"Honey, she said they would be here between nine and nine-thirty. Are you sure you don't want to come inside?"

Nancy shook her head. She was seated cross-legged on a rocker on the front porch, her stuffed backpack beside her. Hannah had helped her pack, and she had two swimsuits, three outfits, pajamas, and one of her favorite stuffed bears. She was so excited, and every time a car turned down the Drews' street, she straightened up, relaxing when the familiar Nickerson station wagon didn't pull up in front of her.

Hannah chuckled. "All right, sweetheart. Don't forget to tell me when they're here, okay? I have the cookies packed and ready to go."

Nancy grinned. Ned loved Hannah's cookies, so she knew he would be excited. "I will!"

Bess and George were so jealous that Nancy was going with Ned's family to their cabin on Cedar Lake for the weekend. Nancy had realized that Bess and George were actually jealous of Ned too, a little. The two girls had been Nancy's first best friends, along with Helen Corning. When she had met Ned, he had become one of her best friends too. Nancy was glad that all of them got along, but... things were different with Ned. She couldn't really explain it. He was athletic like George, he loved chocolate like Bess, he cared about Nancy like Helen did.

Maybe it was that Nancy had never been allowed to have a sleepover at Ned's house before. They hadn't been able to stay up until very early in the morning, joking and laughing and talking about everything, the way Nancy had with her girl friends. Instead, they had to talk on the phone or when they went over to each other's houses to do homework and have dinner. There just never seemed to be enough time.

Somehow Nancy sensed when the Nickerson station wagon was rolling up the block, and she sprang to her feet, unconsciously releasing a happy cry when she caught sight of the car. She almost bolted down the front steps, but remembered Hannah's cookies at the last second. She had dashed back in, grabbed the cookies, yelled an almost incomprehensible "They're here!" to Hannah, and run back out to the porch before the Nickersons' car had even come to a complete stop.

All three of them opened their doors and came out, as Hannah came to the porch too, reaching for Nancy's backpack. Ned was the first to reach the porch, and Nancy's delighted gaze was locked to him the whole time. He was ten years old, with dark hair and what Bess described as dreamy dark eyes. To Nancy he just looked, well, like Ned. He was tall and cute and eager.

"Hey!"

"Hi," Nancy replied with a grin. "I'm so excited!"

"Me too. The waterslides are awesome."

Ned took Nancy's backpack from Hannah and walked with Nancy to the car, as his parents and Hannah talked. "Do you want to do a paddleboat together?"

"I've never done one! Is it hard?"

Ned shrugged. "It's boring if you don't have someone cool to talk to. So I know we won't be bored."

Nancy beamed. "I don't think we're ever bored together."

"I never have been," Ned confirmed. "You always come up with the craziest ideas."

"Thank you," Nancy said primly, and then they both started laughing.

All the way to Cedar Lake, Ned's parents sang along with the radio, which made Ned blush at first-but Nancy knew Ned's parents and thought it was both cute and fascinating. They asked Nancy a few questions about her last few days of school, and then left Nancy and Ned alone so they could talk about what they wanted. Ned had brought a card game they could play in the backseat, and soon they were slapping cards down and laughing and challenging each other.

Once they reached the lake, Nancy and Ned immediately changed into their swimsuits, then waited impatiently while Ned's parents inspected and touched up their sunscreen. Nancy threaded her reddish-gold hair through a ballcap to help keep her face from burning, although she ended up leaving it with Ned's mother when she and Ned took turns racing up the ladders to each of the three waterslides.

Nancy couldn't remember the last time she'd had so much fun. Her father often sent her to summer camps lasting a week or two, often with Bess and George, so Nancy knew how to kayak, to swim like a fish, to tie knots and all sorts of other outdoor things, but Ned kept going far past the time that Bess would have given up in exhaustion. When they climbed into a paddleboat, Nancy joked that she would race Ned to the other side of the lake, but they grew tired too quickly and rested for a while, drifting in the middle of the lake.

"Tonight Dad might grill out!" Ned told Nancy. "Maybe. I hope he does. It's so much fun."

Nancy smiled. "I love when Dad grills out. Maybe you can come over when he does July fourth. Hannah makes all this amazing stuff and we eat outside, and sometimes we're out there until the fireflies come out."

Ned nodded. "That sounds really cool."

After a while longer, they felt recovered enough to turn around and start back toward shore. Nancy's arm was resting on the barrier between her and Ned, and when his fingers laced between hers and he was holding her hand, she glanced over at him, wide-eyed, for a second. Then she turned back forward, blushing fiercely.

He didn't mean anything. He just wanted to have his hand there too. That was all.

Ned's father did grill hot dogs and hamburgers and ears of corn, and Nancy couldn't help feeling proud when all three of them praised Hannah's cookies. They had ice cream and strawberries and chocolate sauce for dessert too, while they were gathered around the kitchen table and playing a board game together.

"You have all the luck tonight, Jim," Ned's mother sighed as he took another roll of the dice. "Although you're not doing so bad either, Ned. Don't worry, Nancy. We'll get them in the rematch." She smiled at Nancy.

Nancy felt a warm, happy glow as she smiled back at Ned's mother. The older woman had always been really nice to her, and Nancy liked to think that maybe her own mother would have been that way too. According to Nancy's father, one of her favorite games had been Scrabble, and he had said she was very competitive at it.

