“Jared,” I said, my voice low and soothing. It didn’t work.

He slammed the gear back into park, and his hand flew to his head. He hit the steering wheel. “Just when I think I’m ahead … something else gets thrown at me!”

“Honey, we’ll figure it out.” I reached to touch his arm.

He gripped the steering wheel. “How can I keep you safe from Hell without being your shadow if I can’t trust my senses? If I don’t have any to trust?” His eyes were desperate.

“So be my shadow.”

Jared laughed once, and then shook his head. “I can’t go to class with you. I can’t follow you around Titan, Nina.”

“You can be within earshot. You said it yourself. You can hear me through the crowd at the Superbowl.”

Jared nodded, putting the gear into drive once more, but he was beyond listening to reason. He negotiated the one-way streets of downtown Providence without effort, and then pulled next to the curb behind Andrews Hall. He opened my door, and gestured for me to cross the street.

“What are we doing?”

“I’m walking you to class. You’ve only got a few weeks left. I’ll wait for you in the hallway.”

“Do you really think that’s necessary?”

“I’m fast, but so are they. They are capable of a lot of damage in the few seconds it would take me to get to you from here. Without being able to sense when something’s wrong, I would feel better being closer than not.”

I thought a moment, and then nodded. Anything that was safer for Bean had to be the right answer.

The last few weeks of school came and went without incident. Jared stood in the hallway during my classes, and joined me, Beth and Chad for lunch. Without Ryan around, Josh found another table, and Kim was too angry with Jared to tolerate him.

The crisp air was just a memory by the time my junior year at Brown ended. The Main Green bustled with students who made their way to the Van Winkle Gates to see the graduating class make their last march through.

Before the last stragglers made their way through the gate, Beth, Chad, Jared and I walked to College Hill to beat the rush. Beth prattled on about her family begging her and Chad to visit over the summer. She barely noticed the congested traffic. She had become a true East Coast woman. Even her accent had diminished. She sounded more like Ryan than her family.

“So what’s for lunch?” I asked, tapping Beth’s arm.

Jared squeezed my hand. “I thought we would revisit the place of our first date.”

Beth slipped me a box, a bit larger than her hand, and without warning, I tossed it to Jared. I loved throwing things at him, because he always caught them. It had become our little inside joke.