“Bunny Slippers watched my appraisal for at least a fullminute before clasping his hands and resting them on the table.“You stand in the doorway, clothes sticking to you like you justgot out of the shower and didn’t dry off.” I hadn’t dried offactually. “Your hair is wet like it’s been raining, but it’s nearninety outside. You glare at me for a good ten minutes beforeyou come over. Sit across from me in my booth, without aninvitation. Don’t introduce yourself. Don’t say hello. Youannounce you’re not gay, but that I made you gay, and I amconfusing you?Well, when he said it like that.”

“So what’s your story, Pidge? Are you a man-hater in general, or do you just hate me?”“I think it’s just you,” I grumbled.He laughed once, amused at my mood. “I can’t figure you out. You’re the first girl that’s ever been disgusted with me before sex. You don’t get all flustered when you talk to me, and you don’t try to get my attention.”“It’s not a ploy. I just don’t like you.”“You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t like me.”My frown involuntarily smoothed and I sighed. “I didn’t say you’re a bad person. I just don’t like being a foregone conclusion for the sole reason of having a vagina.” I focused on the grains of salt on the table until I heard a choking noise from Travis’ direction.His eyes widened and he quivered with howling laughter. “Oh my God! You’re killing me! That’s it. We have to be friends. I won’t take no for an answer.”

“Don’t you see? It’s like we’ve known each other all these years. Without even seeing each other. It’s like there’s been this . . . this ghost relationship between us. You laying out my plectrums on the floor, me buying black-and-white cookies every time I knew you would be coming over. You didn’t know that was me, but it was.”

“You really have the nerve to stand there and ask me that?” When he didn’t respond, I practically growled as I took a step towards him. “You blow so hot and cold with me that I’m not sure which way is up. It’s a wonder I don’t need a chiropractor from your emotional whiplash. One minute you’re telling me you want a girl like me to be interested in you and the next you’re coyly asking how I feel about Garrett.” Finally toe to toe, I glared up at him. “You’re really good at charming the panties off girls at ten paces, but you can’t even tell a girl how you really feel when she’s up close and personal!”

“How can you love me if you don’t even know me?” He lifted my arms around his neck and placed his hands on the small of my back.“I know you, Jade. You’re witty and stubborn, like when you wanted to get rid of me at the bar in San Diego. And you’re sweet and caring, like when you talked to my mother at the hospital. And you can drink like a sailor. ” He chuckled. “And you hardly ever blush, but when you do it’s like the sunshine.” Then, he whispered in my ear with a husky voice, “And you make love with your soul.”Peter gave my earlobe a quick nibble. “I couldn’t care less about energy. It might have brought us together, but I only care about you. I want to spend the rest of my days with you; no matter if it’ll be ten or ten thousand.”Despite myself, I felt my eyes burn from tears I wasn’t ready to shed.Still, I couldn’t say it.“Peter...” I kissed him with all the tenderness I found in my heart and said, “the tub is about tospill.”“Oh, shit.” He jerked away from me, turned the water off and unplugged the tub, then huggedme again with wet hands. “All we need is time, Jade. You’ll see this love is real.”

“And then there’s its hair,” Justin said, pushing the vegetables across to me. “Don’t forget the hair. It’s horrible.”“It’s wearing a dead person’s hair,” Rafe informed me. “If you stick a pin in the doll, you can hear screaming coming from the graveyard. Try it.”“See what I mean?” Abby said, to me. “Wusses. It’s got real hair. Why he thinks it’s from a dead person—”“Because your poppet was made in about 1890 and I can do subtraction.”