Veiled (Ada Palomino 1)

I freeze midway as my dad goes to answer.

“Hello?” I hear my dad ask, puzzlement in his voice.

“Hi. I was wondering if Ada was home.”

I practically run down the rest of the stairs to see Jay on the front steps. My dad eyes me over his shoulder.

“Ada, you know this man?” He’s already got fatherly disapproval all over his face, not that he’s particularly liked anyone I’ve dated. Obviously I’m not dating Jay but I know what this must look like. Plus there’s the fact that Jay is a hulking beast of a man dressed all in black, from his well-fitted t-shirt to his jeans to his boots. His broad jaw is dusted with dark stubble, his cinnamon hair pushed off his forehead, curling at the nape.

“He’s our new neighbor,” I tell him quickly, flashing my dad an innocent smile. “I met him yesterday.”

“Are you the Knightlys’ son? I didn’t know they had one,” my dad says.

Jay offers a tight smile. “I’m a family friend. Just renting a room in the house for the time being.”

“I was going to show him around Portland,” I fill in, remembering our arrangement for coffee.

My dad raises his brow, studying me again. I’m completely ready to deal the “I’m eighteen and a legal adult” card, which I have been known to do from time to time. I can’t blame my dad for being protective, but still.

“Fine,” he says reluctantly. “I’m making cannelloni tonight though, so be back for dinner.”

“I will.” I brush past him and join Jay outside. He gives my dad a polite wave before we both turn and walk down the path.

The moment we hear the door close behind us, Jay says, “Is your father always so suspicious?”

“He’s not a fan of strange men showing up at the door and taking me for coffee,” I tell him, falling in step beside him. A heady feeling grows in my chest, a strange mix of feeling giddy to be beside Jay and yet completely at peace simultaneously. I’m nervous but not afraid, just as I was last night when he pulled me into the Veil.

“I’m sure he’ll get used to seeing me soon enough,” he says.

“Well unless you start taking shortcuts into my room,” I tell him. “Which, by the way, I’ve decided to move out of. I can’t sleep in there again, especially with Dex and Perry gone and especially as neither you nor Jacob refuted the idea that my closet is a portal to Hell.”

“That’s probably smart,” Jay says but gives me nothing more.

“I’ll need your help moving all my stuff over,” I tell him cautiously as we head down the street. “I’m not doing it alone.”

He squints at me. “I just helped the Knightlys. In fact, I’m still unpacking.”

“So then you have experience. Which is great since you’re a rookie at life and all.”

He stops walking. “Just because this is my first time as a Jacob, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to function in society.” He nods at the beige Mercedes beside us, the one Jacob was driving. “I can even drive us downtown.”

“Jacob doesn’t mind?” I ask him, eying the Knightlys’ and half-expecting Jacob to come charging out and shaking his fist, a gaudy gold watch rattling.

Jay shrugs. “He’s fine.”

I’ve got the feeling that Jay isn’t really supposed to take Jacob’s car but for some reason that makes Jay a lot more interesting than he already was. In fact, looking back at last night I’d venture to guess that Jay is a bit of a button-pusher. He not only stood up to Dex but Jacob as well. Maybe all Jacobs are this way when they’re first starting out, but since I’m a rabble-rouser myself, maybe the match works.

Except it’s not a match, I remind myself. He’s my guardian. The Giles to my Buffy.

A smile curves his lips as he opens the car door.

“Can you hear what I’m thinking?” I ask him as I get in the passenger side. The leather seats squeak beneath my bare legs, already hot from the sun, and the air inside the car is sauna thick, smelling of mothballs and cigarettes and something else. Something nearly indiscernible, maybe spicy. I realize that’s how Jay smelled in my dream, something hot, spicy, primal, almost like a pheromone.

“Thinking?” he asks. “No. I was just imagining Jacob’s face when he finds out his car is gone.”

At that he starts the car, the diesel engine rumbling, and we quickly peel out onto the street, doing a U-turn that makes my head thud back against the headrest until we’ve straightened out and are zooming away from the houses.

Looks like he can drive just fine after all.

In fact, as we navigate the highways taking us from northeast Portland into the city, it seems like Jay is more than just good at it. It’s almost like the traffic and the lights are responding to him and not the other way around. Not to mention he drives like he knows the city like the back of his hand.