"Should we play Scrabble?" Nancy suggested, after Ned's father had won their game.

Ned's parents exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.

"That's one of Mom's favorites," Ned told Nancy. "We never win when she's playing."

Ned's mother won their game of Scrabble, just as predicted, although near the end both she and Ned's father were yawning. "That was fun," she said, as they packed up the game. "I think Jim and I are going to head to bed, though. Are you two tired?"

Nancy and Ned shrugged, then glanced at each other.

Ned's mother smiled. "I just hope you don't wake up with very sore legs," she commented. "Jim, can you check the doors?"

A few minutes later, after Ned's parents had wished them a good night, Nancy and Ned looked at each other. "Are you tired?" Ned asked.

Nancy shook her head. "What do you want to do?"

He glanced at the stairs, and Nancy's heart skipped a beat. "See if the fireflies are out," he said.

Nancy knew that if Ned's parents heard them go outside, they might be upset. While they waited for Ned's parents to go to sleep, they opened the blinds and looked out at the lake, standing on their knees on the couch cushions and leaning their elbows on the back of the couch. Nancy's hair was still a little damp, and Ned's arms looked more tanned than they had.

They were quiet for so long that when Ned spoke, though it was softly, Nancy still jumped a little. "Can you see the stars?"

Nancy craned her neck and peered at the sky. "No, or the moon," she whispered. "Is it cloudy?"

"Probably. I think it's supposed to rain tomorrow."

"Ugh. I hope it's quick. I want to go on the waterslides again."

"Me too."

By unspoken mutual agreement, about thirty minutes had passed when Nancy and Ned walked very quietly to the door and opened it, waiting to hear a door creak upstairs, to hear Ned's mother or father asking what they were doing. Nothing happened, though, so Ned very quietly closed the door behind them, leaving it unlocked.

"I can smell it," Nancy commented softly. "The rain."

"Yeah." Ned reached for Nancy's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, and she felt the same hyper-awareness she had when they were on the paddleboat. It wasn't like Ned had never touched her hand before, but this felt different.

On the shore in front of them, a boy and girl walked by holding hands. They looked like they were in high school, so they were impossibly cool and grown-up. When she thought of Ned holding her hand like that, her cheeks flushed a deep red again, so hot that she was glad it was too dark for him to see her face. The walking couple murmured something to each other, then laughed. Soon they had vanished down the beach.

"I-" Ned almost gasped it.

She followed his gaze, scrutinizing the lake in front of them, and wondered if someone had gone for a nighttime swim and was in trouble, and that's what Ned had seen. Then he pointed, and she saw it: a brief flash, almost too fast for her to catch.

"There!"

Nancy laughed, then remembered they needed to be quiet. "I saw it too!"

They only spotted a couple more lightning bugs before a cool wind drifted against their skin, and the small flashes of light vanished, leaving the night ink-black. When Nancy shivered, Ned wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she nestled against him. He was only a year older, but he was taller, bigger than her.

"I... I'll be starting middle school in the fall," Ned said quietly. "I know it'll still be a year before you are, but when that happens, um... would you... want to maybe... go together? Not serious or anything, just going to the movies and stuff, but...?"

Nancy opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Ned as her boyfriend? He'd always been a boy and her friend, but... boyfriend really was different. Different from anything, from any other relationship she'd ever had. Boyfriend meant... maybe eventually more.

Ned sighed almost silently. She had taken too long to answer. "You can tell me no," he said. "I won't stop being your friend. It'll be all right."

Nancy made a quiet, almost strangled sound. "It's not that," she was finally able to say. "I... so you'd be asking me again next summer, you mean?"

"Yeah," he said, sounding a little relieved. "I just... I mean, if you're not interested, I didn't want to make you uncomfortable."

"I just didn't think about you like that," she admitted. "I'm sorry, Ned-"

"I get it," Ned said softly. She could hear that he was disappointed.

"But that's just because I didn't see anyone like that," she added quickly. "And Dad's already told me that he doesn't want me dating until I'm fifteen."

"Oh." The disappointment in that single word hurt her heart.

"But he didn't say I couldn't go together with someone," Nancy said slowly. "And we're friends, and we'd still be doing the same things we do now, hanging out... and we could, you know, hold hands and write each other notes..."

Ned took a slow breath. "And not date other people?"

"Right," she said. "Like... pre-dating."

Ned chuckled. "Six years of pre-dating," he commented. "Until you're fifteen. I think I could learn a lot by then." He gently bumped his shoulder against hers. "Hopefully how to fight a little better, so when we're going after bad guys I can help out more."

Nancy laughed. "You help out so much already," she said. "But we could do karate classes together. That would be fun." She turned to look into his face. "Just no gross kissing."

Ned shivered. "No. Ugh."

"But... holding hands is nice."

"Yeah," Ned agreed. "I like holding hands with you."

"So we can do that. When we're alone."

His arm was still around her shoulders. He reached for her hand with his other. His skin was so warm, and Nancy couldn't help smiling.

Being in love, going to dances, even kisses. That happened to grown-ups, like that couple walking along the shore. Nancy knew she wasn't ready for any of that, not for years.

But just maybe, she thought as she closed her eyes and rested against Ned, she had just found the person she would want all that with a little early.