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"Lee?"

"Oh, hi, Daisy!" He grinned The Velcro landing strip of beard was gone from his chin and he had a new haircut He still had the steel hoops in his earlobes, but now they contributed a ood, in a heroin-chic-meets-Abercroe of a zombie apocalypse?"

Clearly, I’d been distracted I shot Jen a WTF, girlfriend? look She shot me a We’ll talk later look in return

"Um, yeah," I said belatedly "I e of sohostbusters?" Jen set down a shopping bag and picked up one of the ha it "Cool I’ "Not you"

"Why not?" Her voice turned cool, but the hurt registered in her brown eyes "I’h to help?"

I could have kicked ot spells and ic and stuff to protect them"

"You don’t"

"No, but--" I sighed "Jen, if you really want to help, the biggest thing you could do is convince Brandon and his friends to call off the Easties vs Townies fight That would be huge The fewer kids out there I have to worry about, the better"

"Fine," she said promptly "Actually, I’ve already talked to hiht need all the help we could get," Sinclair re back and forth between us Lee was a pretty suy

"I just don’t want to put you at risk," I said to Jen

She smiled wryly "Look, Daise, I know I’ But at least Xander could hammer a nail So can I And I promise, whatever happens, I won’t freak out Let me help?"

I hesitated, then nodded "Deal"

Forty-five

As if to ht and clear and unseasonably war

The sky overhead was that deep, vivid blue that you soht breeze ruffled the river, but the therrees A band played in the gazebo Grown-ups danced and drank beer Kids with jack-o’-lanterns and black cats with arched backs painted on their cheeks laughed and shrieked, chasing one another over the grass, bobbing for apples, burying their faces in pies donated by Po pumpkins for prizes

"I feel kind of silly now," Jenan old carpenter’s apron she’d appropriated from her father at so through a loop

"I can live with silly" I was sporting dauda-dagr on my hip and I had the spirit lantern tucked under my arm As far as I was concerned, "silly" was a luxury thatwas quiet and cal the Pe--and he had a hammer and nails, too Stefan’s second lieutenant, Rafe, was perched solitary on afro leathers and a helmet with a dark visor

Sinclair was off on his tour bus route, but he was only a phone call and ten minutes away, tops Sandra Sweddon, Mrs Meyers, and Sheila Reston were all volunteering to help staff the festival

So waspoint Once it was clear that the event was going forward, she’d refused to back out of her coo hoht now, it looked like I was being an alarh the next twelve hours without a catastrophe, that was okay with ed Jen with ed "Nothing to tell" I gave her a look "Okay, okay! I talked hiive hiht?" Jen couldn’t resist a quick satisfied sood frame for clothes"

"Sowould you ever?" I asked her

"Date hiht herself "Seriously, I don’t know, Daise I mean, there’s a part of me that thinks, hey, why not? He cleans up sort of cute, he’s really set to know hiuiltily in my direction "I’et it," I said "But it’s probably way past tio, you know?"

"I know, I know!" Jen sighed "But if it were that easy, they wouldn’t make movies about it"

"True words, Romy Or were you Michele?" It’s not like I was one to talk, although I was pretty sure Stacey Brooks had earned a lifetiet over it" clause

She s up at our ten-year class reunion on Lee’s ars"