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sits up, her eyes flashing. “It"s not
    your decision, Cabe.”
    Cabel sighs deeply and rakes his fingers through his hair.
    “Janie—”
    “What? You think I can"t handle the job? You can go out and mess with
    dangerous drug dealers and spend nights in jail, but I can"t get involved
    in anything dangerous? What kind of a double standard is that?”
    She
    stands up and faces him.
    Looks him in the eye.
    His brown silky eyes plead back at hers. “This is different,” he says
    weakly.
    “Because you can"t control it?”
    Cabel sputters. “No—It"s just—”
    Janie grins. “You are so busted. Better get used to the idea. I"m in for the
    ride on this one.”
    Cabel looks at her a minute more. Closes his eyes and slowly hangs his
    head. Sighs. “I still don"t like it. I can"t stand the thought of any sicko
    teacher anywhere near you.”
    Janie wraps her arms around his neck. Rests her head against his
    shoulder. “I"ll be careful,” she whispers.
    Cabel is silent.
    He presses his lips into her hair and squeezes his eyes shut.
    “Why can"t
    you just be the one safe thing in my life?” he whispers. Janie pulls away and looks up at him.
    Smiles sympathetically.
    “Because safe equals boring, Cabe.”
    ı
    Janie spends almost an hour lifting weights. Three weeks, Cabel says,
    and she"ll start to see the changes. All she knows is that her glutes are
    killing her.
    6:19 p.m.
    Janie and Cabel step on each other"s feet in the small kitchen as they
    broil fish in the oven and fix a mountain of veggies. Cabel is a healthy
    eater. And he insists Janie eats that way too. Now that she"s lost so much
    weight. Now that he realizes what she"s in for, for the rest of her life. “It
    makes me crazy, seeing you so thin like that, you know,” he murmurs as
    he checks the salmon. “And not in a good way.”
    At night, on the nights she stays over, he massages her aching fingers
    and toes before she drifts off to sleep. Falling into one nasty nightmare
    will do that to her—leave her fingers numb and aching for hours after.
    Cabel, having learned recently to control his dreams to some extent, has
    made dream control into a religion. He spends an hour a day in meditation, talking himself into calm, sweet dreams, working his way to
    his ideal—no dreams at all. At least when Janie"s over. So he can keep
    her nearby. He"s managed to prevent himself from dreaming one entire
    night now—with Janie as his witness. She woke up so refreshed, he
    hardly knew her.
    ı
    That"s another reason why this new assignment is putting him on edge.
    He knows the dreams will make this harder on her than on him. Physically, anyway.
    Mentally? Emotionally? It"ll be harder on him.
    Because this love thing is foreign to Cabel. And now that he has found
    Janie, he"s becoming increasingly protective of her. There is no man in
    the universe he wants to have to share her with. Especially a creep.
    Even if it unearths a scandal.
    Of greatest proportions.
    The biggest scandal Fieldridge High has ever seen. 10:49 p.m.
    Janie stays over.
    “Are we okay?” she asks softly.
    After a silence, Cabel whispers, “We"re okay.”
    He wraps his arms around her in bed, and they talk quietly, like usual.
    Janie brings it up first. “So, spill it. All As, right?”
    He squeezes her. Closes his eyes. “Yeah.”
    “I got a B+ in math,” she finally says.
    He"s quiet. Not quite sure what she wants to hear. Maybe she just wants
    to say it and be done. Get it out there, so it can float away and not be so
    painful.
    ı
    He waits a moment. And then murmurs, “I love you, Janie Hannagan. I
    can"t get enough of you. I wake up in the morning and all I want to do is
    be with you.” He props himself up on his elbow. “Do you have any idea
    how unusual, how important that is to me? Compared to some stupid test
    you took under extreme duress, twice?”
    ı
    He said it.
    It"s the first time he said it out loud.
    Janie swallows. Hard.
    Understands what he means, completely.
    Wants