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going to fire me so he would no longer be bothered with tawdry late-night rescue missions?
    “Where are we going?”
    “Just come on,” he moaned, but then he grinned—again! I couldn’t help it, I grinned back.
    “Fine, Mr. Mysterious, no questions. What’s in the bag?”
    “ Jeee sus.”
    “Okay, okay…”
    By the time we got to his car, I was feeling downright giddy. It was three o’clock in the afternoon, and I couldn’t remember leaving the office so early in…ever.
    “Can you at least give me a hint?”
    “No.”
    “If I guess and I’m right, will you tell me?”
    “No.”
    “Are we going somewhere nice? Do I need lipstick?”
    “No.”
    “No, we’re not going somewhere nice, or no, I don’t need lipstick?”
    “God, are you incapable of shutting up?”
    We sat in silence for a moment.
    “May I ask a question that’s not about where we’re going?”
    “No.”
    “Please?”
    He pretended to think about it. “Okay.”
    “Do you think I talk too much?”
    That earned me a sideways smile, and I felt warm inside, pleased to have pleased him. By now I’d figured out that we were going to my apartment, and I began to get a little nervous, trying to remember if I’d left dirty dishes in the sink, or my bras hanging off the mantel to dry. By the time we pulled up to my front door, I’d done a mental inventory and decided there was nothing there Dan couldn’t see.
    “Well, thanks for the ride home, Boss.” I opened the door and let myself out, and he followed me silently. He had the bag in his hand again, so I reached over and grabbed it while I was pretending to search for my keys in the bottom of my purse. He didn’t try to take it back, just followed me through the front door. When I peeked in the bag, I let out a snort of laughter.
    “What did you do, mug a women’s self-defense instructor?” One by one, I pulled out pepper spray, a flashlight, a keychain alarm that looked more like a vibrator—I snorted again as I imagined Dan buying it—and some contraption that resembled a plastic clock radio with too many wires. “What’s this?”
    “It’s an alarm for your door—you can connect it to the front windows too.”
    “What in the world for?” I asked. My apartment complex was large and well-lit. It may not be in the best neighborhood, but I never feared for my safety.
    “Well, if you’re determined to walk the streets of Boston alone at all hours of the night, I thought you might want some protection.”
    “I can take care of myself.”
    “Oh, like you did last Friday?” His tone was just patronizing enough to tick me off.
    “I didn’t ask for your help,” I huffed.
    “No, your friend April asked for my help. You were so stupid you weren’t going to ask for anyone’s help, were you? What if you’d ended up dead in a ditch?”
    “Then I guess you’d be stuck without an assistant. But hey, there are plenty more where I came from, so don’t knock yourself out.” God, why was I being such a bitch?
    “Lexi.” His look wasn’t angry, it was dead serious. “When I got that call…” He closed his eyes. “When they told me what happened… Those guys could have done a lot more than just take your purse.”
    “They wouldn’t have hurt me.”
    “How the hell do you know?” he roared.
    I shut up. He dropped his head, and I noticed his hands were balled into tight fists by his sides.
    “I’m sorry,” I whispered. I tried to swallow around the lump in my throat. He’d been scared for me…worried about me. And I was acting like an inconsiderate brat. He didn’t say anything, just turned around and stared out the window. It had started to snow.
    “I don’t mean to be ungrateful. It’s just that no one’s ever worried about me before.” I paused for a second. “Well, April worries about me. But she worries that everyone on Gilligan’s Island will end up with skin cancer, so I’m not sure if she counts.”
    Dan didn’t speak, but his hands unclenched a