"Well," Helen said, "that's the end of that entry. Jake honey, it's your turn now to read."
"Ok Mom," Jake said accepting the book and turning the page over to read.
"Well," Jesse said when I told him about it later that night. "You know what you have to do, don't you?"
"Do what?" David asked.
"I'm not sure," Jake said he went back to read but his eyes widened and his mouth dropped comically wide open. "Uh-oh."
"What?" Andy demanded.
"Erm...this isn't going to look good for me," Jake said sheepishly before reading.
"Yeah," I said sullenly, my chin on my knees. "I have to tell her about that time I found that nudie magazine under the front seat of the Rambler. That oughtta make her change her mind about him real quick."
"Jacob Ackerman!" Andy shouted. "I thought I taught you to respect women? And how could you leave such material in a place where your younger siblings could find it?"
"Oh c'mon Dad I need something to you know," Jake said turning bright red. "I didn't think Suze would find it!"
"Why can't you just hide it under the bed like any other boy," Andy grumbled.
Cheeks' burning bright red, Jake simply continues to read.
The scarred eyebrow went up. "Susannah," he said. "What are you talking about?"
"Gina," I said, surprised he didn't know. "And Sleepy."
"No," Jesse said. "I meant about the boy, Susannah."
"He's not a boy, he's a creep," Andy muttered, "and I sincerely hope you mean fill in a restraining order Hector Jesse De Silva."
"Or punching him in the nose that would be just as effective," Helen mumbled, proving yet again she was her daughter's mother.
"What boy?" Then I remembered. "Oh. You mean Michael?"
"Yes," Jesse said. "If what you're telling me is true, he is in a lot of danger, Susannah."
"So he should be," Jake scowled.
"I know." I leaned back on my elbows. The two of us were sitting out on the roof of the front porch, which happened to stick out beneath my bedroom windows. It was kind of nice out there, actually, under the stars.
"Oh how romantic!"
The Ackerman boys simply rolled their eyes at that.
We were high enough up so that no one could see us, not that anyone but me and Father Dom could see Jesse, anyway, and it smelled good because of the giant pine tree to one side of the porch. It was the only place, these days, that we could sit and talk without fear of being interrupted by people. Well, just one person, actually: my houseguest, Gina.
"I bet Jesse liked that," David murmured, "He doesn't seem to like to share Suze with Gina does he?"
"Suits me fine," Jake shrugged, "it meant I didn't have to share Gina with Suze."
Andy, Helen, David all looked at him with a raised eyebrow, Brad too had whirled round to look at him with a gobsmacked expression, Jake blushed again and quickly began reading.
"So, what are you going to do about it?" In the moonlight, Jesse's white shirt looked blue. So did the highlights in his black hair.
"I have no idea," I said.
"Don't you?"
Jesse looked at me. I hate it when he does that. It makes me feel ... I don't know. Like he's mentally comparing me with someone else. And the only someone else I could think of was
Maria de Silva, the girl Jesse was on his way to marry when he died. I had seen a portrait of her once. She was one hot babe, for the 1850s. It's no fun; let me tell you, being compared to a chick who died before you were even born.
"No it's never fun being compared to someone else," both Helen and Andy muttered. They exchanged sad looks before embracing tightly. They dearly loved one another but at the same time in the back of their minds there was Cynthia and Peter.
And always had a hoop skirt to hide the size of her butt under.
There were a couple snorts over that lightening up the atmosphere a little.
"You're going to have to find them," Jesse said. "The Angels. Because if I'm right, that boy will not be safe until they are persuaded to move on."
"Good," Jake muttered bitterly. Suze's beaten face flashing in his mind; he was never going to forgive Jesse for persuading her in pursuing this.
I sighed. Jesse was right. Jesse was always right.
"No one is always right," David corrected, "I'm wrong all the time."
"No you're not kid," Jake said ruffling David's hair, "but you are right no one is always right."
It was just that tracking down a bunch of partying ghosts was so not what I wanted to be doing while Gina was in town.
"No I imagine not," Helen said sadly remembering how disappointed both girl were to have their trip ruined.
On the other hand, hanging around with me was not exactly proving to be what Gina wanted to do.
Jake couldn't help but feel guilty at this. He really liked Gina but at the same time he didn't want to upset his little sister either which was his flirtation with Gina was doing at the time.
