Ivy started. “This way,” she said, indicating that the woman should follow her.

“Thank you. You’re so kind.”

Making a small face for all the hidden undercurrents, I watched Mrs. Aver and Ivy leave, the former making a lot of noise in her bland black heels, the latter silent in her slippers. Their conversation ended with the click of my bathroom door shutting, and I turned to David.

He looked like a completely different Were outside of his spandex running pants and shirt. And nowhere near the same person the time I saw him leaning against a park tree in a duster that went to his boot tops and a cowboy hat pulled over his eyes. His heavy stubble was gone, to leave sun-roughed cheeks, and his long hair was styled and smelled of moss. Only the highest ranking Weres could carry off polish and not look like they were trying, but David managed it. The three-piece suit and manicured fingernails helped. He looked older than his athletic physique would testify, with a pair of glasses perched on his nose and a tie snugged up to his neck. Actually, he looked really good—in a professional, educated sort of way.

‘Thanks again for helping me get in to see Saladan,” I said, feeling awkward.

“Don’t thank me,” he said. “I’m getting a huge bonus.” He set his expensive-looking suitcase on the piano bench. He seemed preoccupied—not angry with me, but wary and disapproving. It made me uncomfortable. Sensing me watching him, he looked up. “Mind if I do a little prep paperwork?”

I shifted back a step. “No. Go right ahead. You want some coffee?”

David looked at Jenks’s desk and hesitated. Brow furrowing, he sat astride the piano bench and opened his briefcase up before him. “No thanks. We won’t be here that long.”

“Okay.” I retreated, feeling his dissatisfaction heavy on me. I knew he didn’t like that I had lied to my partner by omission, but all I needed was for him to get me in to see Lee. I hesitated at the top of the hallway. “I’ll go change. I wanted to see what you were wearing.”

David looked up from his paperwork, his brown eyes distant as he tried to do two things at once. “You’ll be wearing Mrs. Aver’s clothes.”

My eyebrows rose. “You’ve done this before.”

“I told you the job was a lot more interesting than you would think,” he said to his papers.

I waited for him to say something more, but he didn’t, so I went to find Ivy, feeling awkward and depressed. He hadn’t said a word about Jenks, but his disapproval was clear.

Ivy was busy with her maps and pens when I entered, saying nothing as I poured a cup of coffee for me, and then her. “What do you think of David?” I asked, setting her cup beside her.

Her head went down and she tapped a colored pen on the table. “I think you’ll be okay. He seems to know what he’s doing. And it’s not like I won’t be there.”