Free Branded by Rob Cornell Page A

can’t. My life got really complicated in a few hours time. I really wish—”
    “Don’t wish,” she said and stepped off the porch and through my door. She came in real close and I cringed at the idea that she could smell me. She didn’t appear bothered though. In fact, she moved so close we were practically touching. “You want to go out with me, don’t you? Catch an early dinner before I go in for my shift?”
    “I…” Didn’t want to lie to her. Of course I wanted to. But we don’t always get what we want. Besides, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. I really liked her. I didn’t want to make her angry. I also didn’t want to lead her on. I had no idea how to get through this without coming across as a total asshole.
    Before I could think up an answer, she reached up and gently touched my cheek. “I know things with your mom are rough. And I know that whatever you have going on in your personal life is a mess, even if I don’t know the details. I can see the pain in your eyes. Every time I look at you, ever since you brought Judith to the home.” She let her hand drift down off my check and lifted her chin. “I hate it,” she said. “I hate seeing such a caring man have no joy in his life.”
    What could I say to that? Thanks for those amazing sentiments, but I still refuse to have dinner with you? It was just dinner. Not a marriage proposal.
    I smiled. And really felt it.
    “How is it you aren’t already hitched?” I asked.
    “I have high standards.”
    I laughed. She had buttered me up and good. I simply could not deny her anything. She could have asked for my deepest, darkest secret and I probably would have given it to her.
    “Okay,” I said. “It’s a…”
    “A date?”
    “A date.”

Chapter Twelve
    First thing I did after Fiona left was get my ass in the shower. I simply could not stand to smell myself any longer. I felt a lot better in general once the hot water sluiced off the grime and dried blood.
    Once out of the shower, I wiped the steam off the mirror and checked my bite.
    I winced. It was puckered and ugly even though it had completely closed up. It still looked like a bite mark, though. Gods help me, how in hell would I come up with a decent explanation for that?
    I made reservations at El Barzon in Mexicantown. I loved the place. It combined two of my favorite foods on one menu—Mexican and Italian. Hopefully, Fiona liked either of those. Everybody likes pasta, right?
    When evening fell, I caught myself pacing the living room floor and counting off the minutes on my father’s pocket watch until I had to leave and pick up Fiona. She had told me to pick her up from the nursing home. That way I could drop her right back after dinner in time for her shift.
    I waited a couple minutes longer than necessary before finally heading out, shooting for fashionably late. I didn’t want to look too eager.
    I had to use my parents’ Buick parked out in the garage, seeing as someone had taken my car. Not that it would have run all that well considering its condition when I last saw it. I couldn’t very well pick up Fiona in a car covered in vampire guts anyway, so…
    For a second, I worried the car might not start. I hadn’t run it in a while. Not like the first year, when I dutifully started it up at least once a week to make sure the motor didn’t get corroded. I had even driven it around the block a few times. But after that first year, with more and more evidence that Mom wasn’t coming out of her fugue, I lost the will to so much as look at the car, never mind climbing behind the wheel.
    The engine did its equivalent of a throat clearing, but it purred right along once it got going.
    I found Fiona right where she had promised, standing at the end of the approach to the nursing home’s front door. But she was most decidedly not dressed for work. I gasped at the sight of her in the evening sunlight and nearly veered off into the shrubbery lining the front of the