Dylan gave me his trademark lopsided smile and I immediately relaxed. Either Samson hadn’t said anything or Dylan was playing the gentleman. He sat on the corner of our table. “Just who I was looking for. I wanted to give you a personal invite to the party of the semester.”

Roland grinned. “Oh  yeah? Anything like the July Fourth bash? Man it took me two days to recover from that one.”

“A two-day hangover? How appealing,” I commented drolly, wondering how much you had to drink to be hung over that long.

“Better. The folks are going to Miami tomorrow so I’ve got the place to myself all weekend. They said no parties in the house but the boat house is not off limits. Some of the guys are coming around noon on Saturday to jam and we figured why not make a day of it. Spend the day on the lake and fire up the grill for dinner. Then party all night.” He furrowed his brow. “Oh, and it’s invitation only. The parental units will disown me if the whole school district shows up like last time.”

I’d never been to Dylan’s house on Clear Lake but Roland and Peter had raved about the boathouse and boats and jet skis on more than one occasion. I could tell by my friends’ expressions that this promised to be one of those ‘I was there when it happened’ parties they lived for.

Roland gave Dylan a high five. “Hell, yeah!”

Dylan looked at me. “That invitation includes you too, Sara.”

“Thanks. I… might have something else going on this Saturday but I’ll try to make it if my thing doesn’t take too long.” I had to meet NightWatcher somehow but I even if I pulled that off I’d feel uncomfortable spending the day at the same party as Samson. I really did like him and I would have dated him if I’d met him before my life had been turned upside down. He’d made his attraction to me more than clear. What if he got the wrong signal if I showed up at his party? Maybe most girls would not be bothered by it but I wasn’t other girls.

Roland and Peter looked like I had just told them they were extending the school week to Saturday. “Oh, yeah,” Roland said glumly. “We promised to give Sara a lift somewhere so we might miss out on the afternoon. But we’ll definitely make it for the after party.”

Dylan nodded good-naturedly. “No problem. I hope you all can make it. Some of the guys in the band won’t be there so I need my best drinking buds there.” He spoke to Roland and Peter but his eyes were on me, making sure I got the message that a certain blond drummer would not be in attendance.

I smiled at him. If I didn’t have to worry about an awkward encounter with Samson then I wouldn’t mind spending a day at the lake. Clear Lake was huge. I imagined taking a boat out and anchoring somewhere in the middle where I didn’t have to deal with boys or the growing list of other things I didn’t want to think about. And best of all – no Mohiri. Nikolas and Chris might be good but I was pretty sure they couldn’t walk on water.

My smile grew as an idea started to form. “Hey, Dylan, do you have wetsuits for those jet skis?”

*     *     *

“I haven’t seen you at Dylan’s parties before.”

I looked at the striking brunette standing a few feet from me on the dock. Her heart shaped face was tilted to one side and her blue eyes watched me with a mixture of curiosity and jealousy. Bethany Chase was gorgeous, popular and rich and I couldn’t think of a single reason for her to be jealous of me.

“Roland made it sound like too much fun to pass up.”

She moved closer. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” I replied absently, toying with the zipper of my borrowed wetsuit while I watched Roland and Peter whipping across the lake toward us on jet skis. I couldn’t wait for my turn.

“Is that blond guy up by the boathouse a friend of yours?”

I didn’t need to turn around to know she was talking about Chris who’d arrived an hour ago. How he’d finagled his way into Dylan’s private, invite-only party was beyond me since everyone else here appeared to know each other. I’d spent a good five minutes asking him to leave but he only smiled and said to ignore him. Ignore him? He stuck out like a steak on a vegetarian buffet for Christ’s sake.

“Chris is like a cousin to me.” Hell, for all I knew he could be one of my cousins.

She giggled. “I thought he might be your boyfriend after I saw you with him. He keeps looking over here at you.”

I glanced over my shoulder at the Mohiri and an evil plan began to brew. “Nope, Chris is a free man.” I gave her a meaningful look. “And I’m pretty sure he’s not looking at me.”

“Oh!” Bethany’s face lit up like the sun coming from behind a cloud and she turned her head to watch Chris hungrily. Sorry, Chris, I thought, hiding my smile of satisfaction. But all’s fair in love and war, right?

“Maybe I’ll go say hi to him.”

“Good idea.”

The jet skis pulled up beside the dock and Peter grinned up at me. “You ready to lose to me too?”

“Ha! In your dreams buddy!” I hitched a thumb at Roland. “My turn.”

Roland grinned as he nudged his jet ski along side the dock and climbed off, but his face grew serious as I switched places with him. “Be careful and call me if there is any trouble,” he whispered.

“We’ll be back before you know it.” I sat on the seat and murmured, “I’m more worried about you having to deal with the fallout on this end.”