I stood up and walked carefully across the roof tiles, then stooped to peer through the bay windows into my bedroom. The daybed was empty. I picked my way back down to where Jesse was sitting, and slumped down beside him again.
The guilt grew even more. He should have told Gina an excuse or something so she would spend time with Suze. Maybe it would have prevented Suze from getting close to Michael.
"Jeez," I said. "She's still in there."
Jesse looked down at me, the moonlight playing around the little smile on his face. "You cannot blame her," he said, "for being interested in your brother."
Jake raised an eyebrow. "I sincerely hope that Jesse doesn't have a man crush on me."
Andy and Helen laughed, Brad struggled to not laugh while he was still in the corner, and David was grinning, "Don't be vain Jake," he said, "Jesse was from the nineteenth century, remember? He would find that morally wrong."
"Yeah but that doesn't stop him from crushing on me," Jake said, "not that I can blame him," he added jokingly.
"Stepbrother," I reminded him. "And yes, I can. He's vermin. And he's got her in his lair."
The humour faded from Jake completely at that. At this point it had felt to him that Suze had always been his annoying little sister that needed protected and yet she only thought of him as a stepbrother, a vermin stepbrother, a vermin stepbrother trying to get in her best friend's pants.
That hurt quite a bit really.
David patted his shoulder comfortingly. "She's just jealous Jake, her best friend's attention isn't on her and that upsets her, any other time she would defend you."
"Yeah," Jake smiled weakly.
Jesse's smile grew broader. Even his teeth, in the moonlight, looked blue. "They are only playing computer games, Susannah."
"How did he know?"
"How do you know?" Then I remembered. He was a ghost. He could go anywhere. "Well, sure. The last time you looked, maybe. Who knows what they're doing now?"
Jake was horrified at the idea of Jesse being able to go into his room anytime he wanted. What if he walked in on Jake when he was doing something private? Urgh...
Jesse sighed. "Do you want me to look again?"
"NO!"
"No." I was horrified. "I don't care what she does. If she wants to hang around with a big loser like Sleepy, I can't stop her."
"Oh thanks," Jake muttered sarcastically.
"Brad was there, too," Jesse pointed out. "Last time I looked."
"Oh, great. So she's hanging out with two losers."
David couldn't help but snicker at that. He stopped immediately when his parents and older brother glared at him though.
"I don't understand why you are so unhappy about it," Jesse said. He had stretched out across the tiles, contented as I'd ever seen him. "I like it much better this way."
"Oh?"
"What way?" I groused. I couldn't get quite as comfortable. I kept finding prickly pine needles beneath my butt.
The males snickered at that.
"Just the two of us," he said with a shrug. "Like it's always been."
Helen squealed causing Andy to wince and Jake, Brad, and David to shudder. "Oh that's so sweet!"
Before I had a chance to reply to what, to me, anyway, seemed an extraordinarily heartfelt and perhaps even romantic admission, headlights flashed in the driveway, and Jesse looked past me.
Helen instantly looked put out. "Why is it that every romantic moment gets ruined?" she asked.
"Think of it this way, Mom," David said cheerfully, "Not every romantic moment gets ruined any more now they're dating."
Helen was instantly cheered up at that thought.
"Who's that?"
I didn't look. I didn't care. I said, "One of Sleepy's friends, I'm sure. What was that you were saying? About how you like it being just the two of us?"
"Subtle," Andy sniggered.
But Jesse was squinting through the darkness. "This is not a friend of Jake's," he said. "Not bringing with him so much ... fear. Could this be the boy, Michael, perhaps?"
Everyone glared at the book. "I forgot he had come over to our house," Andy said furiously.
"What?"
I swung around and, clinging to the edge of the roof, watched as a minivan pulled up the driveway and parked behind my mother's car.
A second later, Michael Meducci got out from behind the wheel, and with a nervous glance at my front door, began heading toward it, his expression determined.
"I wish the nerves got the better of him," Andy muttered darkly. Inwardly cursing himself for being such an idiot.
"Oh, my God," I cried, reeling back from the roof's edge. "You're right! It's him! What do I do?"
Jesse only shook his head at me. "What do you mean, what do you do? You know what to do. You've done this hundreds of times before." When I only continued to stare at him, he leaned forward, until his face was just a couple of inches from mine.
