For some reason what I said made Lee burst out laughing. It made Indy do the same.

They laughed right in the face of the Ice Princess!

How bizarre was that?

Lee moved in (shattering my Ice Fortress, by the way), threw his arm around my shoulders and walked me into the living room, Indy following.

“I’ll see it doesn’t happen again,” he said, still sounding like he was teasing. Then he said, “I promise.”

Startled at the change in tone, I looked up at him. He was no longer teasing, he was very serious.

Before I could react, he deposited me at Hector’s side. Hector lifted his brows at me.

I pulled my lips between my teeth. Hector saw I wasn’t going to share and he sighed.

Thirty minutes later, we left.

It was finally over.

And I survived.

Thank goodness.

Chapter Seven

Okay

Sadie

After Blanca’s dinner, when Hector and I arrived back at the brownstone, my mind was on other things, loads of other things.

Therefore, I didn’t protest when he walked me up to the door, took the keys from my hands, unlocked and opened the door for me and, with his hand on the small of my back again, guided me inside.

Automatically, I turned to the alarm panel and hit the code, flipped the hall light switch then turned back to Hector.

For some bizarre reason, he was looking up the stairs.

Then he looked at me. “Stay here, by the door, until I come back.”

I only had time to blink at him before he was gone, taking the stairs two at a time.

What on earth was he doing?

I did what I was told, standing by the door, feeling like an idiot and he came back.

I opened my mouth to speak but before I uttered a noise, he walked right by me, through the hall, his hand raised, index finger pointed skyward and muttered, “One more minute.”

I stared at his departing back then heard as he walked around downstairs. A light came on in the living room and Hector reappeared. He walked to the end of the hall, opened the door to the powder room, I saw the light go on then off then he came out, closed the door and came back to me.

“Okay,” he said, reached around me, locked the front door then grabbed my hand and pulled me in the living room.

“What was that?” I asked his back.

He stopped and turned to me. Shrugging off his jacket, he threw it on an armchair. “Walkthrough. Making sure no one was here.”

My head did a surprised little shake as I threw my bag on the chair, took off my trench and tossed it on the chair with my bag.

“But,” I reminded him, “the alarm was on.”

He got in close, lifted a hand and while he shifted my hair off my shoulder, he explained, “Can’t be too careful.”

“Oh,” I said because there was nothing else to say and anyway I was recovering from the shifting-the-hair-off-my-shoulder move.

Hector kept looking at me.

What now? What did nice girls do after dinner with their date’s mother and select close friends?

I wracked my brain. Finally, ever the good hostess, it came to me.

“Do you want a drink?” I offered.

“How much time do we have before your friends get back?” he asked in return.

I, personally, thought this was a weird question but I didn’t tell Hector that.

Instead I shrugged. “I don’t know, since I moved here, they’ve never gone out without me.”

Then I realized Ralphie and Buddy never had gone out and left me home alone. Not for over a month. I was probably putting a major crimp in their social life.

And I didn’t even notice.

Now what kind of genuine friend wouldn’t even notice she was putting a crimp in her friends’ social life?

Oh my, it was high time to call the real estate agent lady and get out of their hair. If I didn’t, they might not like me anymore. And I couldn’t lose them this soon.

Hector broke into my thoughts about real estate and Buddy and Ralphie’s social life and said, “Then, no, I don’t want a drink.”

His answer confused me. I didn’t understand why the timing of Ralphie and Buddy’s return had anything to do with anything but I didn’t have a chance to ask.

Hector’s hands came to my h*ps and slowly he pulled me close. His arms slid around me loosely and his chin tipped down so he could look at me.

“We have to talk.”

Oh my.

With all that happened, I forgot about our talk.

All right, that was okay. I could do this. I could do anything. I survived dinner at his mother’s house, didn’t I?

“Okay,” I said, mentally girding for our talk.

He didn’t speak, instead his head bent and he touched my lips with his. My heart stuttered and I instantly ungirded.

All right, maybe I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t even stay mentally girded for a whole second!

“You just kissed me,” I accused him.

His mouth moved like he was fighting a grin (again).

“Yeah,” he answered.

“Kissing isn’t talking,” I informed him helpfully, like he didn’t already know this fact.

More fighting the grin. “No,” he agreed.

He pulled me closer so my body was lightly pressed to his.

“Well, are we going to talk?” I asked.

He was watching me closely and for some reason there was no grin fighting anymore.

Then he answered, “Yeah.”

I waited.

He pulled me closer so my body was not so lightly pressed to his. In fact, I was so close I had to lift my hands and put them on his chest, right below his shoulders.

“Do you want me to start?” I asked, again trying to be helpful as I thought nice people would want to be.

“You have something to say?” he asked.

I thought about it.

I suppose I had a million things to say. I hadn’t practiced any of them yet because I was too busy practicing what I was going to say to Lee. Talking to Lee took precedence but I sure as certain wished I’d practiced something to say to Hector.

“Give a f**kin’ mint to know what’s goin’ on in that head of yours,” Hector muttered, breaking into my thoughts.

I ignored him and said, “Right now, I don’t have anything to say. I reserve the right to say something later though.”

At this, Hector started laughing. It was silent but I could feel his body moving with it. This confused me even more.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

“You,” he answered.

Me? I was funny? I’d never been funny.

Ever.

I tried to think of the last time I was funny.