Eventually, the party broke up on its own, and people started cleaning up and heading home around midnight. Ruthie thanked them, and her dads came out to help with the clean up, which was really minimal, because of the strategic placement of the huge recycling bins and trash cans.

As usual, Linda took a lot of the leftover pizza for her brothers, and the sodas and juice boxes just went into the large fridge that was in the Grimaldi's garage.

"Bye," Ruthie called, waving to Pepsi, who was getting a ride home with Gordo, as usual.

She turned to see Elliott pulling the last of the pool toys out of the water and letting the air out of them so they could be stowed in the bins.

"Oh, you don't have to bother, really, I can do it," Ruthie said, grabbing part of the huge, vivid, pink dinosaur float from him and squeezing it to let the air out.

"Oh, it's not a problem, honest," Elliott said, squeezing the half he still held. "I live closer than anyone, and it's a gorgeous night for a walk, anyway, so I'll take care of this, then head out."

"But my dads and I can do it--" Ruthie insisted, waving toward them. She was surprised to find that they weren't on the patio anymore, and that she and Elliott were quite alone.

Elliott smiled at her and gently took the pink dinosaur to finish squeezing the air out. It made a funny sound, reminiscent of flatulence, as the last of the air came out and the neck and head sagged to the ground. Elliott and Ruthie looked at each other and laughed.

"I have an idea," Ruthie said, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Do you have to go home right away, or can you stay a while longer?"

"No, I told my grandparents where I'd be, and they're fine with it," Elliott replied, smiling with expectation.

"Okay, put Dora away, and wait in the hot tub," Ruthie instructed as she walked lightly toward the house.

"I'll assume this is Dora?" Elliott called with a laugh, raising the flattened pink pool toy. He put her away and went to the jacuzzi, which was still warm and bubbling from the party. As he was lowering himself into the water, the music changed from the loud, pop music of the past seven hours to a more quiet playlist.

Ruthie was back in less than five minutes. In one hand she carried two wine glasses. In the other, she carried the wine Elliott had brought earlier. She hoisted it victoriously as she arrived at the hot tub.

"I knew he wouldn't be able to resist opening it," Ruthie explained. "Dad loves good wine. He dove right in as soon as Pop got home, and they drank half of it, but he said we could finish it when I told him you weren't driving home."

She poured them each a glass with her feet hanging in the hot tub, handed Elliott his glass, then slid in to sit next to him.

"To new friends," she said.

"Here here," Elliott said as they clinked glasses.

"Oh, Dad was right, this is yummy, very crisp," Ruthie said.

"Yeah, it's a nice one," Elliott agreed.

"So how did you get it?" Ruthie asked. "I mean, I don't know your grandparents very well at all, but I can't believe they're okay with buying alcohol for you to take to high school parties."

Elliott leaned his head back against the brick, letting the jets pummel him.

"No, no, they wouldn't be okay with it, would they?" he agreed.

"So?"

"So, I have an acquaintance who owns a liquor store in Cooper's Landing who'll sell to me."

Cooper's Landing was the neighboring town, a bit larger than Warren.

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

And Ruthie could tell that she wasn't going to get any more information about that particular subject.

"I know your dads are the coolest guys in the world and everything?"

"Mm hm?"

"But you're still barely fifteen years old, you know? I can't believe that they're okay with you having wine in a jacuzzi unsupervised with a seventeen year old fellow they just met a few weeks ago." Elliott's voice held wonderment and disbelief. "I mean, I know I'm an Englishman and all, but even so--"

Elliott turned to look at Ruthie with an inquiring look on his face.

Ruthie shrugged and smiled. "What can I say? They really, really, trust me."

Elliott put his arm up on the edge of the spa.

"I understand that, but how can they trust me?"

Ruthie finished her wine and held out her glass for more.

Elliott hesitated and filled her glass about half-full.

"Well, Elliott Banks, mysterious Englishman, they trust you because they trust me, get it?" She smiled. "I invited you here, I chose to spend time alone with you, therefore you must be okay." She scooted closer, so her knee was touching him under the water. "You see?"

Elliott took a sip of his wine, which really was a wonderful vintage, and nodded, not taking his eyes from her beautiful, freckled face. "I do.

"Ruthie Barakat Grimaldi, are you interested in me in more than a platonic way?" Elliott asked.

Ruthie's eyes opened wide as her eyebrows shot up, and she took a huge gulp of her wine. "Why would you ask that?" she asked.

Elliott shook his head, and reached over to turn the jets down so they weren't quite so noisy. "Those are the first words I've heard from you that disappoint me," he told her. "You're so very clever, Ruthie, such a smart girl, and then, the first time I ask something that flusters you, you plump out with that idiotic question, just to buy yourself some time, and it's not worthy of you at all."

"Well, I wasn't expecting you to just throw it out there like that," Ruthie explained. "Like you said, it flustered me. And if you want to get technical, your question's not really worthy of you, is it?" At his raised eyebrows, she continued. "I mean, what clued you, the hot tub, the wine, the romantic music, or the moonlight and the stars?" Her eyes and smile were gleeful and only slightly mocking. "Or was it the fact that this jacuzzi is huge, but I'm sitting practically in your lap?"

Elliott nodded, conceding her point, his tongue in the side of his mouth. "Touché," he said with the slightest of bows, along with a mocking smile.

"But here's the problem," he said, as Ruthie scooted even closer to him. "You are, like I said, barely fifteen. Fifteen," he repeated, the slightest of quavers in his voice. "And I am seventeen, nearly eighteen." He tried to move back a little, but found he couldn't because of the shape of the spa.

"Um, unless we're going to rehearse a song from The Sound of Music, and I'm Liesl, I don't think any of this is relevant," Ruthie said, and Elliott had to laugh at how cute and clever this freckled girl in front of him was.

