“To sneak around the campus for a little bit in the dark. Isn’t this what couples do in the movies?” Gabriel asked as we passed the metal shop.

“Yeah. The horror movies where loving couples are killed by maniacs wielding farm implements. Please don’t tell me that after all this, you’re leading me to my death.”

“Well, you’re already dead, and I’ve gotten used to having you around.”

I laughed. “Right back atcha, sweetheart. But seriously, what are we doing out here?”

“I gave your sister a present today,” he said, slipping his hand into mine.

“You’re dragging me out in the hall to tell me you gave my sister a present? This is just like my sixteenth birthday.”

“I’m bringing you out here to tell you that I went to your sister earlier tonight and offered her the deed to my house.”

I arched a brow. “You mean the deed to one of your nicer rental properties?”

“To my house on Silver Ridge Road. I asked if she would like to have it, and she accepted. Actually, I’d barely uttered the word ‘deed,’ and she’d accepted. She’d like to move in as soon as possible.”

I found that didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. Our muddy catharsis seemed to have exorcised the old, almost instinctual resentments toward Jenny, though it was sort of weird to be around her now that we’d called an unofficial truce. I was so used to automatically rejecting any invitation to family gatherings that I stumbled over telling Mama that, yes, I’d come to Thanksgiving and to tell Jenny that I’d bring my own dessert blood. When we talked, Jenny couldn’t figure out where to put her hands. It was like a bad commercial audition. Also, now that she wasn’t openly knocking me to Grandma Ruthie anymore, I don’t think they were spending as much time together as they used to. Mama was beside herself with joy, even though I still turned down half her invitations.

I said that Jenny and I had reconciled, not that I’d gone crazy.

“But that’s a huge part of your family history. Why would you give it up?” I exclaimed.

Gabriel shrugged. “Eh, I’ve lived there for a hundred and fifty years. I was getting bored with it. Besides, nobody will take better care of the place than Jenny. And I suspect she’ll let your mother put the house on the Historical Society’s Spring Tour of Homes, which will indirectly cement your mother’s affections for me even further.”

“So, you’re basically homeless now?”

“No, I still have the houses in—” Gabriel caught himself. “Yes, yes, I am.”

I crossed my arms. “So, where do you plan on living?”

“Well, I was thinking I might move in with you.”

“Why don’t you wait to be asked?”

“Because I’d be waiting forever,” he muttered. In a very deliberate motion, he squared my shoulders in front of his and clasped my arms. “I know I could never ask you to leave River Oaks. It means a lot more to you than my family’s house means to me. Your aunt Jettie is there. It’s your home. I would like it to be my home, too. I want to make a life with you, and for most people, that means living in the same house.”

Gabriel kissed me, as gentle as an angel’s wing brushing across my lips. “You’re my bloodmate in every sense of the word, the person I choose to spend the rest of my immortal life with, if you can stand me that long.”

“That’s what that means?” My forehead wrinkled in concentration, and I tried to remember the first time I’d hear that word. “Wait, you told Missy the crazy Realtor that she’d suffer dire consequences if she hurt your ‘bloodmate.’ That was more than a year ago.”

“I knew even then. You’re it for me, Jane. You’re my eternity.”

“Well, why couldn’t you have told me?” I exclaimed.

Gabriel shrugged. “You—”

“I wasn’t ready to hear it yet,” I finished for him. “I’m sorry.” But as the enormity of what Gabriel had just said sunk in, a huge grin split my face. I brought it under control, so I could narrow my eyes at him. “So, you’re saying you will tell me everything now. You won’t try to protect me or keep me in the dark. You’ll trust me to make a rational decision about bad news after I have my inevitable, initial panic attack?”

He nodded solemnly. “I will.”

“And when I have my spastic fits of insecurity, when I make inappropriate jokes and wonder aloud why you love me, you’ll understand that this has nothing to do with you but years and years of conditioning by my mother?”

He smirked. “I will.”

“Will you agree never to accept invitations issued by my family unless you check with me first?”

He nodded. “Absolutely.”

I giggled, throwing my arms around him and kissing him deeply. “I love you.”

“Wait, it’s my turn,” he said, cupping my face so I was locked in that bottomless gray gaze of his. “Do you promise to trust that I want to be with you and no one else? That I’m not going anywhere? Will you promise to stop trying to find problems in our relationship where there are none, to give us time to work on the problems we do have?”

“What problems?”

Gabriel huffed out a breath. “Jane.”

“I will,” I promised.

“Will you quit trying to push me away?”

“I will.”

“Will you promise never to let Dick move into our house?”

I snickered. “I will … but, um, there’s one last thing.”

Gabriel frowned. “What’s that?”

“Can we wait on telling my mother that you’re moving in? As much as she likes you, she has this thing about ‘living in sin.’ The minute she finds out, the pressure for you to make an honest woman of me will start. She’s already making noises about us getting engaged. I think this would just fuel her fire.”

“I could always propose,” he suggested, kissing my cheek.

Suddenly, my mouth went dry. As much as I couldn’t imagine my life without Gabriel, I knew that neither one of us was ready for the rice-and-veil route just yet. We’d only reconciled a few weeks before. As sure as I was of his love, I needed more time before I could accept a ring from him.

What can I say? I’m a contrary soul.

“Thank you, but I’m not ready yet,” I told him. Gabriel tried and failed to tamp down the flash of disappointment on his face. “I won’t marry anyone but you, Gabriel Nightengale. But for now, let’s just see if we can live together without anyone getting hurt. And the family thing, it won’t be that big of a deal. It just means you can’t leave any evidence of you living there lying around where my family can see it, like clothes or personal items or your car. It’s just for the next few decades, until, you know, they die.”

“Let me get this straight. You can face down psychotic vampires and legions of anal-retentive entrepreneurs, but you’re afraid to tell your parents that I’ll be living with you before marriage?”

I nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly it.”

“We’ll have to talk about this,” Gabriel said dryly.

“But hey, between Jenny’s new attitude and having you present at Christmas, I may be able to escape the holidays unscathed.”

Gabriel blanched, his face even paler in the moonlight filtering through the window. “Christmas? With your relatives?”

I smiled, my fangs nicking my lip. “Welcome to the family, honey.”

Gabriel smiled back and kissed me, long and deep. “I can live with that.”