"I don't know."

"Okay. I understand now why you don't trust me."

Teeth gritted, she put the bags down and turned to face him. "No, really, I don't know."

"She doesn't know why I'm here? Or she doesn't know when I'm leaving? Which?"

Claire's nostrils flared. She'd intended to tell Dean about her premonition but not in front of her sister. Diana in the same room with impending doom practically guaranteed Armageddon. "She'll be leaving on Sunday night because she's got school on Monday morning and she's already missed too much of it this year. Dean, this is my sister Diana."

"Hey." She waggled a hand in an exaggerated wave.

It was the first time Dean had felt like smiling all morning. Although the sisters looked superficially alike, dark hair and eyes, short and thin, energy popped and fizzed around Diana as though she'd been carbonated. "Hi."

"So you're from Newfoundland?"

"That's right." Picking up the bag with the produce, he began putting things away.

"I've never been there."

"You'd have noticed," Claire added, pa.s.sing over a package of luncheon meat.

"So." Diana picked up a loaf of bread and examined it critically. "Did you always want to work in a hotel?"

"No. I just needed a job."

"I hear Augustus Smythe was a real tyrant."

"He wasn't so bad."

"Worse than Claire?"

He stared down into a net bag of cooking onions. "Different."

"Still, I guess you get to meet a lot of interesting people working here. Vampires and werewolves and... Ow! Claire!"

They were standing about ten feet apart but, obviously, that hadn't been far enough. Dean had no idea of what was going on and no intention of getting between them. "Yeah," he said, folding the bags and putting them away, "lots of interesting people."

"How long are you planning on staying around?"

"Actually..." He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and turned to face Claire. "Actually, I've been thinking of leaving."

"Leaving?"

"Yeah. You know, getting on with my life."

Silently congratulating herself for maintaining a neutral expression, Claire wondered why her reflection in his gla.s.ses looked as though she'd just been punched in the stomach. "When?"

"Soon. If you want, this can be my two week notice." When Claire gave no indication of what she wanted, he shrugged. "Nice meeting you, Diana. I've got to go make some phone calls."

"Well, thud," Diana said, as he disappeared down the bas.e.m.e.nt stairs.

Claire felt as though she were waking up from a bad dream, the kind where she was trying to cross the road but her feet kept sticking in the asphalt and there were two trucks and a red compact car bearing down on her. "What do you mean, thud?"

"Thud. The sound of the other shoe dropping." Diana straight-armed herself up to sit on the edge of the counter. "A little more than a month ago, Mom said Dean was the most grounded guy she'd ever seen and now look at him. You've just cut the ground right out from under him, haven't you?"

"I have not."

"He must really dig your looks 'cause it can't be your personality."

"Diana!"

"I mean, Jacques is cuter than I expected and, okay, he makes me laugh with those corny pickup lines, but he's dead. In spite of the gla.s.ses, Dean's big-time beefcake. If I can see that, you should be able to. You had the perfect opportunity here, and you blew it."

"The perfect opportunity for what?" Claire demanded.

"For making the best of the situation and building a partnership with a really nice guy. Not my personal cup of tea, but a lot of people would jump at the chance."

"Why can't a man and a woman run a hotel together and just be friends?"

"Well, gee, I don't know, Claire. You're the one doing the horizontal mambo with the dead guy, you tell me?"

"We're not talking about Jacques!"

"Sure we are. Enlighten me; if you needed to bed one of them, and obviously you felt a need, why Jacques and not Dean? Don't answer, I'll tell you. They're both bystanders so that's not it. Is it because Dean's alive? No, from what I hear that's never been a problem in the past. Oh wait, could it be because you're an ageist?"

"A what?"

"You heard me, an ageist! You think I'm incompetent because I'm younger than you, and you ignore the evidence and think Dean's a kid for the same reason."

"I don't have to stand here and listen to this."

"True."

"I have work to do."

"Okay. Go do it."

"Fine. I will." About to leave the kitchen, Claire whirled back around to glare at her sister. "Don't blow the place up while I'm not watching."

"I came to help, remember."

"Oh, you've been a big help."

Leaning back and kicking her heels against the lower cabinets, Diana waited until she heard the door to Claire's sitting room slam shut before she smiled triumphantly. "Made her think."

"And I'm all for that," Austin agreed, jumping up beside her. "As long as you don't blow the place up while she's not watching."

"I promised I'd stay out of the furnace room."