse to react. "Ricky has a car, Casey."

I grab his hands, trying not to laugh. "And Lizzie has a good head on her shoulders, so quit worrying."

Derek makes a face, but he doesn't say anything more about it. I have a feeling this isn't the end of the conversation, but I'm not about to ruin Lizzie's night. She's on her way over here.

Derek jumps up, says hi to Lizzie, and gives me another kiss before heading back to work.

"Whoa," I hear as we pull away, and we both look up to see former head cheerleader Amy staring at us from the entranceway, mouth agape. Apparently, we've got to stop kissing in public, because people keep catching us!

I glance up at Derek, who doesn't look the least bit fazed. "Hey Amy," he says lazily, waving as Amy continues to stare at him, then me, then him again. He bends down toward me and whispers, "I don't really care what she thinks, do you?" I shake my head, realizing I agree with him. He kisses me one more time and then returns to the kitchen.

I force myself not to look at Amy as I turn to Lizzie, who just sat down. She giggles behind her hand, and I can't help but do the same. "She still here?" I mouth at Lizzie, and Lizzie, who's facing the counter, nods.

"She's ordering something from Ricky."

We start talking, and to be honest I almost forget about her. Then, out of nowhere, she plops down next to Lizzie in our booth and glares at me. "You've officially stolen two of my boyfriends now, McDonald." She arches her eyebrows.

Lizzie gawks at her as I fidget, not sure how to handle her. Why isn't Derek back from the kitchen yet? She's still staring me down.

"Amy, I—" I'm about to say something stupid like, "I'm sorry." But she cuts me off.

"I'm just kidding!" She cackles and cuffs me on the shoulder. "You should have seen your face! So when did this happen?"

I breathe a sigh of relief. "Back in the fall. We're living together at university, and—"

She cuts me off again. "This is so great!"

I sit back, confused. It's strange that she's being nice, but it's even stranger that she doesn't seem the least bit surprised. She and Lizzie are introducing themselves when Derek reappears, putting a protective arm around me as he leans against our booth.

Amy looks up, grinning at him. "I'm so happy for you guys! What took you so long, Venturi?"

"You knew?" I blurt out. Derek and I talk about everything, but we definitely haven't talked about this!

Derek clears his throat, buying time, and he and Amy exchange sheepish smiles. Lizzie's taking it all in, fascinated.

"Oh," Amy turns to me, "he never told you the reason we broke up? The boy is positively obsessed with you. It's a shame, because we could have been great friends. But between Max and this one here," she smiles fondly at Derek, "it wasn't meant to be. You two, on the other hand, totally are."

She doesn't give any of us time to respond before she's up and bouncing away, calling, "Good to see you both! Have a nice summer!" She picks up her container of food that's sitting on the counter and waltzes out the door.

I'm still staring after her in confusion as Lizzie and Derek are laughing hysterically. There's no bad blood between us. After I quit cheerleading I never really saw her until graduation, and even then we gave each other an awkward hug and exchanged "good lucks" before moving on. As far as I knew, it was the same with her and Derek. So why was she acting like she and Derek have this special bond?

Derek sees the increasingly agitated look on my face and scoots into the booth next to me. "Look, don't get upset."

"I'm not upset. Why would I be upset?" I fail to keep my voice level and Derek smirks. I shove him lightly. "This isn't funny. Why were you acting like this was one big inside joke?"

"Um, because it kinda was."

Lizzie and I both stare at him, waiting for him to elaborate. He groans.

"Okay, okay. Here's the deal. I went after Amy because after watching you at the cheerleading tryouts, I needed," he glances at Lizzie and reddens a little. "I needed, um … "

Lizzie rolls her eyes. "Watching Casey turned you on, so you pounced on the first cheerleader you saw," she says.

"Lizzie!" Derek looks scandalized, and I'm blushing now, too.

"Derek, I'm not ten anymore," she says, eyes sparkling mischievously. "Go on, will ya?"

Derek harrumphs, but he goes on with his story. "Amy was a good distraction, and I really had always wanted to date a cheerleader. But we only went out for a week, and every single time we saw each other, all we talked about was Casey."

I start to protest, but Derek holds up a hand. "I swear it's true. Amy was furious at you for trying out and that the other girls liked you, and I used her to complain about all the crazy things you did. So talking about you was really the only thing we had in common. The day I decided to break up with her, because she literally would not shut up about how awful you were, she beat me to it by saying she wanted to dump me because I talked about you too much. I admitted I was about to dump her for the same reason, and we had a good laugh. She said if I was really that into you, I should say something, but of course I didn't listen to her. Besides, in my defense, you were with Max at the time."

I shake my head in disbelief. Derek is always full of surprises, even after knowing him for so long. "I didn't see that coming."

"How many other girlfriends did you torture with Casey talk?" Lizzie asks.

Derek smiles. "Oh, I learned my lesson after Amy. I couldn't risk anyone else suspecting anything."

"You didn't do a very good job, because the more people who find out about us, it seems like the more people knew all along," I scoff.

"Hey, at least everyone's been happy for us so far."

I nod in agreement, and Derek has to leave when a customer at another booth calls him over.

"So that's how the reaction usually goes?" Lizzie asks.

I shrug. "There is no usual. I told you about Kendra screaming, right?"

Lizzie's eyes widen. "No!"

I tell her about that day at Emily's house, and soon we're eating our desserts and talking about her crush on Ricky. They haven't gone out yet, but I can tell it's only a matter of time.