But instead of kissing me like I'd hoped, for one wild heart-pounding moment, he would, he said, enunciating distinctly, "You're a mediator, Susannah. Go mediate."
Helen who looked briefly gleeful slumped in disappointment.
I opened my mouth to inform him that I highly doubted Michael was at my house because he wanted help with his poltergeist problem, considering he couldn't know I was in the ghost busting business. It was much more likely that he was here to ask me out. On a date. Something that I was sure had never occurred to Jesse, since they probably didn't have dates back when he'd been alive, but which happened to girls in the twenty-first century with alarming regularity. Well, not to me, necessarily, but to most girls, anyway.
"Something tells me if there wasn't a ghost problem and Jesse knew what Michael's intentions were he would have acted a hell lot more jealous than he is now," Jake pointed out as he remembered Jesse's reactions to the Tad/Suze kiss.
Helen was once again cheered up at that thought.
I was about to point out that this was going to ruin our wonderful opportunity to be alone together when the doorbell rang, and deep inside the house, I heard Doc yell, "I'll get it!"
"I wish I didn't," David mumbled.
"Oh, God," I said, and dropped my head down into my hands.
"Susannah," Jesse said. There was concern in his voice. "Are you all right?"
I shook myself. What was I thinking? Michael Meducci was not at my house to ask me out. If he'd wanted to ask me out, he would have called like a normal person. No, he was here for some other reason. I had nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.
"I'm fine," I said, and got slowly to my feet.
"You don't sound fine," Jesse said.
"I'm fine," I said. I started crawling back into my room, through the open window Spike used.
I had wiggled most of the way in when the inevitable thump on my door occurred. "Enter," I said from where I lay, collapsed against the window seat, and Doc opened the door and stuck his head into my room.
"Hey, Suze," he whispered. "There's a guy here to see you. I think it's that guy you all were talking about at dinner. You know, the guy from the mall."
"I know," I said to the ceiling.
"I did wonder how she knew," David said with a small wry grin.
"Well," Doc said, fidgeting a little. "What should I do? I mean, your mom sent me up here to tell you. Should I say you're in the shower, or something?" Doc's voice became a little dry. "That's what girls always have their brothers say when my friends and I try calling them."
David now fidgeted on the spot feeling very guilty and ashamed of himself. He had known Michael enough to like him and feel kinship with him due to their high intelligence; he had secretly hoped Suze would date him because it meant there was hope for him finding a girlfriend. He purposely guilted Suze into going down and greeting Michael and she had ended up in hospital because of it.
Jake squeezed his shoulder, "hey," he said softly, "it's not your fault, kid, got that?"
"Still..." David mumbled helplessly.
I turned my head and looked at Doc. If I'd had to choose one Ackerman brother to be stuck with on a desert island, Doc would definitely have been my pick. Red haired and freckle faced, he hadn't quite grown into his enormous ears yet, but at only twelve he was by far the smartest of my stepbrothers.
A small shy grin unwilling grew on David's face at that. If he had to pick a sibling to be stuck on a desert island with it would be Suze is as well.
The thought of any girl making up an excuse to avoid talking to him made my blood boil.
The grin grew larger as did the smiles on Helen's, Andy's, and Jake's face. It always made them happy to know Suze loved them, even if it was just David.
His statement tweaked my conscience. Of course I wasn't going to make up an excuse. Michael Meducci may be a geek. And he may not have acted with any real class earlier that day at the mall. But he was still a human being. I guess.
"Barely," David muttered, his grin fading away as the guilt came back.
I said, "Tell him I'll be right down."
Doc look visibly relieved. He grinned, revealing a mouthful of sparkling braces. "Okay," he said, and disappeared.
The guilt had now come back in full force as David clutched a cushion to his stomach to try and soothe the sick feeling to it.
I climbed slowly to my feet, and sauntered over to the mirror above my dressing table.
California had greatly improved both my complexion and my hair. My skin, only slightly tanned thanks to SPF 15 sun block, looked fine without any makeup, and I'd given up trying to straighten my long brown hair, and simply let it curl. A single hit of lip gloss, and I was on my way. I didn't bother changing out of my cargo pants and T-shirt. I didn't want to overwhelm the guy, after all.
"You better never make yourself look gorgeous for any guys especially that creep," Jake muttered over protectively. He should put Suze in a nunnery; Father D would protect her honour and virtue.
