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would have been tense even if I weren’t nervous about what we were about to do, and fending off my dad’s barbed comments had been no fun. I’d defended Piper loyally, but really, is it that hard to show up at least close to on time?
    â€œIt’s a subtle power play,” my dad had said. “Showing you that her time is more valuable than yours.”
    I just rolled my eyes at that one.
    Dad finally called Bob off, but he answered the door himself instead of letting me do it. Internally, I groaned, knowing this couldn’t be a good thing. I couldn’t see the look on his face, but I could see Piper’s and the way her eyes widened. There weren’t many people who could intimidate her, but my dad was one of them.
    â€œI suppose Becket misheard you,” he said. “She thought you said you were picking her up at seven thirty.”
    Yes, my dad has all the subtlety and tact of a wrecking ball. “Cut it out, Dad,” I said, trying to slip past him and out the door before he changed his mind about letting me go. “It’s not that big a deal.”
    â€œSorry, Mr. Walker,” Piper said, blinking innocently at my dad. No one calls my dad Mr. Walker. It’s either Pete, or Commissioner Walker. Piper knows that. And while I didn’t think being late had been any kind of power play, I suspected calling my dad Mr. Walker was. Telling him that, just because he was the police commissioner, it didn’t mean he was anyone special. “Traffic was terrible, and then it took forever to find a parking space.”
    Her claim of traffic delays on a Saturday night was questionable, but trouble finding a parking space was completely believable. I don’t think my dad bought it, but at least he didn’t completely humiliate me by calling my best friend a liar to her face.
    â€œI expect her home by eleven,” he told Piper sternly.
    â€œOkay,” she said, but we all knew she would treat that curfew as a guideline rather than a rule.
    My dad finally let me get past him, and with only the briefest good-bye, Piper and I hurried off down the street. It was another cold night, the temperature somewhere in the twenties, and I decided I should strike all colleges north of the Mason–Dixon Line off my list. I wanted to go somewhere where it was warm all year long, even if that meant no Ivy League for me. I hoped Piper hadn’t had to go too far to find that parking spot.
    We turned the corner, and the wind whipped our faces. I saw Piper’s red Volvo parked only half a block away and hurried my footsteps, eager to get inside where it was warm, but Piper grabbed my arm.
    â€œOne stop first,” she said, grinning at me. “Tonight will be more fun if we have some male companionship.”
    And that was when I realized that this wasn’t going to be a night on the town with just me and my best friend after all.
    If she noticed the disappointment that stabbed through me, she gave no sign as she reached up and rapped on the door of Luke’s house. She was filled to the brim with excitement and energy, practically vibrating with it, but my heart had taken up permanent residence in my toes. I had lied to my dad—and put myself at risk for the worst punishment he could think up—for some girl time with Piper and a side dish of the forbidden. Being the third wheel on a date was not what I’d had in mind.
    â€œI dropped your change of clothes off with Luke before coming to get you,” Piper said. “I decided it would have been too much of a pain to drive all the way back to my place so you could change. Besides, we don’t want to eat into our fun time.”
    â€œBut you said I would get to meet Dr. Schiff,” I protested, in what I’m afraid might have sounded a bit like a whine.
    Piper made a something-smells-bad face. “Believe me, you’re not missing anything. He’s a long-winded bore, and as far as I can