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red. "Well she is."
    "Excuse my brother. He's still growing into his hormones."
    "No worries," I said. "I like him."
    Charlie's face became a deeper shade of red and I winked at him. He ran from the room, down a hall.
    "Sorry about him," Tanner said, shaking his head.
    "It's fine. Dinner should be interesting."
    "To say the least," he mumbled. "Let's sit and eat. Charlie can join us if he feels like it."
    Shortly after we started eating, Charlie sat down reeking of cologne, wearing a black leather jacket, and had his hair slicked back.
    Tanner shook his head again and I smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Charlie. Tanner's told me so much about you."
    His face flushed again, this time reaching down to his neck. "You can call me Charles," he said in an unnaturally deep voice.
    Tanner put his face into his hands, muttering something that I couldn't make out even with my strong hearing.
    "Sure, I can call you Charles if you prefer. That's very grown up."
    "I am in junior high," he said, nodding.
    "Impressive," I said, taking a sip from my glass.
    The rest of the meal went with Charlie trying to impress me and Tanner wanting to die of embarrassment. I enjoyed every minute of it. Why hadn't I spent more time with humans before? They were actually pretty entertaining.
    After we had cleaned up the mess from dinner, we all sat down to watch some goofy show. When it was over, the door opened again and a lady who looked like the two of them walked in, looking exhausted. She gave me a double take.
    Tanner jumped up. "Mom, this is Samantha. Do you remember me telling you about her?"
    "Yeah, I must have forgotten. It's nice to meet you, Samantha."
    I stood up. "It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Monroe. Do you need help with anything? Tanner left the taco stuff warmed up for you in the oven."
    She gave me a weak smile. "Thanks. I need to help Charlie with his homework. Tanner, why don't you take Samantha home?"
    Charlie stood up, scowling. "I can do my own homework."

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    "Sorry about my family," Tanner said as we were driving in his car.
    "No need to apologize. You can't help how other people act."
    "Yeah, but my brother…."
    "He was cute."
    Tanner snickered. "That's one way to put it. Then my mom was kinda rude."
    I shrugged. "She was just tired. She works a lot to take care of you guys."
    "Yeah, I guess. But I still thought she was rude."
    "Next time, I'll be sure to leave before she gets home. I'm sure she doesn't want to deal with guests after working two jobs."
    He looked over at me. "Next time?"
    "If you want me to come over again, that is."
    His eyes lit up. "Of course I do."
    "So where's your home?"
    "My…? Oh right, you're supposed to drop me off. Why don't you drop me off at the library?" I asked. I couldn't let him know that I didn't have a home in town.
    "It's closed. Let me take you home."
    "We could go to a coffee house and grab some lattes," I said.
    "That sounds nice, but I have to get back home or my mom will have a fit."
    "You can drop me off anywhere. I'll get myself home."
    "Without a car?"
    "I do have two feet, you know."
    "There's no way that I'm just dropping you off anywhere."
    "The thing about me is that I'm tough. I can take care of myself."
    "I know that Delphic Cove is a quiet town, but I'd still feel better about dropping you off myself."
    "Just drop me off at a bus stop or something."
    "A bus stop? What's going on? Why don't you want me to drop you off at home?" he asked, pulling into a parking lot.
    "I like to walk."
    "In the dark? Do you even have a car?"
    I shook my head no.
    "If your house is worse off than mine, I'm not going to judge you. You saw our little house and you're sitting in my beat up car. I know that the economy hasn't hit most people in Delphic Cove, but it has hit a lot of people everywhere. I'm not going to think less of you."
    Thinking of Vince's enormous mansion, I said, "That's not it."
    Tanner stared at me while I