Her Secret by Tara Fox Hall Page A

lunch, but from now on, I’d take them at breakfast.
    The phone rang. Relieved to see it was Theo,
I answered. “Hi.”
    “So how’s the email going?”
    “A few seem good. I printed those out and
left them on Danial’s desk. There’s also one hate mail.”
    “Put it in the possible suspects file. Oh,
and can you move some of those to the Possible Enemies Drawer?
Anything over six months can go there.”
    “Will do.”
    “Anything for Devlin?”
    I swallowed quickly. “Yes. I’m...I’ve sent
them on to him. I also had a few junk e-mails I deleted.”
    “Fine. I’m actually calling about Elle. She
wants to know if the sleepover’s been finalized.”
    “Not yet. I’ll call Cathy shortly.”
    “I’ll tell her. See you about five. Love
you.”
    “Love you.” I hung up.
    I called Cathy right away and set up a sleep
over for the following Friday. She said that would be fine, and I
gave her directions to my house. I could tell she wanted to ask if
Theo was my husband and what the deal was with Danial, but she was
too polite. Amused, I didn’t volunteer the information.
    Taking stock one more time to make sure I’d
done everything, I realized there were no praising emails for
Solutions, Inc., as Danial sometimes received. Suddenly inspired, I
took a blank sheet of paper and wrote on it in big letters “YOU DO
A GREAT JOB AND YOU ARE LOVED :),” then set it where he’d left me
his note.
    As I went to shut down the computer, a new
email arrived. Devlin had replied to one of my emails with just two
words in caps: MISS ME?
    “Hell, yes,” I said longingly before
thinking. Flushing quickly, I deleted the email and switched off
the computer.
    * * * *
    After lunch, I relayed the sleepover news to
Theo, then went in to see my son bearing some ice cream for a
treat. Terian was already in the room, holding him.
    “Mommy!” Theoron shrieked.
    “Hi,” I said happily back, handing Terian the
dish of ice cream.
    He took it, and started feeding Theoron. “Now
don’t bite at it. Lick instead.”
    Theoron was used to blood, being half
vampire. He’d adapted to most foods, knowing that solid food
required biting and chewing, and liquids could be drunk. But ice
cream was kind of in-between.
    “Keep your fangs retracted,” I encouraged.
“You don’t need them.”
    His alone were retractable, like the ones
seen in movies. I was happy about that, despite the difficulty
Theoron was having with food now. Danial, Devlin, and all other
vampires had fangs that were always present. Danial had said once
that it had taken him a few months to learn how to speak clearly
again, and that he sometimes cut himself on his fangs while
speaking. Theoron wouldn’t have that problem, once he mastered
retracting his upper and lower fangs.
    “Trying,” Theoron said crossly, managing to
retract three of his four fangs.
    “Go ahead and drink the rest,” I said,
offering him the bowl. “It’s pretty melted. Then it’s to bed with
you.”
    Theoron finished the ice cream quickly, then
yawned, all his fangs again out. Terian put him back in his crib,
and I gave Theoron a quick kiss. We left him sleeping a few moments
later.
    Terian and I walked together out to the great
room.
    “He’s managing well,” Terian said happily.
“He’ll probably be able to retract all of them at will by the end
of this week.”
    “That’s good,” I replied casually. “How was
your hot date?”
    Terian started, stared at me, and then walked
directly into the wall. I cracked up laughing.
    “You did that on purpose, Sar,” he said,
giving me an irritated look.
    I gave him an innocent one back. “Are you
going to give me her name or not?”
    “Brian said something,” Terian muttered.
“He’s the only one I told.”
    “Hey, I just care if you’re happy,” I assured
him. “Tell me about her.”
    “Fine. But let’s go out in the sun, okay?
It’s not snowing.”
    “It’s okay by me if you don’t mind the
mud.”
    Terian and I went to the