Michael was waiting for me in the living room, his hands shoved in his pants pockets, looking at the many school portraits of me and my stepbrothers that hung upon the wall. My stepfather was sitting in a chair he never sat in, talking to Michael. When I walked in he dried up, then climbed to his feet.
"Well," Andy said after a few seconds of silence. "I'll just leave the two of you alone, then." Then he left the room, even though I could tell he didn't want to. Which was kind of strange, since Andy usually takes only the most perfunctory interest in my affairs, except when they happen to involve the police.
"I never had a boy ask me to date my child before," Andy said with a weak smile, "I was curious and also a little reluctant to let Suze out of the house. What if there were more guys out there vying for her attention that I didn't know about?"
"Oh sweetie," Helen smiled, "You're a wonderful father but something tells me locking Suze in the house while Jesse was still haunting it would have been counter-productive."
Andy laughed at that feeling a little better with himself. He hated that he left Suze in the same room as that boy.
"Suze," Michael said when Andy was gone. I smiled at him encouragingly since he looked like he was about to expire from nervousness.
"Hey, Mike," I said easily. "You okay? No permanent injury?"
"I wish," several voices muttered darkly.
He said with a smile that I suppose he meant to match mine, but which was actually pretty wan, "No permanent injury. Except to my pride."
In an effort to diffuse some of the nervous energy in the room, I flopped down onto one of my mom's armchairs, the one with the Pottery Barn slipcover she was always yelling at the dog for sleeping on, and said, "Hey, it wasn't your fault the mall authority did a shoddy job of hanging up their mardi gras decorations."
I watched him carefully to see how he replied. Did he know? I wondered.
Michael sank into the armchair across from mine. "That's not what I meant," he said. "I meant that I'm ashamed of the way I acted today. Instead of thanking you, I, well, I behaved ungraciously, and I just came by to apologize. I hope you'll forgive me."
Helen pressed her lips together tightly. Any other time she would be squealing at the romantic prospects of this bit of dialogue but she couldn't, not with knowing what this boy had done and will do soon.
He didn't know. He didn't know why that puppet had come down on him, or he was the best damned actor I'd ever seen.
"Definitely a good actor," Andy growled.
"Um," I said. "Sure. I forgive you. No problem."
Oh, but it was a problem. To Michael, it was apparently a great big problem.
"It's just that- " Michael got up out of the chair and started pacing around the living room. Our house is the oldest one in the neighbourhood, there's even a bullet hole in one of the walls, left over from when Jesse had been alive, when our house was a haven for gamblers and gold rushers and fiancés on their way to meet their brides. Andy had rebuilt it almost from scratch, except for the bullet hole, which he'd framed, but the floorboards still creaked a little under Michael's feet as he paced.
"It's just that something happened to me this weekend," Michael said to the fireplace, "and ever since then ... well, strange things have been happening."
"Good."
So he did know. He knew something , anyway. This was a relief. It meant I didn't have to tell him.
"Things like that puppet falling down on you?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
"Yeah," Michael said. "And other things, too." He shook his head. "But I don't want to burden you with my problems. I feel badly enough about what happened."
"Doesn't stop you later, does it?" Jake growled.
"Hey," I said with a shrug. "You were shaken up. It's understandable. No hard feelings. Listen, about what happened to you this weekend, do you want to - ?"
"No." Michael, usually the quietest of people, spoke with a forcefulness I'd never heard him use before. "It's not understandable," he said vehemently. "It's not understandable, and it's not excusable, either. Suze, you already, I mean, that thing with Brad earlier today-"
Andy shot a glare at his son but he didn't say anything, Brad lowered his head with shame, and that was enough for him to know that his son was learning his lesson.
I stared at him blankly. I had no idea what he was getting at. Although, looking back on it, I should have. I really should have.
"And then when you saved my life at the mall...It's just that I was trying so hard, you know, to show you that that's not who I am, the kind of guy who needs a girl to fight his battles for him. And then you did it again ..."
"Men," Helen muttered rolling her eyes.
My mouth dropped open. This was not going at all the way it was supposed to go.
"Michael," I began, but he held up a hand.
"No," he said. "Let me finish. It's not that I'm not grateful, Suze. It's not that I don't appreciate what you're trying to do for me. It's just that...I really like you, and if you would agree to go out with me this Friday night, I'll show you that I am not the snivelling coward I've acted like so far in our relationship."
