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I shook my head. “No, that was just about perfect.”
“I do find myself curious—have you finally broken ties with the ‘butt-dialer’?”
“Yes. Decidedly. What exactly are you asking from me?”
“I was thinking that after spending much more time together, we could determine whether you want to spend the rest of your life with me. Whether you feel the way I do. I think I could make you happy … barring natural disasters, mechanical failure, inadvertent public nudity, and pestilence pouring forth from the sky.”
“Not funny, but I accept,” I murmured against his lips as he moved in to kiss me. I could hear my mother sniffling in the background. She was clearly eating this up with a spoon, and who could blame her? This was every suave-ass Cary Grant moment ever filmed, wrapped up in a much hotter package.
“Iris doesn’t accept your resignation, by the way,” he told me. “She said that anyone who can deliver a client safely, on time, with all of the mishaps we suffered and the, er, difficult nature of said client, is definitely someone she wants on the payroll.”
“Even with the damage to the car?”
He shrugged. “She said to think of it as a prototype. Clearly, a built-in GPS system is the first feature she will be ordering in the next model. She would like you to take a few days off to recover, then return to work on Friday, with a pay raise.”
“A raise?” Mom exclaimed.
“Ophelia found my description of our adventures to be highly entertaining. I think Iris is afraid that Ophelia will try to poach you to be her personal driver. Either way, Iris has another assignment for you.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask,” I said.
“It’s a bit closer to home this time, from the Hollow to New Orleans and back. Jane has a vampire author coming into the shop for a book signing, and she prefers to see a bit of the country when she travels.”
“I don’t know if I can face another motel for a while,” I told him.
“She specifically mentioned the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. Luxurious accommodations and a minibar you can ransack to your heart’s content.”
“Memphis?” I squealed. “I’ve never taken pictures of Mud Island. Oh, I can get kicked out of Graceland!”
Mom sighed. “Oh, Miranda, not again.”
“That security guard had no sense of humor, Mom.”
“Well, you wouldn’t be alone,” Collin said. “I’ve requested that you drive me back to Washington … at some point … which I haven’t determined yet.”
“Let me guess.” I snorted. “Return date wasn’t mentioned in that sixteen-page contract rider.”
“No. I expected to return immediately. But I’ve found that Half-Moon Hollow has certain … attractions I did not anticipate.”
“I thought you were the master of anticipation.”
He slipped his arms around my waist. “Well, some things are even better than anything my paltry gift could conjure up.”
“You are too much,” I told him.
“And by the way, Iris has a new policy. All client-requirement riders are to be a maximum of three pages. Her exact words were, ‘You will never have to put up with anything like that again.’”
“Will wonders never cease?” I said, smirking at him. “So we have a few days before I have to report back to work. We can get into a lot of trouble in a few days. If only we had vampire-safe transportation.”
“And I just happen to have vampire-safe transportation available,” he said, pulling the curtain aside to reveal a dark SUV.
“How did you rent a car without ID?” I asked.
“Did you know that the Council can issue valid vampire identification without a waiting period? And negotiate money transfers with Swiss banks? And replace vampire-safe vehicles destroyed in the course of Council business?”
“I did not know that.”
“And they managed to wrangle a replacement for the credit card that motel clerk cut up.”
