“Oh, cool,” he said, unfazed. “Anyway, so I was thinking, you could come pick me up and we could go see the movie together in your rental. I asked my dad what kind of car you rented and—”

“I can’t tonight, Jupe. Working, remember?” God, the kid was hardheaded.

“What about tomorrow? Please. I’m begging! It’s the last night. I’ll die if I can’t see it.”

“Jeez, you’ll die? What movie is it?” I finished mixing one drink and started a tray for Amanda.

“Creature from the Black Lagoon.”

“The one from the sixties?”

He snorted derisively. “The sixties? Man, I thought you knew about classic movies—1954. It never gets screened anywhere around here. Please, Cady. Please, please, please—”

“I have to work a half-shift tomorrow, so I won’t get off work until eight-thirty.”

“It starts at nine-thirty. How long would it take you to get here?”

“Uh, thirty minutes. Maybe less now that I know the shortcut up your cliff.”

“COOL! We have time!”

“I don’t know, Jupe …”

“Hey, you kinda owe me. My dad’s been locked up in his stupid library for the last two days doing research for you and ignoring me. Besides, he says I’m driving him nuts anyway. If we leave him alone, he’ll do your research faster.”

I laughed. “Hell’s bells, where did you learn to negotiate?”

“Will you do it? Huh?”

“All right,” I said, caving in. “I’ll pick you up at nine. Does your dad know?”

“No, but he won’t care. He likes you. Wait, hold—”

I finished mixing the drinks just in time for Amanda to return with more orders; as I lined up four new tiki mugs, muffled conversation on the other end of the line turned into muffled yelling.

“Arcadia,” Lon’s voice said from my phone.

“Who is this?” I teased.

“You can’t take my son on a date.”

“I didn’t ask him. He asked me.”

“He stole my cell and called without permission.”

“Sounds like a personal problem to me.” A low growling noise came out of the phone. “It’s just for a couple of hours. I’m not going to let him make moves on me, sheesh.”

“You better not. He’s still a virgin and I’d like to keep it that way.”

My jaw dropped. “Are you joking? I can never tell if you’re serious.”

“Mhmph.”

Okay, he was joking; the sad thing was that I was starting to be able to read his grunts better than his words.

“I’ll try to control myself,” I said. “Come on, it’s just babysitting. Don’t you trust me with your kid?”

“Says you, the person attacked by a Pareba demon a few days ago.”

Ugh. He had a point. What if something happened while Jupe was with me? Lon would never forgive me. I sure as hell wouldn’t if it were my kid. “You’re right, maybe I shouldn’t—”

“I know you’ve got your charm and have warded the rental car, I’m sure it’s fine. To be honest, it’s not you I don’t trust, it’s him. He once sneaked off from the drive-in.”

“Oh, really? Well, I’ve never had a date bail on me before.”

“I bet.”

“You bet what?” What the hell was that supposed to mean? I accidently overpoured the Mai Tai I was making and started cussing under my breath as I grabbed a bar towel.

“Look, he’s kind of a pain in the ass, so if you’re just telling him yes because he put you on the spot, don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ve got bigger boys waiting in line for dates on your nights off.”

I held the phone away from my ear and looked at it momentarily before speaking. Oh, too young for him, was I? “Lon Butler, are you trying to find out if I’m dating someone?”

Amanda leaned over the bar to grab napkins and gawked at me. “You’re talking to Lon Butler on the phone?” she whispered excitedly. I made a face at her and put my finger up to my mouth to get her to shut up.

“No, I was just saying—” Lon began. Low grunt, long sigh. “Don’t feel obligated to entertain Jupe.”

Wide-eyed, Amanda giddily puckered up her mouth before I pushed her away from the bar. Great. Now I was going to have to concoct some lie about why I was talking to him.

“Well, it’s not a big deal,” I told Lon. “I like Jupe and I’m happy to get him out of the house and give you some quiet time. Besides, if I had ‘bigger boys’ lined up right now … well, more interesting ones than the two losers who’ve asked me out tonight already—”

One of said losers, Tambuku’s favorite Earthbound healer, Bob, looked up from his drink with a wounded look. Oh, brother … “Sorry, Bob. You know I didn’t mean that,” I whispered before turning away to finish with Lon.

“Anyway, I probably wouldn’t be settling for movie-night with a teenage boy if I did.”

He paused, then replied, “It’s your funeral.”

“All right, well, I’ll pick him up at nine tomorrow. I take it you haven’t found anything today, research-wise?”

“No.”

I sighed. “Well, I gotta get back to work.”

“See you tomorrow,” he replied. “I’ll make sure he’s ready on time.”