"What relationship?" Jake snapped.
I stared at him. It was as if the gears in my mind had slowed suddenly to a halt. I couldn't think. I couldn't think what to do. All I could think was ,Relationship ? What relationship?
"Exactly!"
"I've already asked your father," Michael said from where he stood in the centre of our living room. "And he said it was all right as long as you were home by eleven."
"I should have just said no," Andy mumbled.
My father? He'd asked my father ? I had a sudden picture of Michael talking to my dad, who'd died over a decade earlier, but who frequently shows up in ghost form to torture me about my bad driving skills, and other things like that. He'd have gotten an enormous kick, I knew, out of Michael, one I'd never likely hear the end of.
Some grins broke out of the image of Peter Simon in his sweats talking to Michael. Andy's grin was a little sadder since he had hoped by now Suze felt some sort of daughterly feeling to him.
"Your stepfather, I mean," Michael corrected himself, as if he'd read my thoughts.
"If he could read your thoughts he'd know to leave you alone," David pointed out.
"The question is would he?" Jake muttered.
But how could he have read my thoughts when they were in such confusion? Because this was wrong. It was all wrong. It wasn't supposed to go like this. Michael was supposed to tell me about the car accident, and then I would say, in a kind voice, that I already knew. Then I'd warn him about the ghosts, and he either wouldn't believe me, or he'd be eternally grateful, and that would be the end of it, except, of course, I'd still have to find the RLS Angels and quell their murderous wrath before they managed to get their mitts on him again.
That's how it was supposed to go. He wasn't supposed to ask me out . Asking me out was not part of the program. At least, it had never gone like that before.
I opened my mouth, not in astonishment this time, but to say, Gee, no, Michael, I'm sorry, but I'm busy this Friday ... and every Friday for the rest of my life, incidentally, when a familiar voice beside me said, quickly, "Think before you say no, Susannah."
"He didn't!" Helen exclaimed. "Jesse did not just encourage my daughter to go on a date with a murderer!"
"In all fairness, Mom," David said gently, "I don't think Jesse knew at this point of time that Michael was a murderer."
I turned my head, and saw Jesse sitting in the armchair Michael had vacated.
"He needs your help, Susannah," Jesse went on, swiftly, in his deep, low voice. "He is in very grave danger from the spirits of those he killed, however accidentally. And you are not going to be able to protect him from a distance. If you alienate him now, he'll never let you close enough to help him later when he's really going to need you."
"I suppose he's right," Helen grumbled, "but I don't have to like it."
I narrowed my eyes at Jesse. I couldn't say anything to him, of course, because Michael would hear me and think I was talking to myself, or worse. But what I really wanted to say was, look, this is taking everything a little too far, don't you think?
But I couldn't say that. Because, I realized, Jesse was right. The only way I was going to be able to keep an eye on the Angels was by keeping an eye on Michael.
I heaved a sigh, and said, "Yeah, okay. Friday's fine."
The whole family glared and growled at this. Suze shouldn't have to feel she needed to date a boy because of her duty to protect the living from the dead.
I won't describe what Michael said after that. The whole thing was just too excruciatingly embarrassing for words. I tried to remind myself that this was probably what Bill Gates was like in high school, and look at him now. I bet all the girls who knew him back then are really kicking themselves now for having turned down his invitations to prom, or whatever.
But to tell you the truth, it didn't do much good. Even if he had a trillion dollars like Bill Gates, I still wouldn't let Michael Meducci put his tongue in my mouth.
Michael left eventually, and I made my way grumpily back up the stairs, well, after enduring an interrogation from my mother, who came out as soon as she heard the front door close and demanded to know who Michael's parents were, where he lived, where we'd be going on our date, and why wasn't I more excited? A boy had asked me out!
Returning at last to my room, I noticed that Gina was back. She was lying on the daybed, pretending to read a magazine, and acting like she had no idea where I'd been. I walked over, snatched it away from her, and hit her over the head with it a few times.
Jake couldn't help but grin at that.
"Okay, okay," she said, throwing her arms up over her head and giggling. "So I know already. Did you say yes?"
"Unfortunately."
"What was I supposed to say?" I demanded, flopping down onto my own bed. "He was practically crying."
Jake snorted at that.
