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Cassidy quickly followed suit. “Claire. Okay, I know you think this looks like the Cullens’ house, but really, you—”

Just then the door opened, and my heart stopped at the sight of Tony bounding down the steps to greet us. His casual, white button-down shirt matched his bright smile. In less than two seconds he was at my side.

“You made it.” His eyes looked mischievously into mine. “Come on.” He gently tugged on my hand. “I have a surprise for you.”

Deja Vu

“A surprise?” I couldn’t help it—I grinned back.
What in the world—?

“Yeah, come in. You’ll love it.”

Cassidy’s jaw dropped as we brushed past his parents, who were coming down to greet Darlene and Roger.

Just as Tony and I entered the house, Nora came up to us. “So, have you told her about the surprise yet? Come on in, Cassidy. You can hang out with me. These two are going to be busy for a bit.”

Oh my gosh.
My heart began to pound.

“Thanks,” Tony whispered.

“Just hurry up before Mom and Dad notice you’re gone.”

Tony didn’t need any more encouragement. We were through the main room and climbing the stairs before I’d even had a moment to comprehend that I was actually in his house.
In Tony’s house. Eeeh!
“So, are we going to your room?” I didn’t want to tell him my sister would freak out if she knew I was going to a guy’s room, just he and I. Alone.

Tony paused on the top stair. “No. Your surprise is up here. My room’s downstairs. I have a lot of stuff in there—in my room—so I don’t usually show it to anyone.”

My smile turned into a chuckle. “Are you saying your room is a mess?”

He bit his lip and looked away briefly. “Would you drop the subject if I said it was dirty? Would that make you never want to see it?” His gaze held mine.

“Never want to—?”
What does that mean?
“No, it’d make me want to see it more.”

“Oh, then it’s clean. It’s the cleanest room you’ve ever seen.”

Is he joking?
I laughed. “Okay.”
Now I’m dying to see it!
“What are you hiding in there?”

“Hiding?” Tony’s face went white. He tugged on my hand and started walking again. “What do you mean, hiding? I’m not hiding anything.”

I had never heard anyone sound guiltier in my life.
Yeah, right.
“Good try.”

We wound down a hallway into a large loft area. Tony remained silent.

“You’re really not going to tell me what’s in your room?”

“Look.” He stopped and pushed his hair out of his eyes. “There
is
something about me that I’d love to share with you—but I can’t right now. My parents would lose it if I did. As soon you as walked in my room, you’d realize what I can’t tell you. It’s pretty obvious.”

Duh! He’s a vampire. He’s probably stressing because he doesn’t have a bed in his room. I’m such an idiot.

All of a sudden, I had an urge to tell him not to worry because I already knew who he was. It was ridiculous to keep hiding something so obvious, anyway. But just as I opened my mouth, he spoke first.

“Okay, so are you ready for your surprise?” Tony dropped my hand, walked over to the stereo on the far wall and rummaged around a bit, and then quickly shoved something behind his back.

He was the most adorable guy on the planet when he walked up to me. His smile was beyond contagious.
What is he doing?
By the time he stood right in front of me, my heart was beating at warp speed. I couldn’t say anything even if I wanted to.

“So, Nora says that you love the Twilight books.”

“Twilight?”
Oh my gosh! Is he going to say it?

“And that you’re a big fan of the movie as well.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I have something for you.”

“Okay.”
Spill.

“It’s nothing major. Just, sometimes I get the opportunity to meet some cool people, and, well, I ran into this band, and they—”

“Band?” I wasn’t following.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard of them before. Anyway, they gave me a couple of signed copies of their CD, so I was wondering if you wanted one.” Tony pulled a Paramour CD from behind his back and gave it to me.

“No way!”

“I know it’s not their new album, but I thought you’d like it anyway, since it has songs from the original
Twilight
movie on it.”

Holy cow!
“Like it? Tony, this is awesome! I love it!” I flipped it over in my hands. It was signed by every person in the band. “But are you sure you want to give this to me? It’s probably worth something—”

Tony shook his head. “It’s only worth what someone will pay for it. And I have a strong suspicion you’d pay a lot more for it than I would.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Keep it. I have enough CDs to last me a lifetime or more.”

I was so blown over by his generosity, I didn’t know what to say except thank you. I let my smile say the rest of what I couldn’t.

Tony liked the smile—I could tell by the way he watched me. I thought he might try to kiss me again, but all at once he cleared his throat and straightened. “Look, we should go so my parents don’t get worried.”

Oh. Darn.
My smile went taut, and I fidgeted with the CD. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m sure Darlene and Roger would be worried too.” I knew they wouldn’t be—they probably didn’t even know I was missing, but I had to say something.

“And Claire?”

“Yeah?”

“Just know that if I could tell you something about me right now, I would. But I can’t. Maybe one day we can get this whole thing sorted out, but for now, could you be patient?”

“Yes.”
Besides, I already know what your secret is.

***

For the next three weeks, Tony took me all over Seattle and taught me what it was like to be a true Seattleite. I could see why he loved the place as he did. It was so beautiful! I’d never laughed so much or done so much in so little time as I did with him. Each day was a new adventure through the eyes of my very own vampire. Every night he’d send me a series of texts about the silly things that had happened that day, making me giggle. He never tried to kiss me, so I pretty much stopped worrying about that first kiss. Deep down inside, I really wanted him to, but for now, I could just relax and be myself around him.

