He held my hand the whole time. He said, “God, I’d like to introduce you to Hailey.” He looked over at me and winked. “He’s pleased to know you. But He made you, so He knows you pretty well already.”

I blinked, shocked at how relaxed Declan was.

“Hailey’s grandmother passed into your care, and she’s concerned. She wants to make sure her grandmother knows how much she loves her.”

He bent low to the ground and closed his eyes, then stayed there, very still, for a long time. When he sat up, he rolled over onto the grass and smiled at me. “Hailey,” he said. “Do you feel it?”

I closed my eyes, and suddenly, I did feel something. Peace. His rough, Band-Aid-covered hand in mine, warm and perfect. It wasn’t only the praying. It was him. Declan. He had this way about him. It was like settling into your warm, comfortable bed after a long, tiring day. He made everything seem right.

“I think she’s okay about the cookies,” I whispered.

He smiled and stroked the rough pad of one of his fingers over my knuckles. “I think so too.”

Saturday, February 16

A thin drizzle falls as I navigate down the driveway, past clumps of sad, dingy snow.

I wish winter would make up its mind. Either snow, or don’t. None of this depressing rain.

I slide my sneakered foot along the asphalt, testing it. At least it’s not icy. I stretch my hams off the curb, touch my toes, and rub the goose bumps from my legs. I pop in my earbuds as Fall Out Boy pumps through my iPhone, then affix my headband over my ears.

A snowball hits me in the knee.

Globs of ice slide down my shin and collect in the rim of my sport sock. Who the hell—

Kane. Of course. He’s always been half vampire. He saunters up to me, grinning. He’s wearing a loose button-down shirt and jeans, wrinkled, no coat. His pale face amplifies the bleariness of his eyes, but he’s Kane. And Kane always looks good.

I scowl at him. “What are you doing?”

“I can ask you the same thing. Don’t tell me you’re…” He shakes his head. “It’s four in the morning, crazy girl.”

“Yeah, it’s four in the morning.” I study him, take a sniff, detecting nothing but Kane’s perpetually appetizing, uniquely Kane smell, like fresh air and leather. “I woke up. And you obviously haven’t gone to bed yet, psycho boy.”

“There was a party. Remember? The one you were invited to and subsequently blew off?” I start to jog away as he calls after me, “I think you made some excuse about having something important to do last night? Whatever it was, I see it allowed you to get up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”