The strange thing — the nice thing — is how safe she feels. Beverly isn't really used to that, though she thinks she'd like to be. There's so much that she's never gotten a chance to have before. No dates, just nasty rumors; no one who was actually interested in her, just guys who wanted to use her name as a conquest, and, of course, her father. That's the last thing she wants to be thinking about now, though, when she feels both wonderfully normal and like she's floating in midair or something stupid like that.

"Wow," she says, flushed and a little breathless and smiling uncontrollably, even as she knows she must sound stupid. "That, that was really nice."