Page 15 of Kiss Slay Replay

“What is it?” Danny asks. “You’re freaking me out.”

“Satanic shit.”

“One little ritual sacrifice and now look at me, I’m all paranoid.”

“Just the one?”

“Not trying to make it a habit. Come on.”

He offers me his arm, and I take it. We’re quiet until we make it out onto the path.

“Sit next to me,” he says, as we approach the floral arches. “At dinner.”

“Pretty sure there’s assigned seating,” I tell him. “Charts and all that. It’s a wedding.”

“Damn. Then just find me later. I’ve got the goods,” he says, tapping the flask through his jacket.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I say, retracting my arm. Standing on my own.

“I’m waiting for you to go first. I’m following your lead.”

I push him forward.

“Hey!” He reaches back for me.

“I’m sorry! I am. I’m sorry. All right. Together?”

“Deal.”

We step through the arches.

5

“You can’t help yourself, can you? Flair for drama,” Cassie says, appearing with a drink in each hand, a sour expression on her pretty face. “Running off into the woods like some gothic heroine.”

I watch Danny get circled by an assembly of older women who I assume are Jason’s relatives, who must know Danny from back when. One of them literally pinches his cheeks. “You’ve always been such a cutie!”

I catch his eye, and he gives me a hint of a grin that proves contagious.

“What?” Cassie asks, craning her neck to peer over my shoulder. “Who’s that?”

She’s being too loud. I can’t tell her about Danny, about our high-voltage exchange in the woods, can’t game out the probability of us fooling around tonight while he’s still within earshot.

I point to the drinks in her hands.

“Is one of those for me?” I ask, changing the subject.

“No,” she says, flatly. “They’re both for me.”

“Why do you need to double fist?”

“I don’t know, Willa. The state of the world. I’d say about seventy percent the state of the world, ten percent because it’s fun and I feel like it, ten percent because I’m away from the kid, and, maybe, like, five percent because I’m worried about you.” She takes a sip from each glass, one after the other. “What?”

“I was just checking your math.”

She sighs. “Ravi is at the bar. Alone.”

“And?”