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I found Tessa in the backyard, lying down on a towel spread on the grass and her, in jean shorts and tank top and barefoot. Her hair was fanned out around her, and her eyes were closed as she enjoyed the summer afternoon.

I halted beside the towel. “What are you doing?”

She put a hand over her eyes and peeked at me. “Sunbathing. It’s a shame I don’t have any swimsuits here. If I did, I would be at the beach, enjoying the rest of my afternoon.”

Shit, if she had had any swimsuit here … I couldn’t even think about it.

“How can you—?” I shut my mouth.

She sat up, still looking at me. “How can I what?”

I didn’t know what to say. I mean, I knew, but I wasn’t sure I should. In the end, her intense blue eyes won and I spoke. “How can you pretend everything is okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your father was killed. We’re after the demon. We battled the demon two days ago and lost. And … everything else. We hunt every day. We see dead people, ghosts, and things from horror stories every day. How can you still lie under the sun and pretend everything is all right?”

Slowly, she stood and faced me as if she were as tall as I was. I admired her confidence. “Everything isn’t all right and never will be. Life isn’t perfect. This is what we talked about the other day. Are you living your life, or just going through the motions and killing demons? Soon, I’ll be back to my usual life, but in the meantime, I won’t pretend to be anything else but me. I like summer and sun and sunbathing and swimming and shorts and flip-flops. I like drinking wine and dancing and singing, even though my voice is terrible. I like going to college and having a normal routine.”

I gulped. This girl was something else. She knew exactly what buttons to push, what spots were soft and hurt the most. She made me wish for more in life.

I cleared my throat. “Hm, I was thinking we could order something from the Dark Horse Diner tonight. For dinner.”

A knot appeared between her brows. “This morning, I saw several hunters around the manor before they all vanished. And when we arrived from the library, I saw a few more around.”

“Yes. And?”

She turned and started marching toward the mansion. “Call or text them all. Tell them to be here at six thirty,” she said over her shoulder, a smile on her lips.

“Why? What are you doing?”

“Just do it.” Then she disappeared up the steps leading to the manor.

What the hell was she up to?

It took me almost thirty minutes to follow up with her request and text all the other manor’s residents and tell them to be here at six thirty in the evening. Aidan, Nathan, Cole, Douglas, and a few others called me after, asking what the problem was. I almost laughed, since I had no information to give to them.

At five, I had showered and was anxiously waiting for Tessa in Isaac’s office. I tried to focus on research, but my mind was elsewhere. At five thirty, I surrendered and called her.

“Hi,” she answered.

“Where are you?”

“In the kitchen.”

“You mean here?”

She chuckled. “Yes.”

I turned off the call and raced from the office to the kitchen on the other side of the house.

Amber and Sophia unpacked the many grocery bags on the kitchen island, while Tessa opened and closed the cabinets, looking for something.

“What the hell?”

“Hey,” Tessa said, without stopping her search. She turned to the girls. “Hm, where are the pots and pans?”

Sophia pointed to the cabinets between the fridge and the oven. “There.”

“Of course,” Tessa said, opening them.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“What does it look like?” She got a big pot from under the cabinet. “Dinner.” She grabbed two other pans and placed them all on the cook top.

I watched, stunned, as Tessa told Amber and Sophia what to do—chop this, cut that. Simmer this, mix that. The other girls obliged, seemingly happy to help.

“What’s going on?” Aidan asked, entering the kitchen. I gestured to the show in front of me. He stepped up to Tessa and put a hand on her shoulder. “This smells good. How can I help?”

“How about setting the table in the dining room? Landon probably knows how many of you answered his text.” She waved her spoon to me once, and then went back to mixing whatever was on that pot.

“Sure,” Aidan said. He opened another cabinet and grabbed up a high pile of plates. “How many?” I stared. “Landon, how many plates should I get?”

“Hm …” I counted in my head. Douglas, Aidan and Amber, Nathan and Ash, Sophia, Cole, Caleb, Luke, Owen, Tessa, and me. “Twelve.”

“Here.” He passed me the plates. “I’ll take the rest.”

Still a little stunned, I took the plates to the dining room. Aidan brought the cutlery.

“This is nice,” he said, spreading the forks and knives around in front of each chair. “I don’t think we have had a meal with everyone in forever.”

I frowned. What was this girl up to?

Next, we picked up serving spoons and glasses and napkins and drinks.