()()()()()

When Lizzie and I get home, I leave a note for Derek and head out to the backyard. I'm looking forward to relaxing in the hammock and doing some stargazing until he joins me outside.

In no time at all, I feel the hammock shift and the cool summer breeze blows the enticing smell of his aftershave right past my nose. He climbs in and settles behind me so we're spooning.

"You're okay about the Amy thing, right?" he asks in greeting, kissing my cheek.

I nod, my hair rustling against the orange canvas. "Of course. Her reaction was surprising, but it makes me feel good, too. So many people tell us we're meant to be together, or some variation of that."

"Yeah."

He's quiet for a moment, and I listen to our breathing become synchronized. I pull the blanket up around both of us. "You think we should get a hammock on our balcony?" I ask, knowing I'm probably being too mean but wanting to tease him anyway. "This thing's pretty sturdy. It could probably hold us if we're careful."

"You're evil," Derek growls. I giggle as he chants "seventy-two days" into my neck.

"Come on, you know the idea was already in your head."

"Actually," I feel him smirking, "I was enjoying a quiet moment looking at the stars with my girlfriend. You're the one who turned it into an innuendo."

"Oooh, big word," I coo, and he's tickling me until I'm breathless from giggling. "We'll … wake … them …" I choke out.

"Nah, everyone's asleep. There weren't any lights on when I came home." He raises his eyebrows at me.

I mull it over. A few minutes of kissing on the hammock won't make any noise, and it's not like it'd be embarrassing if someone caught us—they've seen us kiss a million times before.

Of course, it doesn't stay that innocent, and I try to care, I really do, but Derek's already shifted on top of me and he's kissing along my jaw line and his hand's reaching for the bottom of my shirt. I still have the presence of mind to push his hand away, so he reaches behind me to rub at my back instead as his mouth meets mine.

The hammock swings lightly as we shift, and I try my best to ignore the ache that started building as soon as our bodies met. "We have to stop," I murmur as we take a breather, and Derek looks down at me questioningly. "Okay, not yet," I agree, and we smile at each other as his mouth captures mine again.

()()()()()

We tiptoe back toward the house, trading small, soft kisses back and forth as we walk. It wasn't exactly any kind of release, but making out is going to have to hold us over for now.

As we turn the doorknob, we realize at the same time that the kitchen light is on. Mom is standing at the sink, filling the teakettle with water.

"Mom!" I squeak, and she looks up and gives us a cautious smile.

"Hi, kids." She sounds tired. Maybe she didn't see anything.

"Good night, Nora," Derek says, leading me toward the basement door. I know exactly what he's thinking—Derek's strategy is always evade, deny, and lie.

"I wouldn't make a habit of that," Mom says, her back to us as she sets the kettle on the stove.

I freeze, blushing scarlet. Derek lets out a barely audible whimper. He's such a baby.

"You, uh, you saw us on the hammock?" I blurt, and Derek's making crazy faces at me, obviously wishing I would shut up already. But I refuse to be weird about this with my mom. Yeah, it's awkward, but she knows how close Derek and I are. It's not exactly a secret.

"From Marti's room as I was checking on her upstairs. Luckily, she was already in bed, and I closed the curtains pretty quickly."

We were worried about someone walking outside and seeing us. Neither one of us had even considered the vantage point from inside the house! I suddenly knew without a doubt that we'd made the right decision in abstaining for the summer.

"Mom, I'm so sorry," I tell her, and Derek, the coward, is inching toward the basement door. I grab his hand to stop him, giving him a pleading look. He sighs.

"Yeah, Nora, we weren't thinking. Won't happen again." He looks at me as if to say, "Happy?" and I nod. He says good night and speeds downstairs.

Mom gives me a long look. "You have your own bedroom, two floors away from everyone else."

My cheeks are still burning. "I know. You're right, it was stupid. But we didn't let it get … out of hand."

Mom crosses her arms, but her expression is soft. "I would hope not."

Now I'm not sure what to do. I want to hug her, but that doesn't seem appropriate.

She sighs. "We're all adjusting to this, you know. We're happy to have you home, but you have to understand, it is still a little strange for us to see you be so affectionate after years of hostility. We've only seen you in short bursts of time for so long now that seeing your day-to-day interactions is brand new for us."

I'm taken aback at that. She's right—we never really pay much attention to our family's reactions to us. We love that we can be ourselves around them, but maybe we've crossed some lines we shouldn't have without even realizing it.

"Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather see him kiss you goodbye every morning than dump cereal on your head," Mom says, and I let out a nervous laugh.

"We'll dial down the PDA a little."

Mom nods. "I don't want you to feel like you have to hide anything, but …"

"… we'll keep our tongues to ourselves," I finish for her, before I realize that that's not the best thing to say to my mother.

It's Mom's turn to chuckle. "That's such a Derek thing to say."

I decide I want that hug now. "I love you," I tell her, squeezing her tight.

"I love you, too, Casey," she says as she hugs me back. "And I'm so proud of you. You've accomplished a lot this past year, what with adjusting to university, keeping your grades up, the dance team, the newspaper … and you and Derek are handling your relationship with such maturity. It's truly been a joy to watch you fall deeper in love." She's getting a little misty-eyed, and I'm choked up, too. We hug one more time, and then I go downstairs and leave Mom to her tea.

As I enter our bedroom, Derek holds up a hand in a "stop" gesture. He's watching the clock intently, and as it clicks from 11:59 to midnight, he calls out, "Seventy-one days!"