Even as I said it, I felt disloyal. Michael's eyes, behind the lenses of his glasses, had been very bright, it was true. But he had not actually been crying. I was pretty sure.
"Oh, my God," Gina said to the ceiling. "I can't believe you're going out with a geek."
"Neither can I," Jake muttered.
"Yeah," I said, "well, you haven't exactly been exercising much discrimination lately yourself, G."
"Hey!"
Gina rolled over onto her stomach and looked at me seriously. "Jake's not as bad as you think, Suze," she said. "He's actually very sweet."
Jake flushed a bright pink as his stepmother beamed at him, his father was trying not to laugh and David buried his face in a cushion to cover his giggles.
I summed up the situation in one word: "Ew."
David was now shaking with laughter at this.
Gina, with a laugh, rolled onto her back again. "Well, so what?" she asked. "I'm on vacation. It's not like it could possibly go anywhere anyway."
Jake sighed wistfully; it would have been wonderful if they could have given it a proper try.
"Just promise me," I said, "that you aren't going to ... I don't know. Get full frontal with one of them, or anything."
"Thanks for cock-blocking me Suze," Jake hissed at the book.
Gina just grinned some more. "What about you and the geek? You two going to be doing any lip-locking?"
"NO!" everyone shouted.
I picked up one of the pillows from my bed and threw it at her. She sat up and caught it with a laugh. "What's the matter?" she wanted to know. "Isn't he The One?"
"Urgh," Jake groaned. Why did girls have to talk about guys as if there was only one Mr Perfect for them?
I leaned back against the rest of my pillows. Outside, I heard the familiar thump of Spike's four paws hitting the porch roof. "What one?" I asked.
"You know," Gina said. "The One. The one the psychic talked about."
"Huh?"
Everyone exchanged confused but slightly worried looks. Did Madame Zara say something else other than about Suze's own gift?
I blinked at her. "What psychic? What are you talking about?"
Gina said, "Oh, come on. Madame Zara. Remember? We went to her at that school fair in like the sixth grade. And she told you about being a mediator."
"Oh." I lay perfectly still. I was worried if I moved or said anything much, I would reveal more than I wanted to. Gina knew ... but only a little. Not enough to really understand.
At least, that's what I thought then.
"You don't remember what else she said?" Gina demanded. "About you, I mean? About how you were only going to have one love in your life, but that it was going to last until the end of time?"
"Oh!" Helen's eyes were suddenly bright with wonder and happiness. "Oh that's wonderful. It might be Jesse. She must be talking about Jesse!"
"I hope so," Andy said pleased to see his wife truly happy right now, "I can't think of a better guy for her."
"Suze could do worse," Jake grudgingly admitted.
I stared at the lace trim of the canopy that hung over my bed. I said, my throat gone mysteriously dry,
"Oh she must be terrified," Helen said softly. It must be terrifying for a sixteen year old to find out there was only one person in the world she can be in love with. It would put a lot of pressure on her dating life.
"I don't remember that."
"Well, I don't think you heard much of what she said after that bit about you being a mediator. You were in shock. Oh, look. Here comes that ... cat."
Gina avoided, I noticed, supplying any descriptive for Spike, who climbed in through the open window, then stalked over to his food bowl and cried to be fed. Apparently, the memory of what had happened the last time she'd called the cat a name, the thing with the fingernail polish, was still fresh in Gina's mind.
The men in the room couldn't help but chuckle at that. Helen was too busy dreaming about having Jesse has her son in law to notice.
As fresh, apparently, as what that psychic had said all those years ago.
One love that would last until the end of time.
I realized, as I picked up Spike's bag of food, that my palms had broken out into a cold sweat.
"Oh Susie," Helen murmured softly wishing she could give her baby a comforting hug.
"Wouldn't you die," Gina asked, "if it turned out your one true love was Michael Meducci?"
"She almost did," Jake growled.
"Totally," I replied, automatically.
But it wasn't. If it was true, and I had no reason to doubt it, since Madame Zara had been right about the mediator thing, the only person in the world, with the exception of Father Dominic, who had ever guessed, then I knew perfectly well who it was.
"Oh...oh Suze..."
And it wasn't Michael Meducci.
"Thank God," Jake muttered, "She shouldn't have to settle for a stalker." He held the book at Brad's back. "You can come out of the corner now, that was the end of the entry; it's your turn now."