"I'm going out of town for a few days," she said. "I should be back sometime Monday afternoon. I was hoping I could talk you into watering my plants for me."

"Oh," I said. She wanted me to water her plants. How coy. How sexy. "Yeah, sure. I can do that."

"Thanks," she said, and offered me a key on a single steel ring. "It's the back-door key."

I accepted it. "Where you headed?"

The discomfort in her expression deepened. "Oh, out of town on a little vacation."

I blinked.

"I haven't had a vacation in years," she said defensively. "I've got it coming."

"Well. Sure," I said. "Um. So, a vacation. By yourself?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "Well. That's sort of the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. I'm not expecting any trouble, but I wanted you to know where I was and with who in case I don't show up on time."

"Right, right," I said. "Doesn't hurt to be careful."

She nodded. "I'm going to Hawaii with Kincaid."

I blinked some more.

"Um," I said. "You mean on a job, right?"

She shifted her weight from one hip to the other. "No. We've gone out a few times. It's nothing serious."

"Murphy," I protested. "Are you insane? That guy is major bad news."

She glowered at me. "We've had this discussion before. I'm a grownup, Dresden."

"I know," I said. "But this guy is a mercenary. A killer. He's not even completely human. You can't trust him."

"You did," she pointed out. "Last year against Mavra and her scourge."

I scowled. "That was different."

"Oh?" she asked.

"Yeah. I was paying him to kill things. I wasn't taking him to b—uh, to the beach."

Murphy arched an eyebrow at me.

"You won't be safe around him," I said.

"I'm not doing it to be safe,'" she replied. Her cheeks colored a little. "That's sort of the point."

"You shouldn't go," I said.

She looked up at me for a moment, frowning.

Then she asked, "Why?"

"Because I don't want to see you get hurt," I said. "And because you deserve someone better than he is."

She studied my face for a moment more and then exhaled through her nose. "I'm not running off to Vegas to get married, Dresden. I work all the time, and life is going right by me. I just want to take the time to live it a little before it's too late." She pulled a folded index card out of her pocket. "This is the hotel I'll be at. If you need to get in touch or anything."

I took the folded index card, still frowning, and full of the intuition that I had missed something. Her fingers brushed mine, but I couldn't feel it through the glove and all the scars. "You sure you'll be all right?"