“He wore sweatpants and a T-shirt and had stopped in the middle of the hall, furiously scratching one bare forearm. "Fleas?" I said.”

“Got something!" one of the men yelled."Is it Mike?" another called, rushing from our sides.As everyone converged on the scene, Nick's voice rang out, choked with barely containedlaughter. "Forget it. It's—uh—nothing important.""What the hell do you mean?" the first man said. "Maybe this is all a joke to you, son, but. . ."The rest of the sentence trailed off as we burst into the clearing to find one of the searchersbending over a ripped shirt. Torn clothing littered the ground, more hung from bushes. Nick heldup half a pair of white panties and grinned at me."Wild dogs? Or just Clayton?""Oh God," I muttered under my breath.I walked over to snatch the underwear from him, but he held it over his head, grinning like aschoolboy."I seeParis , I seeFrance , I see Elena's underpants," he chanted."Everyone's already seen much more than that," Jeremy said. "I think we can safely resume thesearch."Peter plucked Clay's shirt from a low-hanging branch and held it up, peering through a hole inthe middle. "You guys can really do some damage. Where's the hidden video when you need it?""So this—uh—wasn't done by wild dogs?" one of the searchers said.Peter grinned and tossed the shirt to the ground. "Nope. Just wild hormones.”

“Rae burned me. She has matches or something. Look, look..." Tori pulled down the collar of her T-shirt. "Leave your cloths on, Tori," Simon said, raising his hands to his eyes. "Please.”

“When Rae got back, she spread her empty hands wide and said "Okay, guess where I hid it."She even turned around for me, but I couldn't see a bulge big enough to hide a flashlight. With a grin, she reached down the front of her shirt into the middle of her bra, and pulled out a flashlight with flourish.I laughed."Cleavage is great," she said. "Like an extra pocket.”

“And now we can't," I said. "Which sucks, but the main thing is that your dad's alive."He smiled, hesitant at first, then a blazing grin broke through that made my heart stop. I recovered and grinned back and went to throw my arms around his neck, then stopped, blushing. Before I could pull back, he caught my elbows and put my arms around his neck and pulled me into a hug.Then he jumped, chair swiveling so fast I nearly went flying. I heard footsteps in the hall and I scrambled off his lap just as Simon swung in, breathing heavily, like he'd come running.”

“What's the woman doing there?" he asked."Covering a scratch on the hood. She was cheaper than a new paint job."He flipped through a few more pages of barely dressed women and classic cars. "Nick used to have magazines like this when we were kids. But without the cars." He rotated a photo sideways. "Or the bathing suits.”

“Yes," I said "You were saved by a girl. Horrible, isn't it?"He slid out and looked down at my bare legs. "Not just a girl, but a half-naked one. Now that's hot. If I'm still unconscious, don't wake me, okay?”