Yes. Girl. She was a girl. That was the point. He had to keep that in mind. He finished off his wine, and Ruthie filled his glass, emptying the bottle. This slip of a girl was obviously trying to get him drunk, dammit.

"Oh, all gone," she said. "Too bad, I was really enjoying it." She smiled at him, and Elliott felt his heart flutter and twist in his chest.

"Here, you can have some of mine," he offered, pouring half of his glass into hers. Haha, he was too clever for her, he thought to himself.

It was only as she smiled her thanks and lifted the glass to take a sip that he realized he might have made a tactical error.

"Elliott?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you wear that makes you smell so good?"

"What?"

Ruthie leaned in so she could take an appreciative sniff, giving Elliott a nice whiff of her in the process, not to mention a firm and frank impression of her young body, clad only in the wet cloth of her bikini, pressing against him.

"Even all wet like this you smell really great. Do you use something you brought from England that they don't sell over here?" she asked, thankfully leaning back before his senses just spun out of control from her body pressing against him.

"Erm, I don't know, actually, I--can't remember at the moment--" Elliott stammered.

"Oh. Okay." Ruthie swallowed. "Elliott, why aren't you on Twitter, or Instagram, or any of those things?"

"Did you look?" Elliott asked, leaning back to look at her face. He lifted his leg and put it between them, thinking it would help.

It did, for a bit, but then Ruthie nodded in answer to his question, and put her hand on his knee, moving it for emphasis as she talked. "You remember how you were disappointed in my question?" She looked at him. "I'm disappointed again, El."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Elliott swallowed, and tried not to think about how her hand felt on his leg. "The truth is that I had a nickname in England, I never went by Elliott at all."

"Really?" Ruthie smiled.

"Yeah."

"Can I try to guess?" Ruthie removed her hand from his knee, and Elliott was so relieved that he was able to relax and he smiled at her.

"Sure, if you like."

Ruthie clapped her hands in anticipation, and turned to sit next to him again, snuggling into his side, pulling his arm down around her.

Oh god.

Elliott tried to concentrate on the conversation, and not on the beautiful, sopping wet girl next to him, holding his hand and pulling his arm down next to her. Now he could feel her smooth thigh next to his, and every time he moved away, she leaned on him more. If he moved too far away, Ruthie would end up lying down in his arms.

"Okay, so should we do this twenty questions style?" she asked. "This is going to be so much fun!"

Her enthusiasm was contagious, and Elliott couldn't worry about her proximity for too long.

"Um, Is it a literary character?"

Elliott shook his head.

"Oh. Is it a cinematic character?"

Elliott smiled and nodded.

Ruthie smiled and clapped.

"Is it a Harry Potter character?"

Elliott shook his head.

"Is it an American character?"

Elliott nodded.

"Is from a movie that was made before we were born?"

Elliott nodded again.

"Is it related to the name Elliott?"

Elliott stared at her, eyes wide, and nodded.

"How did you know that?" he asked in amazement.

"Oh ho, I must be close already," Ruthie crowed. She thought for a moment

"Is it from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial?" Ruthie asked.

Again, Elliott nodded, making the explosion motion next to his head to indicate his mind was blown.

"Ohmygod, Elliott, is it E.T.? Is your nickname ET?" Ruthie was standing up with excitement. She looked like a little kid, Elliott thought.

"Yeah!" Elliott had caught her excitement, and grabbed her hands, standing up himself. "That was amazing! How the fuck did you do that? I think you only asked, like, six questions!"

"That was so much fun!" Ruthie sang, throwing her arms around Elliott's neck and jumping into his arms. "So you went by ET? That's what everyone called you?"

Elliott had grabbed her back, and was hugging her tightly. He realized what he was doing, and put her down, releasing her and sitting down in the water.

"Yeah, I was ET," he said, smiling. "It kind of makes sense, right?" They're the two letters that begin and end my name. I kind of think Steven Spielberg meant for Elliott's name to be like that, anyway, you know? He and ET were supposed to linked, right?"

"I think you're right," Ruthie said in wonder. "I never thought about that before.

"So I should call you ET?" she asked as she sat next to him. "Right?"

He looked at her, his eyes steady and serious. "Actually, I'd rather you not, if you don't mind. And I'd rather you not tell other people, either. It's part of my life I left behind, you know? I don't know why I told you, actually," he admitted. "I guess it's the wine."

"So now I can find you on social media, you realize that," Ruthie said with a small smile.

"Yeah, I suppose so," Elliott said. "I mean, I can't stop you, and I don't mind, but again, I'd prefer you not share it..." He grasped her hand and looked at her.

"Okay," she said, nodding. "Okay, Elliott."

"Thank you," he said. He kissed her hand.

"I'd better get home," he added regretfully.

"Okay," she said again.

"Walk me home?" he asked. "Will you feel safe coming back alone?"

She gave him a look. "Are you kidding me?" She shook her head. "Let me change real fast, okay?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding.

He got out of the spa without letting go of her hand and helped her out, pulling her briefly against his body as he did so. He slid his free hand around the wet skin of her waist, reveling in the feel of her smooth flesh.

Oh wow.

He held her close for a moment, looking in her eyes. She gazed back at him steadily, looking up at him.

"Lemme go change," she repeated.

He nodded, and released her.

She went into the pool house, and emerged a scant five minutes later in her romper, with sandals on her feet.

Elliott took a deep breath, watching as she walked toward him in the moonlight. He could tell that she wasn't wearing anything under the romper. He could almost feel the slippery material of the romper against her beautiful skin.

The thought of her, naked under the flowered cloth, was so sexy.

He held out his hand and smiled at her as she took it.

"I wish you lived farther away," Ruthie said as they begin walking.

"Me too," he agreed.