The other hunters started arriving. Douglas, Cole, Nathan, Ash, Caleb … They were all pleasantly surprised about the dinner. Nathan and Aidan flocked around the kitchen with Tessa, Amber, and Sophia, while the rest took their places at the long dining table. The first two minutes was awkward, with everyone fumbling for something to talk about. But then Douglas asked Ash about the case he was working on and the conversation seemed to flow easily.

I glanced to the head of the table, where Isaac usually sat. The seat was empty now, but there was a set of plate and utensils in front of it.

Frowning, I marched to the kitchen. Tessa was alone, manning the oven and the cooktop all by herself.

I halted beside the island and crossed my arms. “What are you doing?”

She glanced at me over her shoulder with a little frown. “I thought I already told you. Dinner.”

“I know you’re cooking dinner. But I wanna know what you are doing?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea what you mean.”

I walked up to her. “Why are you cooking dinner for us?”

“Because I’m tired of eating fast food. I wanted a nice, homemade meal,” she said, her tone flat. She was lying.

“Tessa—” I started.

“Done!” She turned off the cook top burners. “We can take these pots to the dining room. Just be careful, they’re hot.”

I sighed. “And this one?” I pointed to the oven.

“That’s done too. I left it in there to keep it warm.” She handed me a pair of oven mittens. “You can take it.”

I opened the oven and besides the heat, the smell of warm, buttery steak hit my nose. I inhaled deeply. Aidan was right. This really smelled good.

We set it all up in the center of the table while everyone tried to take a peek at the food and uttered how nice it all smelled.

“All right,” Tessa said, taking the cover of a pot. “We have two types of steak. One wrapped in bacon, the other with a spicy parmesan crust. Then we have white rice with my secret seasoning. Here—” She pointed a spoon toward a big glass pan. “—is a sweet potato casserole, minus the pecans and marshmallow, sorry.” She smiled at some disappointed faces. Then, she pointed to the other big glass baking pan. “And this is a creamy mashed potato. I hope you guys like it.”

Plates were passed around as people helped each other serve a little of each dish. As the hunters started eating, the moaning and the compliments started.

“This is amazing.”

“Oh my God, this is so good.”

“Are you sure you did all of this? By yourself? I’m impressed.”

I finally sat down with my plate in front of me. I stared at the food, as if it would bite me back.

Tessa took Isaac’s chair. “You don’t like steak and potatoes?”

I looked up at her. “I do. Why?”

“Because you’re just looking at your food while everyone else is almost done.”

Skeptical, I cut a piece of steak and ate it. I had a little bit of the sweet potato and the mashed potato. And rice. Damn. Even her white rice was good.

I looked at her again. “It’s really good.”

The proud smile that landed on her lips made my heart clench.

“I have an idea,” Cole said. “Tessa, can we hire you to come cook us dinner at least once a week?”

Amber raised her hand. “I second that.”

“Third,” Sophia said before shoving a big forkful inside her mouth and moaning.

Tessa chuckled. “Wait until I serve dessert.”

Nathan’s eyes bulged. “There’s dessert?”

“Of course,” she said. “I don’t do things halfway.”

“I think I’m in love,” Ash said.

“I’m straight, and I’m in love too,” Amber said, batting her lashes at Tessa.

Everyone chuckled.

After another moment, she pushed out her chair and stood. “Well, excuse me. I have to check on the dessert.”

I watched as she walked out of the dining room and crossed the hallway to the kitchen. I glanced around the table. Everyone looked so satisfied. So light. So happy. Cole and Ash told Luke and Caleb and Owen about a funny thing that happened this afternoon. Amber and Sophia talked about Sophia’s senior year in high school, which was coming up soon. Douglas, Nathan, and Aidan talked about cars. No one mentioned hunting, demons, or death. It was as if I was observing us in a different dimension, where we could laugh and be carefree and have a real life.

But it wasn’t an alternate dimension. It was right here, right now. And Tessa had done that by asking everyone to meet here and cooking a nice—okay, a very nice—meal.

Nathan clasped my shoulder tight. “Man, I have to say, I don’t think we have ever experienced such a good night in this house.”

Aidan nodded. “True.”

The only one serious in this room besides me was Douglas. He looked at me and said, “She’s a keeper.”

---

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I had scurried out of the dining room not only to check on the dessert—though I was glad I did otherwise the brownies would have been in the oven for too long—but also because it was so great to see them all having a good time, it hurt.

