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His teeth were no longer barracuda-pointy. And his hair was a lot darker, too.
    “Why . . . What’s wrong with your mouth? Is it your teeth?” I mumbled.
    “Capths.” He pursed his lips. “I’m thill getting uthed to them. Do I talk funny?”
    “Not at all,” I lied. “They definitely make you look less . . . er, scary. Are you wearing a toupee?”
    He grunted; then he slapped his hand on the top of his head and yanked the hairpiece off. “I told her it wouldn’t fool anybody.” He wound up for the pitch; his target was the trash can in the kitchen.
    “No, no, no.” I caught his spindly arm. “I didn’t mean to make you think it looks bad. It doesn’t.”
    “They hired a thylist to guthy me up. But I don’t feel like it’th me.”
    “It is an improvement.” I released his arm.
    He didn’t look convinced. “If you thay.” His gaze slid to Damen, who was sitting very quietly by my side, one arm draped across the back of the couch. “I need Thloan to come with me. They’re filming the first epithode in a few. She got me into thith. . . .”
    That was, at best, a slight tweak of the truth, but I didn’t bother to correct him.
    “That’s fine. I need to get going, anyway.” Damen stood, leaned over me, and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. The kiss was much too brief. “When can I see you again?”
    I gazed up into his deep eyes. “I’m pretty much free every night this week, assuming I don’t get called in to work.”
    “Good. I’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t eat dinner.”
    “Great. See you then.” I basked in the brilliance of his smile before standing. “If you want to wait a minute, I can walk you to the door. I need to grab my purse.”
    “Sure.”
    Elmer shot him some mean eyes.
    “Actually, I should get going,” Damen said, looking a bit nervous.
    Was he really going to let that little creep chase him away?
    I bit back a comment that he might not have liked and threw him a little dismissive wave. “That’s fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He made a beeline for the front door; I glared at Elmer. “Why’d you do that?”
    “What?”
    “You scared my friend.”
    Elmer blinked his creepy, little, beady eyes at me. “I didn’t mean to.”
    “Yeah. Right.”
    “Whatever. Can we get going? Dale Nethinger hath been calling me every five minutes thince I left. I think she’th getting nervouth.”
    “You could have called her and explained the problem.” Inside my car, I shoved the key into the ignition and gave it a twist.
    “I’m not a freaking geniuth like thome people, but even I know that wouldn’t have worked.”
    “Okay, so why don’t you just poof to wherever they’re filming and I’ll meet you there?”
    “Becauthe I’m not filming even one minute without you being there. Consider yourthelf my agent.”
    What had I gotten myself into?
    A jagged bolt of lightning lit up the sky.
     
     
    Emma Walker could hardly believe this was happening. She was alone. With Kyle Quinn. The Kyle Quinn. “I thought you’d hooked up with Stephanie Barnett?” she asked, finding herself leaning into him. He smelled so good. Looked even better. And she hoped to find out how he tasted soon too.
    His brows scrunched. “Who told you that? I didn’t hook up with her or anyone else.”
    “I thought I saw you together at Joe Malone’s party.”
    “No. I didn’t go to Malone’s party.”
    “Oh.” The house had been crammed full of people. She supposed she could have mistaken someone else for him. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t gotten a clear view of him . . . or whoever that had been. “Anyway, I really appreciate the help with algebra.” She pulled open the door. “It would take me hours to do this stupid homework if you didn’t help.”
    “No problem.” Kyle stepped inside after her, then waited for her to shut the door. “Where’s your mom?”
    “Working. She’s on afternoons all week. Then she switches to midnights. The joys of being a