Leopard Moon

Chapter Ten

Kess had showed up a few minutes early for her date with Cormac, in the hopes that she could get her nerves settled. When he'd first asked her out, she'd been flattered and excited. She'd never been on a date by herself before. Sek had put a serious damper on any kind of boy/girl activities and dating hadn't been anywhere near a top priority in the year that she'd been running. But as the day of the date grew closer, Kess found herself getting more and more knotted up about it.

She liked Cormac. She really did. He was funny and handsome and seemed pretty genuine about getting to know her. In all the other places that she'd lived, she'd kept to herself to the point of being antisocial, which didn't really encourage forming friendships or making dates. She hadn’t allowed herself to like a guy in so long, she had kind of forgotten what it felt like. It made everything feel new and interesting again; even a place like the Barn where she worked almost every day seemed to brighten when he would show up. It made her feel a little dorky to be so attuned to somebody else's presence in such a good way.

And that was a problem. She shouldn't have started anything with him. She certainly shouldn't have accepted his invitation for raincheck coffee. Kess knew she would probably only get six months here at the outside before she'd have to take off again to keep ahead of her father's private investigators. How would she be able to do that if she got involved with Cormac? How could she leave him behind if her brother showed up?

But he'd been so adorable when he'd asked her out. And she did miss feeling like a seventeen year old girl instead of a humorless fugitive with nothing to look forward to except more running. It might not hurt to just hang out with Cormac and see what might happen. Didn't she deserve a little fun?

Kess mentally smacked herself. She'd been interested in someone in Miami and that hadn’t worked out well. Or at all, really. Greg had been a year ahead of her, but they ran into each other a lot between classes and he was in her choral group. He was pretty cute and sweet and he'd made a few tentative remarks that made her think he'd ask her out. She was excited at the prospect, giddy that her crush might turn into something more.

She'd made the mistake of mentioning it at home. Sek had gone ballistic, asking all kinds of crazy, way too personal questions about Greg and their relationship, not that they had one. Kess had told him it was none of his business but that had only made him angrier. She was almost positive that he'd been the one who convinced their father to pull her out of her private high school--God knew what stories Sek had made up--and arranged for her to be homeschooled after that. Kess knew that her father had always been concerned for her safety and anonymity, especially now that her first change had happened, so it probably hadn't taken much prodding on Sek's part to get Darius to agree.

Kess refused to let her brother control her life and she'd rebelled. A mutual friend gave her Greg's number and she'd called him. She'd been right--Greg had liked her and wanted to ask her out, but hadn't gotten the chance before she'd left school. Kess jumped at the chance to prove to her brother that she could make her own decisions about who she was going to see, and made a date with Greg then and there.

Somehow Sek had found out about it. On the appointed afternoon, she'd snuck out to meet Greg, only to find her brother waiting for her with Greg nowhere in sight. She'd been furious, her anger only growing when Sekhmet dragged her back home, telling her that the boy would never be bothering her again. She'd never found out exactly what Sek had done to Greg, but she was positive she didn't want to know for sure. Deep down, Kess was afraid she already had a good idea. And without proof, she didn't want to risk going to her father; no doubt Sek would have a believable explanation, one that would paint Kess in the worst possible light.

Right. Okay. So she'd thank Cormac for the invite and then make up some excuse and get the hell out of there. He was a good guy. He deserved someone who didn't come with so much baggage, someone who could give him what he wanted. A girl who didn't have to hide parts of herself. A girl who wasn't her.