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right with Tracey and Frey. Let’s put the past away once and for all.” I reach up and tweak his cheek. “Think we can do that, big boy?”
    That actually elicits a laugh. “God. Now you sound like Tracey.”
    “Better get used to it.”
    David sighs and picks up his brush. “Let’s get this done. I’m ready for another beer.”
    “You’ve got it. And David?”
    He looks over, eyebrows quirked.
    “You’re going to make a great dad.”
    He grins. “And you’re going to make a great stepmom.”
    We finish in companionable silence. I don’t know what David is thinking, but I’m thinking, I should be a novelist. The story I just spun is worthy of a Pulitzer. But David deserves to have that burden of guilt lifted over what happened to me. Only I can ever be aware of the irony. An attack by a “skip” who left me for dead turned out instead to be an attack by a vampire that made me immortal.

CHAPTER 5
     
    I CAN BARELY SIT STILL.
    I’m in front of the first terminal at San Diego International Airport, one eye on the cop coming up five or six cars behind me, one eye on the doors. If Frey and John-John aren’t out in the next thirty seconds, that cop will wave me on and I’ll have to make another lap around the parking lot.
    Down to ten . . . the cop is eyeing me.
    “Anna! Anna!”
    The voice of an angel. I’m out of the car in time to see the cop turn on his heel and start back down the row. In another nanosecond, I’ve scooped John-John up and we’re spinning around the sidewalk. Over the top of his head, I see Frey approach, pulling a roller, a car seat balanced on top, and clutching a couple of duffels.
    “A little help here?” he says. But he’s smiling.
    I set John-John on the sidewalk and pop the remote to the trunk. Frey settles the bags inside. Then we’re face-to-face.
    He touches my cheek. It’s not enough. I put my arms around him and squeeze. John-John hides his eyes behind his hands.
    “Mushy stuff.”
    Frey leans his lips close to my ear. “Later.”
    The one word is breathed with so much promise, my heart starts to race.
    Frey steps around and hefts John-John’s car seat into the back. I’ve put the top down on the Jag so it takes only a few moments to secure it and get John-John settled in.
    Frey takes his place beside me in the front. “Your place or mine?” he asks.
    I glance back at John-John. “Mine. I have a surprise.”
    “For me?”
    “You betcha.”
    “What is it?”
    I put the car in gear and pull out. “If I told you, what would be the fun in that?”
    “Then go fast, Anna.”
    And we do.
    * * *
    I’M NOT SURE WHO IS MORE EXCITED BY THE TIME WE get to the cottage.
    “Leave the bags,” I tell Frey, grabbing John-John’s hand. “We’ll get them later.”
    And then the three of us are through the back gate, across the yard, I’ve fumbled the lock open and John-John and I are racing up the stairs.
    I throw open the bedroom door. “Ta-da!”
    At first I get the sinking feeling John-John doesn’t like his room. He’s stopped at the doorway. In profile, I can see only one wide eye and an open mouth. Frey has come up behind us. His hands rest on my shoulder. I hear his breath catch.
    Then John-John whoops and runs to the bed. “Is all this for me?”
    And he’s everywhere at once, touching the cars and the Legos and books and climbing up on the race-car bed and down again to examine the rug.
    “Do you like your new room?” I ask with a hopeful tone.
    John-John whirls to look at me. “I love it. You got everything right.”
    “Did I?”
    Then it’s Frey who pulls me around. His eyes are shining and I’ve never seen such warmth in a smile.
    “You did,” he says. “You got everything right.”
    * * *
    JOHN-JOHN IS ASLEEP. FREY AND I ARE UPSTAIRS ON THE deck outside my bedroom, watching a full moon rise over the ocean. There’s a circle of light around the moon, a golden nimbus reflected in the still water offshore. The only sounds we hear are the