Then one day, it finally happened.

When Nora called to invite me to go with her to the discount mall for the second time, I was hesitant to see Jaden again until . . . .

“Tony said he’d drive us, if we wanted to go,” Nora announced proudly through my cell.

“Tony? Really? He wants to come with us to
that
mall?”

“I know—like, crazy, right? I mean, why would he want to head over there now, when all this time he’s been avoiding the place like it was Volterra or something?”

Volterra?
My head snapped up and I almost dropped the phone. “What do you mean?”
I can’t believe she just mentioned the home of the most dangerous vampire clan in the Twilight series. Was she trying to tell me something?

“You do know who the Volturi are, right?”

“Of course I do. What girl doesn’t?”

“Oh, okay. You had me worried for a second there.”

“No—I mean, why did you compare the mall to Volterra? I don’t understand. Was it for a reason?”

Nora chuckled. “I use it all the time, actually. It makes a real good line.”

“Oh.”

“So, are you coming or what? Tony says to see if eleven is okay.”

“Yeah, eleven’s fine. I’ll see you then.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Where are you going?” Cassidy looked up from reading my book as I hung up the phone. She was sprawled out in the middle of the bed again.

I shrugged. “Just to the mall. Do you want to come?”

“Um, no. Can’t.”

“Why?” I walked over to the dresser and pulled out my makeup case.

“Why? Um, because no thanks to a certain vampire/werewolf-loving freak in this room, I have to read this whole series. Hello? Why didn’t you tell me these were the most addicting books on the planet?”

“I did.” I smirked and tossed my makeup case on the bed before opening the closet to find another shirt. “You just didn’t listen to me.”

“Ugh!” Cassidy threw herself back on the bed and brought the book up to her eye level. “Is she ever going to be a vampire? Ever? Just answer me that much, please? It’s driving me crazy.”

I shuffled through a few shirts. “You’ll just have to read to find out.”

“You’re evil, you know that? Really evil.”

Laughing, I pulled out a pretty red shirt with a big sparkly heart across the front. “Thanks. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it.” I snatched up my case and sprinted to the bathroom, barely missing the pillow Cassidy tossed just before the door closed.

***

“So this is the hallowed mall—the mall of malls, huh?” Tony asked with a skeptical look. “Doesn’t seem that great to me.” He shrugged when Nora threw a withering glance in his direction. “What?” He looked so completely boyish and adorable, I forgave him immediately.

“You know, buddy, you aren’t as smart as you seem to be,” she huffed. “Anyone with half a brain would know an amazing place the second they saw it.” She pushed past him and kept walking.

“Maybe that’s my problem then,” he retorted behind her. “I’ve got a whole brain, not half of one.”

I smothered a snort and glared at Tony when he turned to gauge my reaction.

“All right, I give.” He shook his head and held his hand out for me. “You girls win. This is the best mall in the whole universe.”

I ignored his hand and hitched my purse up onto my shoulder again. With my head raised, I walked past him too. “You know, I would actually believe you if your voice had some enthusiasm in it.”

“Come on—guys aren’t supposed to love malls. It’s like a rule or something,” he protested as he caught up to me. I was trying to get
to Nora, who was still beating a path to Old Navy. “You have to admit that.”

I looked over at him, and my heart stopped. Both his hands were in his pockets, and a thatch of light brown hair had fallen across his brow. He looked so cute, I’d almost forgotten what we were talking about.

“What?” He smiled at me as we hurried through the large court.

Dang, he’s hot! Like really, really hot!
“I was—oh!” I ran into the back of a large woman. Her weight was the only thing that kept us both up, barely.

“Hey!” she yelled. “Watch where you’re going!”

“I’m so sorry! Are you all right?”

When she turned around, I felt even worse. Sitting in front of her was a toddler in a stroller she’d been pushing.
Yikes!
“Is he all right? I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean—please forgive me—”

“You know, it’s punks like you that make it really hard to shop in malls!” She was obviously very upset.

People were staring. I couldn’t even look at Tony.

“I’m sorry. I know, it was my fault—”

“You better be sorry!” she snarled. “Now do me a favor and watch where you’re going.”

“Look.” Tony’s deep voice near my ear startled me. “Is there any way we can repay you? We’re really sorry. And a lot of it is my fault. I was talking to Claire, and she wasn’t—”

“Looking where she was going?” The woman finished, her arms folded across her large torso. “Really, genius? It’s nice to know you figured that out.”

I was surprised to see Tony smile. “Thanks. But seriously, an ice cream cone for the little guy, or something? Please, let us make it up to you.”

I felt his arm wrap around my waist and pull me next to him, almost as if he were protecting me. It worked. I felt very protected.

“What’s going on?” Nora asked. She must’ve heard the yelling and come back to help.

“Wait a minute. Do I know you?” The woman asked. “You seem kind of familiar. Are you a movie star or something?”

Tony stepped back, pulling me with him. “Uh, star? No.” His laughter sounded forced. “You must have me confused with someone else.”

“Are you sure?” The woman seemed uncertain for a moment, and then she pointed her finger at him. “No, no. I’m positive, now that I think about it. I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

Oh my gosh!

People all around us began to whisper. I heard a few gasps.