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THINKING OF YOU! :)

It er feeling settled After an hour with Stefan Ludovic, I was feeling distinctly unsettled My poor aching head was roiling with shields and ghouls and gallows, satyrs and orgies and olves on the do, hell-spayers and sketchy land deals, island ames and pickpockets, pancakes and bacon and pissed-off fairies

I called Sinclair

"Hey, girl!" His voice sounded war ready for the last tour of the day" He lowered his voice "Got any plans tonight?"

Okay, just hearing his voice ain "No," I adot a killer headache"

There was a brief silence on the other end "For real?" he asked "Or are you freaking out on me, Daisy? Because you know, if anyone in this situation should be freaking out, it really should be hed "Are you serious, sistah? Yeah, a little But I still want to see you"

I smiled "Me, too But I really am beat Is it okay if we take a step back today and start over where we left off tomorrow?"

"Regrets?" His tone was light, but there was a worried edge to it "Or is it about e talked about this rets," I said firmly "And, um, I’d like to talk , but" I re "But only if and when you feel like it If you don’t, you don’t, and I’round, I could hear the roup of tourists to begin boarding the bus I fidgeted with the air vents in the Honda "Yeah, okay You’re sure?"

I nodded "I’m sure So, tomorrow?"

"Deal But I want to take you out on the town," Sinclair warned me "Dinner at a fancy restaurant, the whole nine yards I want the full-on Labor Day weekend in Pehed "Okay, but if you want the real Pee Walk with hed into the phone "Okay, you’ve got it So we’re on for to touch at its base I shifted in the driver’s seat, wriggling a little "Absolutely"

"Good Look, I’ve got to go Meet rave;re at seven o’clock toood not to think too hard, especially after a day of thinking too hard Putting the Honda in gear, I drove to the convenience store just down the road that still carried a certain brand of wine coolers I think they may be the last store on earth to stock them, which they do for the sake of my mother, who ht a four-pack and drove out to Sedgewick Estate, the riverside rew up Moo, she paid off the ht now

She’s proud of that fact, as she ought to be And I’reeted"I wasn’t expecting to see you"

I hugged her back with one ar up the four-pack of wine coolers with the other hand "I’ht libations"

"Libations!" Her blue eyes sparkled at me "You must have visited Mr Leary recently Of course it’s okay Coo sit on the deck"

Mom’s place was tidier than usual--she hadn’t had alast anized chaos about it She rolled a rack of samples out of the way, and we trooped past it and out onto the deck, which overlooked a broad, marshy expanse of the river We settled into a pair of Adirondack chairs that I rerade, and cracked open a couple of wine coolers

Despite having been the unwed teenaged ot a very cal presence When Sinclair met her, he said she had a tranquil aura It didn’t surpriseour wine coolers and gazing at the river, I felt ht you’d be out on the town tonight," Molance at me

I shook my head "I needed a little escape This is perfect, thanks"

She reached over to patave a little sigh of relief "Oh, good! I didn’t want to pry So things are still going ith the two of you?"

"Yeah, they are" I picked absently at the label on my bottle "I ht?"