Providence

“She threatened to fire you a few days ago if you didn’t stay away from me. You quit speaking to me because of it. And just now you nearly ignored her.”

Jared shrugged. “My mother discussed it with her. She’s had a change of heart.”

“How so?” I asked, suspicious.

“Lil ian’s very persuasive,” Jared smiled.

“Nina?” I turned to see my mother round the corner again.

“Yes?”

“We’re leaving for Nicaragua a week from Sunday. I need you to meet me here early so we can be at the airport by nine. Jared?”

“I’l have everything ready,” Jared said, distracted by the paper in his hand.

My heart began to pound, causing Jared to look up. I realized that I was going to spend the entire week of Spring Break on a beach with him, and the thought made my cheeks flush red.

Jared smiled, guessing what made my heart flutter. “This might be your first vacation with me, but it’s not my first vacation with you.”

“It’s the first time you’l sit with me on the plane,” I said a bit too eager, grinning from ear to ear. Jared chuckled at my enthusiasm.

Cynthia’s reaction differed. “He’s there to work, Nina. Please keep that in mind. Jared, make sure she is here on time.”

“Yes, ma’m,” he said, his soft eyes never leaving mine.

With that, Cynthia disappeared once again.

I couldn’t help but think about lying in a hammock with Jared. It already seemed like heaven.

“I am suddenly looking forward to vacation,” I grinned.

Jared leaned over to touch my cheek. “Lying with you on a Caribbean beach at sunset? I’l have to remind myself that it’s real.”

“What wil you have ready?” I asked.

Jared’s attention turned to the paper he was holding once more, and his eyes narrowed. He didn’t make eye contact when he spoke. “Uh…al of my surveil ance supplies. We typical y bring about fifteen hundred pounds of tech with us, but with Claire going to Tahoe, I’l be carrying light. I’l set up a perimeter around the premises….”

“What is it?” I leaned over to see what he was so absorbed in and recognized it was a bank statement. I’d seen it several times before during my search, but set it aside in the scrap pile.

Jared pointed to a section of the statement and I gasped. It was a monthly charge for a safety deposit box. Box eight twenty-five.

“Jared!” I cried, grabbing his arm.

Jared looked at his watch. “The bank is closed.”

I sighed, deflated. “We’l go first thing Monday morning.”

“I’l go. You have class.”

I grimaced. “I’m going, Jared. We’re doing this together.”

He sighed as we gathered the piles of papers and photos and replaced them. Jared lifted the plant as if it were an empty cardboard box and returned it to its proper place.

My cel phone buzzed in my coat pocket. The display lit up with Kim’s name scrol ing across the screen, and I closed my eyes. “I bet she’s cal ing about the pub tonight. I forgot al about it.”

“Hey Kim.”

“You’re not backing out, Nigh. Don’t even try,” she said.

“I wasn’t going to, I….”

“Sure you weren’t.”

“I’m sorry, Kim. I forgot,” I said, rubbing my forehead with my fingers, feeling a stress headache coming on. “But I’l be there.”

Jared walked with me to the Escalade and held the door open as I climbed inside. By his expression I knew he was aware of the dul pain in my head.

“You’re not going to stand us up again, are you?” she scolded.

“No! No, I’l meet you there around nine.”

“Good. See you then.” Kim said, disconnecting the line.

I put my cel phone back in my pocket and took Jared’s hand. “I’m sorry,” I groaned. “I think I unwittingly double booked myself.”

My head began to throb. It was difficult skipping back and forth between the two lives I was leading. I was the typical col ege student when I was with Kim, Ryan and Beth, and when I was with Jared, my life turned into this fantastical dream world with angels and demons and secret safety deposit boxes.

We parked in front of the loft, and Jared sighed. Claire’s Lotus was sparkling beside the curb.

“It doesn’t look like we’d have much time alone, anyway.”

Claire was lounging on the couch in stilettos boots and a leather jacket, flipping through channels on the flat screen. “Ryan’s taking a nap. That guy sleeps like a hibernating bear,” she said, rol ing her eyes. “Every branch of the military wants me on a special ops team, and God sticks me with the most boring Taleh in the history of mankind.”

I smiled at her observation, and Jared led me upstairs by the hand.

“Ryan is going to the pub tonight?” Jared cal ed back to his sister.

“Yep,” Claire said. “I’l see you there.”

“You’re keeping Claire company tonight?” I asked, col apsing onto his bed.

“I think I’l hang back tonight, let you spend time with your friends,” he said, lying on the mattress beside me.

“You don’t want to come?”

Jared brushed his thumb across my sul en lip. “I always want to be where you are.”

I smiled. “Because you have to.”

“You know that’s not true,” he said, trying his best to seem annoyed.

I leaned over to kiss his cheek. “How do you expect me to have fun when you’re right outside and I’m hoping that any minute you’l just break down and come in?”

Jared grinned. “How can I say no to that?”

“You’l come, then?” I asked, raising my eyebrows expectantly.

“If that’s what you want,” Jared shrugged. He tried to seem casual, but beyond the cool blue of his eyes was an edge of hopefulness.

“It’s what I’l always want,” I whispered, touching his cheek with my fingertips.

Jared’s expression beamed with adoration. “I knew that if I ever got my chance to be with you, al the waiting would be worth it. It’s as if we’ve cheated the curse, somehow. I’ve never understood how something could be considered a curse that requires me to spend every moment with you, and that grants me the mercy of leaving a world that doesn’t have you in it.”

“There’s nothing for me to say after that.”

“It’s just the truth, sweetheart. You don’t have to try to outdo me,” Jared said, amused.

“I love you…and I wil love you forever. That’s the truth.”

Jared’s expression turned intense, as if he was moved beyond words by my simple honesty. He pressed his lips to mine in the same slow, meaningful way he had only once before. It was the sweetest moment of my life.

It occurred to me that the stars had al but lined up for us: Gabe assigned to my father, fal ing in love with Lil ian, and then Jared coming along four years before I did, just in time to be assigned to me—the daughter of a criminal—a girl that would need constant supervision.

I traced the planes of Jared’s torso and pondered how perfectly everything had been laid out for us to be together, and then my mind drifted to Claire and Ryan. If I was going to believe in fate, I had to take into account who Jared said I was meant to be with. I closed my eyes, pushing the thought from my mind. Ryan would find someone else that he would be happy with, and Jared could keep me.