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Still I hadn&039;t expected him to just say okay and walk away Not really Not without even another word It was a little bit ego-bruising

Well, as aHe had my plastic tray with the empty disposable plates and tableware He opened a trash receptacle and dumped stuff, slid the tray into a stacker, and ambled back with his hands stuck in his coat pockets

"I ood in that," he said "Purple really likes you"

He was still waiting I raisedelse?"

"My backpack," he said, perfectly reasonably "It&039;s in the car"

"Oh" I shoved a shopping bag at him "Make yourself useful"

He had a truly wicked smile "I often do"

We hiked a Yellowstone distance to the car, and even though the sky was clear except for so had been known to form chains hundreds of miles from a storm center-been known to strike people dead from clear skies In my case, it wouldn&039;t be an accident

Poor Delilah waited where I&039;d left her, scorched door and all I unlocked the back and got out David&039;s backpack It was surprisingly heavy He rescued it from me when I almost dropped it

"What the hell&039;s in there?" I asked "Did you rob Fort Knox?"

"Yeah, this is ed into the thing like he&039;d been doing it all his life "Tent, portable stove, cookware, clothes, extra boots, and a few dozen books"

"Books?"

He gavelook "You don&039;t read?"

"I don&039;t carry the New York Public Library on my back Hell, I don&039;t even carry it in the trunk"

"Your loss" Now that he had his belongings, he see to be okay?"

"Me? Sure"

"You want to explain what happened back there?" he asked

"The whole curry thing? Really, I just like Indian food"

"Funny" He waited I waited, too "You&039;re not going to explain"

"That&039;s the general idea," I agreed "You don&039;t want to know It&039;s better that you don&039;t Safer"

He shook his head Before I could stop hiure out if I wanted to stop hihtly on the cheek I stepped back, raised a hand to touch burning skin, and was surprised by how high my heart rate spiked

"Take care," he said "And take care of Delilah"

"Yeah" I wanted to say soe the one word He turned and walked away, heading back for the mall Ten steps away, he turned with a dramatic flare of his coat

"Hey!" he called as he kept walking backwards

"Yeah?"

"You look like you shopped at Prince&039;s garage sale," he said, and smiled-a real, full, beautiful smile

"Hot, aren&039;t I?"

"You&039;re a regular fire hazard" He waved and turned again, a perfect balletic turn, and kept walking

I watched him all the way until he disappeared inside I had opened the driver&039;s side door, but I didn&039;t really reot in and s cinnanition key Delilah started up and purred

"Just the two of us, baby," I said I didn&039;t like the sound of it nearly as ht I would

When I was ten, I went on vacation with one by then, vanished into the sunset like Roy Rogers, only instead of riding Trigger, he was riding his secretary, Eileen Napolitanonot that I knew that when I was ten, I knew only that he was gone and Mo to paint e, she told me she didn&039;t want me to end up a secretary

Moether-my sister, Sarah, older than me, had opted snobbishly for teeks of band camp instead We arrived in Orlando in the middle of a clear and sunny March afternoon, and by seven o&039;clock, the weather guys were saying hurricane season was co early Nobody believed them We rode the monorail to our hotel, and I splashed in the pool and squealed over the cartoons on TV as though I hadn&039;t already seen them twenty times And Mom looked out thea lot at the cool velvet sky, the hurricanefro the tide My et her down We rode the Mine Train and Space Mountain and Haunted Mansion We rode every ride I was tall enough for, even the ones that h I didn&039;t think she deserved it, after rolling her eyes and being a fourteen-year-old superior little dra pictures with Mickey and Minnie, the rain started It was like sododom of the Sea If you wanted your picture taken with Charlie the Tuna, it was perfect By four o&039;clock, the hardiest Mouseketeers had taken shelter in the hotels, away froot in out of the rain

Not me and Mom We were already soaked stupid, so it didn&039;t really matter much anymore We whooped and hollered and splashed down Main Street USA, played shark attack in Tomorrowland, and pretended that we&039;d rented out the whole Disney empire for ourselves, just for one day

It was the best tiether And yeah, the rain could have been a coincidence But when I look back on it now, that was the beginning Every major moment in my life has been acco time, I didn&039;t knohy

Even after I knew, even after I accepted it was all true, my mom couldn&039;t Parents almost never did, apparently; she never really had a chance to coe of forty-nine There onefrom a clear blue sky

It had occurred to ed I tried not to think about it too much, because it made me consider the path that I&039;d chosen, or had been chosen for et close to people Not anymore

Which perfectly explained why I&039;d had to leave David behind, the way I&039;d left every part of normal life behind me when I&039;d taken the oath and joined the Wardens I was risking my life every tiht to risk anyone else&039;s along with it

Too bad He was really, really cute

Just outside of too miles over the state border, Delilah sputtered It was just a tiny hitch, but I felt it like a spike driven betweenon the weather front, but that didn&039;t mean opportunity couldn&039;t knock Or s, I told , just a coincidence, a one-tiain The engine sputtered and roared back to life

"Oh, baby, no, don&039;t do this, don&039;t-" Delilah wasn&039;t listening She gulped air, coughed gas, choked

We coasted to a halt on the gravel shoulder, next to a road sign proclai the wonders of a McDonald&039;s just five ot out and resisted the urge to kick tires I could fix her I always fixed her

But not wearing the new purple velvet Daht some more practical clothes, but they were still in the plastic shopping bags in the trunk, and there wasn&039;t a changing rooht Ah well, the road wasn&039;t that busy, and I was desperate I grabbed jeans and a button-front shirt and cli out of velvet pants is not as easy as it sounds, at least not in the backseat of a Mustang Not that I hadn&039;t had practice, but still, there was the embarrassment factor; every time I heard a car, I had to duck down and hold my breath Finally, I was down to the purple satin panties and lace shirt-no bra, because I&039;d wanted to ood impression on David Which apparently I hadn&039;t, because he wasn&039;t here to appreciate it