–

Dylan knocked on the door at seven sharp. Punctual – that would defiantly earn him some brownie points with the adults, I thought wryly as I ran my hand through my hair and checked my make-up once more.

I’d had no trouble convincing mom and Phil to let me go out tonight. I did, however, have a curfew – eleven- something I wasn’t accustomed to with Renee, but I understood why it was now being imposed.

I stumbled at the bottom of the stairs and Phil automatically reached out to catch me and laughed good-naturedly at my clumsiness.

He glanced at Dylan who was smiling but had the good sense to stifle his amusement. “You have your work cut out for you with this one. She’ll fall over a perfectly flat surface. What was it you had planned for tonight?”

“Just a bonfire at the beach,” he replied, his eyes glued to me the way men usually looked at Rosalie. It made me both uncomfortable and pleased. I didn’t understand it, but I wasn’t gonna knock it either.

“Well, at least if she falls, the sand will cushion her landing.”

“Alright, alright. Enough fun at my expense.” With a wave, I pushed Dylan back out the door expecting his behemoth of a motorcycle, only to find a black convertible.

“Nice,” I commented because guys had an odd affection for their shiny cars and became grumpy if you didn’t share in it.

“Yeah it is, but it’s not mine. A friend let me barrow it.”

“Tell me again why we’re not just walking?”

“’Cause we’re not going to the beach by your house, woman. We’re going somewhere private.”

Those traitorous butterflies were swarming in my stomach again leaving me unsettled as I considered why we might need so much privacy. Why was I already reacting to him in such a way? I’d only known him for a month. Certainly not long enough for me to feel so comfortable with him and to be having almost unchaste thoughts about him. Especially since I knew that his allegiance was to some vampire who was unnaturally interested in me. I should be running as fast as I could the other way, but for reasons I couldn’t begin to understand, I trusted and liked Dylan.