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“Okay, I made you laugh now tell me what’s happening.”

She already knew that James was a vampire—that should have been the hard part. But as the “soulmate” conversation flashed through my mind, I somehow found that even more difficult to tell her. I opened my mouth to start, but, “You want a drink?” came out instead, and I shot to my feet.

“I can make my own coffee.”

I thought she’d continue to demand answers, but she merely headed into the kitchen. Taking a bottle of water for myself, I returned to the couch and waited for her to finish. I wanted something stronger. But it was barely eight in the morning, and I wasn’t going to let myself fall down that rabbit hole again.

The couch sank when Hannah settled into the seat next to me.

“This seems serious.” Her eyes widened. “Did you and James break up?”

“No,” I assured her, “we didn’t break up.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“Of course not.” But I thought about my answer.Hadhe hurt me? No, no he hadn’t.I’dbeen the asshole in every argument we’d had.

“Then what’s the problem?” After a pause, “Is this vampire-related?”

I resisted letting out a sigh of relief. Maybe there was something in letting those close to me in on the secret. “There’s… a thing with vampires. Long story short, it’s getting serious.”

“And you’re scared shitless.”

“Watch your mouth!”

“My language isn’t the problem here.”

I laughed. “Are you sure you need a Harvard education? You’re already too smart.”

“Does he know?” Hannah asked, ignoring my attempt to redirect the conversation.

“Know what?”

“How you feel about getting serious.”

“Don’t you have something to be studying for?”

“I turned in my assignments yesterday. I’m not missing anything important, and you’re not getting out of this conversation.”

I tried to muster my own scowl, but she outglared me. “Fine,” I relented. “Yes, he knows. But it’s still hard.”

“You mean new and scary.”

“Hannah!” I laughed. The kid was calling me out like no one had—even Raleigh hadn’t beenthispersistent.

“You’re only annoyed because you know I’m right.”

I sighed. “I’m not about to admit to that, but things have been weird lately. It’s like I can’t even focus on things happening with James because the universe has it out for me.”

“When was the last time you got away from work for a while?”

“James makes me take days off,” I said evasively.

“Not a day off. A vacation.”

“I can’t take a vacation right now.”

“Why not? I can stay here and take care of Carlos.”