6 Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did)


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
 Copyright © 2023 by Tess Sharpe
 Cover art copyright © 2023 by Kim Ekdahl. Cover design by Jenny Kimura.
 Cover copyright © 2023 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
 Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
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 Simultaneously published in 2023 by Hodder & Stoughton, a division of Hachette UK in the United Kingdom
 First US Edition: January 2023
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 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Sharpe, Tess, author.
 Title: 6 times we almost kissed (and one time we did) / Tess Sharpe.
 Other titles: Six times we almost kissed (and one time we did)
 Description: First US edition. | New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2023. | “Simultaneously published in 2023 by Hodder & Stoughton, a division of Hachette UK in the United Kingdom.” | Audience: Ages 14 and Up. | Summary: Penny and Tate have often clashed, despite their mothers’ epic friendship; but now that they are living in the same house, beset by medical crises and Penny’s problems dealing with the trauma of her father’s death, they have to come to terms with their true feelings for each other.
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022018068 | ISBN 9780316302791 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780316303125 (ebook)
 Subjects: LCSH: Lesbian teenagers—Juvenile fiction. | Mothers and daughters—Juvenile fiction. | Female friendship—Juvenile fiction. | Families—Juvenile fiction. | Bereavement in adolescence—Juvenile fiction. | Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc.—Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Lesbians—Fiction. | Mothers and daughters—Fiction. | Female friendship—Fiction. | Family life—Fiction. | Bereavement—Fiction. | Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc.—Fiction. | LCGFT: Novels.
 Classification: LCC PZ7.S532313 Aat 2023 | DDC 813.6 [Fic]—dc23/eng/20220802
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022018068
 ISBNs: 978-0-316-30279-1 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Part One: Change (or: the first time, in the hay shed)
 
 1
 2
 3
 4
 
 Part Two: Truce (or: the really sad time)
 
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
 10
 11
 12
 13
 14
 15
 16
 
 Part Three: Surgery (or: the time in the pool)
 
 17
 18
 19
 20
 21
 22
 23
 24
 25
 26
 27
 28
 29
 30
 31
 32
 33
 
 Part Four: Alone (or: the time at Damnation Peak)
 
 34
 35
 36
 37
 38
 39
 40
 41
 42
 43
 44
 
 Part Five: Truth (or: the time in the diner parking lot)
 
 45
 46
 47
 48
 49
 
 Part Six: Break (or: the time in Yreka)
 
 50
 51
 52
 53
 54
 55
 56
 57
 58
 59
 60
 
 Part Seven: Home (or: the time we figure it out)
 
 61
 62
 63
 64
 
 Acknowledgments
 Discover More
 About the Author
 Also by Tess Sharpe
 
 
 
 
 Begin Reading
 Table of Contents
 
 
 
 
 ALSO BY TESS SHARPE
 For Teens
 Far From You
 The Girls I’ve Been
 The Evolution of Claire (Jurassic World)For Children
 
 Maisie Lockwood Adventures #1: Off the Grid (Jurassic World)
 Switched Up! (DC Super Hero Girls)For Adults
 
 Barbed Wire Heart
 Captain Marvel: Liberation RunCollaborations
 
 Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft (coedited with Jessica Spotswood)
 Great or Nothing (with Joy McCullough, Caroline Tung Richmond, and Jessica Spotswood)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Penny
 JUNE 21
 FAMILY MEETING TONIGHT at 6. Don’t be late!
 I stare at the text as June scoots past me, tying on her apron.
 “You do all your prep work?”
 “Yep,” I answer. “And I married all the ketchups.”
 “You okay?” She shoots me a look. I’m holding my phone too tight, staring at Mom’s message.
 I paste on a smile. “I’m fine. I should go. See you later?”
 “Bye, Pen.”
 I get another text as I leave: Can you pick up Tate at the pool? Anna came home with me, she wasn’t feeling well.
 So when Mom said family meeting, she really meant it. They aren’t sisters, Mom and Anna. They like to say they’re more than that. Ride-or-die best friends. A bond deeper than blood.
 Was Gran there, too? My head’s spinning, but I don’t know what crisis to land on.… Did Mom get all impulsive again? Is there bad news about Anna’s health? Those are the two big ones that dominate our lives… unless this is some sort of intervention. But I don’t need to be intervened on. I haven’t done anything, unless you count the color-coding on my wall-sized year-to-date calendar. Tate had told me it was excessive, but she says that about everything I do.
 Okay. Maybe that’s a little bit of a lie. I have been doing something Mom’s banned me