It hurt because my father wasn’t here to see this. To experience it. Instead of having this, of wanting this, he pushed my mother and me away. And, from what I had gathered, none of the other hunters had had nice family dinners before, not even the father and sons in the business. Why? Was it so hard to take a break from hunting and enjoy life? I mean, there were demons and rogue vampires and shifters all around. The world wouldn’t end if they took one night off, would it?

However, what had hurt the most was the hard look on Landon’s face from the moment he came into the kitchen and discovered what I was doing. Why? Why did it bother him so much that I wanted to cook a good meal and do something nice for them? I had been in their house for a few days now, eating their food and using one of their guest bedrooms. I had wanted to express my thanks. For letting me stay here and for letting me help avenge my father’s death.

With a spoon, I carefully picked up one of the brownies from the mini muffin pan and put it in a bowl. Next, I added a scoop of ice cream and a lot of my hot fudge sauce.

“Need any help?” Douglas asked as he entered the kitchen.

I smiled at him. “Well, you can help me by scooping the ice cream while I pick up the brownies. This way, it’ll be faster and the ice cream won’t melt before I can take these—” I gestured to the twelve bowls spread over the kitchen island. “—to the dining room.”

Douglas took the ice cream scoop from me. “You could have asked for help.”

I shrugged. “It’s okay. You all looked like you were having a good time. I didn’t want to interrupt it.”

Douglas scooped some vanilla ice cream and dropped it on a brownie, and then he looked at me. “We are having a good time.” He placed a hand on my arm. “To be honest, I don’t remember ever having a nice dinner like this before. With my family. Thank you for showing us we can take the time to breathe and enjoy each other.” He squeezed my arm once, then let go.

My throat burned. I might not have had the perfect family. God knew how much I felt like an outsider with my mother, Paul, and my sisters, but never having shared at least a couple of nice moments with the rest of your family? I couldn’t imagine that.

“You’re welcome,” I whispered.

Douglas grinned at me. “You know, I like Cole’s idea. If you don’t stick around, we might hire you to come cook for us once a week.”

If you don’t stick around …

I pushed that comment out of my mind and smiled at him. “No need to hire me. Just call me. If I can, I’ll come.”

We were finishing setting up the dessert and putting all the bowls on three big trays when Amber barged in the kitchen. “Need any help here?”

“Great timing.” I pointed to the trays on the island. “You can help by taking one of these.”

“Sure.” She picked up the tray, and in a line, we went to the dining room.

I almost dropped my tray when I saw Landon, always-so-serious Landon, smiling and actually laughing—laughing. To be fair, everyone was laughing as Caleb acted out another funny story from Cole and his crazy police cases.

“Then the woman said, ‘O.M.G. I think it’s fish.’” The laughter in the room rang loud. “I’m serious!” he said, laughing.

“That’s bullshit,” Nathan called out, trying to catch his breath.

“We have dessert!” Amber said over the laughter. The other voices died down, and she smiled. “Bah, if I had known that that was all I ever needed to catch your attention.”

As I approached the table, Landon’s eyes met mine. Instantly, the smile slipped off his lips. I couldn’t say I hadn’t expected that, but it hurt all the same.

Surprising me, he stood and reached for the tray. “Let me help you.”

He took the tray from me. I picked up one of the other pots to make room for the tray. Nathan, Aidan, and Caleb also stood and started picking up everyone’s plates. In two minutes, we had the table cleared of the dirty, used dishes and plates, and everyone had a brownie bowl in front of them.

Sophia was the first one to dig in. “Hm.” She licked her spoon. “This is delicious.”

Amber nodded, her mouth full.

Again, a slew of compliments were thrown my way. My chest filled with pride. I loved doing these kinds of things for others and getting a “thank you” was reward enough. Shame I didn’t have many opportunities to do this, but if Douglas really called me every now and then to come over, then—

I stopped those thoughts before they got too far from me. I wasn’t a hunter, and I wouldn’t become one. After avenging my father’s death, there would be no reason to come back here.

I looked at Landon. He was staring at me. My cheeks heated, but instead, I focused on the fact he had eaten half of his dessert already.

“Glad you like it.”

He nodded. “You could teach one of the girls how to make these.”

Ouch.

I stared at my untouched dessert, and instead of wallowing in the pain that assaulted my chest with his comment, I decided to be just as nasty. “Why one of the girls? Are you sexist? I think one of the guys could learn how too.”

“True,” he said.

Frowning, I leaned back in my chair and turned my shoulders so I was facing the other side of the table more.

Caleb was still telling funny stories, and everyone was laughing while devouring their dessert.

“Aren’t you going to eat that?” Nathan asked, pointing to my untouched bowl.

