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might introduce you to them.”
    Great. Just what I needed—a member of the Watch and his family. A little shudder went through me at the thought of what would happen if Gregory-not-Greg were to turn around and see my mother, the very woman he had been sent out to arrest two days before.
    “Sounds lovely,” I lied, and taking his arm, I tugged him in the direction opposite Mom.
    A look of surprise flitted across his face for a moment, but he walked next to me docilely enough.
    “Are you here for the fireworks?”
    “Fireworks?” I asked stupidly, my mind busy wondering how far I could drag him away from the bench before I released him and called my mother to warn her of his presence.
    He pointed upward. I looked. A burst of red and silver and green exploded overhead.
    “Oh, those. Yeah. We always come to the park for the big festival.”
    “‘We’?”
    He stopped.
    Panic hit me. I moved forward, urging him along with me, needing to put as much space between him and my mother as was humanly possible. “Me. Not we. I meant to say ‘me.’”
    “Me always come to the park for the big festival?”
    “Ha ha ha ha ha!” The braying laughter was of a quality that was well over the border of merry and smack-dab in the middle of deranged, but honestly, my brain refused to come up with any sort of an explanation, feeling that laughing it off was the way to go. My brain was wrong. “No, of course I meant to say that
I
always come to the park.”
    The look he gave me was no longer one filled with amusement, and that, for some bizarre reason I didn’t even want to examine, made me sad. “I see. Would you think me boorish if I were to inquire where you’re taking me?”
    “Taking you? I’m not taking you anywhere,” I said, pulling on his arm when he tried to stop again. “We’re just out for a little stroll to see the fireworks. Oh! Unless you’re here with someone. Someone female? Or . . . er . . . male?”
    He gave me an odd look. “You’re the second attractive woman in two months who’s hinted that I’m gay. Do I give off some sort of homosexual vibe of which I’m unaware?”
    “No! Far from it! That stubble is really . . .” I coughed and sternly reminded myself that he was the Enemy and I needed to stop thinking of him as a sexy, sexy man. “I don’t like to assume. People’s sexuality is their own business, and I’d hate to presume.”
    “I appreciate such thoughtfulness, but in my case it’s unnecessary. I assure you that I am as heterosexual as they come. Risqué pun not intended.”
    We reached the far edge of the open park area, and I judged that we were about as distant from my mothers and Mrs. Vanilla as we could get without actually pushing him off the park grounds altogether. I dropped his arm and gave him a bright smile. “Nice to know that! Well, it’s been super fun, but I really have to get moving. I’ve got a plane to catch.”
    “A plane?” He looked moderately interested.
    “Yes. I’m returning home to Colorado.” I didn’t want to have to lie outright to him again—I’d already done so once, and many members of the Watch had very finely tuned mental lie detectors. In addition, my mothers had taught me that every lie was returned threefold, so I didn’t say any more than that I was returning home. That, at least, was true enough. “I’ll let you get back to your girlfriend. Or wife. Or significant whatever. Thanks for the walk!”
    “You’re welcome, but I feel obligated to point out that the fireworks display is still going on, and the only people I’m here with are my cousin and his wife. They are newly married and probably are enjoying my absence more than they would my presence, so if you’d care to drag me back toward that wall with the stone animals, I’d be happy to oblige.”
    “Ha ha ha ha!” I did the hysterical laughter again, looking around quickly for the nearest means of escape. Damn him for noticing where I had bumped into him! One