Kisten settled back, a thoughtful expression smoothing his pinched features. A wisp of his usual, cocky self glimmered in his slumping posture. “Fast food is all I can afford—now,” he grumbled lightly, but I could see he was relieved I wasn’t demanding he take me home. “I was planning on using some of those winnings to take you up to Carew Tower for a sunrise dinner.”

“The orphans need the money more than I need an over-priced dinner at the top of Cincinnati,” I said. Kisten laughed at that, the sound making it easy to stifle my last thread of lingering caution. He kept me alive when I had frozen. It wasn’t going to happen again. Ever.

“Hey, uh, is there any way you might see to not tell Ivy about…that?” he asked.

I smiled at the unease in his voice. “It’ll cost you, fang-boy.”

A small noise escaped him and he turned, his eyes wide in mock concern. “I’m in the position to offer you a supersized shake for your silence,” he intoned, and I stifled a shiver at the play menace he had put in it. Yeah, color me stupid. But I was alive, and he had kept me safe.

“Make it chocolate,” I said, “and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Kisten’s smile widened, and he gripped the wheel with more surety.

I settled back into the heated leather cushions, stifling the small, oh-so-small, thought of concern. What. Like I was going to tell Ivy anyway?

Fifteen

The crunch of ice and salt was loud as Kisten escorted me to my door. His car was parked at the curb in a puddle of light, diffuse from the falling snow. I rose up the steps, wondering what would happen in the next five minutes. It was a platonic date, but it was a date. That he might kiss me had me nervous.

I turned as I reached the door, smiling. Kisten stood beside me in his long wool coat and shiny shoes, looking good with his hair falling over his eyes. The sifting snow was beautiful, and it was gathering on his shoulders. The ugliness of the night’s trouble drifted in and out of my thoughts. “I had a good time,” I said, wanting to forget it. “Mickey-d’s was fun.”

Kisten’s head drooped and a small chuckle escaped him. “I’ve never pretended to be health inspectors to get a free meal before. How did you know what to do?”

I winced. “I, uh, flipped burgers during high school until I dropped a charm into the fry vat.” His eyebrows rose and I added, “I got fired. I don’t know what the big deal was. Nobody got hurt, and the woman looked better with straight hair.”

He laughed, turning it into a cough. “You dropped a potion in the fry vat?”