I forced a small smile. “Nope. I’m full. You can have it.”

“Awesome.” He grabbed the bowl and started eating as if the ice cream would evaporate any second.

Soon, the hunters had finished their dessert, but they didn’t seem inclined to move from the dining room. In fact, Aidan and Amber brought more drinks while the conversation and the laughter continued.

Half an hour later, I gave up. Landon hadn’t looked my way once, and I had no idea what I had done to deserve such cold treatment from him. I knew he didn’t like me, just like I didn’t like him, but we were temporary partners, right? There were moments in the last few days that I thought we could break through our hate for each other and become friends. Maybe not best friends or even great ones, but acquaintances who got along well. All wishful thinking from a girl who dreamed too much.

With a sigh, I stood.

“Where are you going?” Sophia asked.

“I’m tired, so I’m going to bed.”

“But it’s only ten,” Amber protested. “The night is young.”

“Nah, I really should go to bed early.” I sidestepped my chair. “Good night.”

Douglas stood. “In the name of the Sanctum of the Seven, I would like to thank you for this wonderful meal. You have no idea how much we needed this moment. Thank you, Tessa.” Everyone said thank you after him. Everyone except Landon.

I stretched my lips in what I hoped look like a convincing smile. “My pleasure.”

I kept my steps slow and deliberate as I walked out the dining room, but once I turned into the hallway, I raced down the hall, up the stairs, and into the guest bedroom.

What the hell was wrong with me? Why did I care so much about all of this? I shouldn’t. I couldn’t.

I hoped that Landon would find the damn demon soon, we would kill it easily, and I would be done. I would be able to go back to college and save what was left of my summer semester.

Trying to keep my mind blank before I had a meltdown, I took a quick shower, and because I had forgotten to grab my pajamas from the dorm room when we had stopped yesterday, I put on Landon’s oversized T-shirt. I combed my hair, brushed my teeth, and decided it was best to crawl in bed and watch a TV show or read a book on my iPad.

I pulled down the covers, and as my knees touched the mattress, a knock reverberated on the door. There was only one person it could be. As I made my way to the door, my hands started shaking.

I opened the door. “Hey.”

“I just wanted to apologize—” Landon’s words died as he looked from my eyes to my torso, noticing his T-shirt, and even lower, to my bare legs. Heat spread through my cheeks. He had already seen me like this before, but for some reason, it felt different now.

I crossed my arms, trying to hide the fact that I was not wearing a bra. “You were saying?”

“Saying?” His eyes shot back to mine. “Right.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Apologizing. I was apologizing for … being a jerk downstairs. I wasn’t in a good mood and ended up being mean to you. And …” He cleared his throat. “I wanted to thank you for taking the time to cook all that food for us. It was amazing.”

I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes. “Did Douglas put you up to this?”

“No,” he said. “Of course not.”

Shit. “He did, didn’t he? He gave you an earful, and now you’re here to apologize.” I shook my head. “Forget it, Landon. You don’t need to do this. Not when someone else sends you to do it. Just tell him all is well.”

I started closing the door, but his arm shot out and he pushed the door the open again.

“Wait.” He took a step inside the room. On instinct, I took a step back. “He didn’t give me an earful or tell me to come here. Douglas doesn’t tell me what to do. But he mentioned—again—how nice the dinner had been, and how relaxed everyone looked. Even I relaxed and laughed at Caleb’s jokes.”

“I noticed,” I snapped, remembered how his smile and laughter had faded each time he looked my way.

“I haven’t let my guard down like that in years,” he said, his voice softening. “Not since I became a hunter. I enjoyed a nice meal with the people who are my family for the first time ever. And I realized that it was all because of you.” He paused and looked at me, really looked at me, his hazel eyes softening. “Thank you.”

I felt myself falling into a trap. A hole I wouldn’t be able to crawl out of. So, I took another step back, for good measure. “You’re welcome.” He stood there, three feet from me, his eyes fixed on mine, in tense silence. “So, I was climbing into bed. If you don’t mind …” I gestured to the door.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” He turned to leave and then stopped under the threshold. Suddenly, he turned to me again. “You know? I do mind.”

“What—?”

My words were cut off by his mouth on mine. Landon had taken one big step toward me, cupped my face, leaned into me, and planted a kiss on my lips in a second. Stunned by the sudden turn of events, it took me a moment to react.

I swear I thought about pushing him away, but my body betrayed my mind. I stood on tiptoes, wrapped my arms around his neck, and parted my lips for him.