But I had an equally strong feeling that I wasn’t going to like what I found out. In fact, a part of me was wondering whether or not I was making the worst mistake of my life.

It didn’t help matters much that Paul, with his dark sunglasses and easy smile, looked like a movie star. Really, how could I have had so many nightmares about this guy who was so clearly any normal girl’s dream date? I didn’t miss the envious glances that were being shot in my direction from around the parking lot.

“Did I happen to mention,” Paul asked, as I fastened my seat belt, “that I think those shoes are flickin’?”

I swallowed. I didn’t even know what flicking meant. I could only assume from his tone that it meant something good.

Did I really want to do this? Was it worth it?

The answer came from deep within…so deep, I realized that I had known it all along: Yes. Oh, yes.

“Just drive,” I said, my voice coming out huskier than usual, because I was trying not to let my nervousness show.

And so he did.

The house he drove me to was an impressive two-storied structure built into the side of a cliff right off Carmel Beach. It was made almost entirely of glass in order to take advantage of its ocean and sunset views.

Paul seemed to notice that I was impressed, since he said, “It’s my grandfather’s place. He wanted a little place on the beach to retire to.”

“Right,” I said, swallowing hard. Grandpa Slater’s “little” place on the beach had to have cost a cool five million or so. “And he doesn’t mind having a roommate all of a sudden?”

“Are you kidding?” Paul smirked as he parked his car in one of the spaces of the house’s four-car garage. “He barely knows I’m here. The guy’s gorked out on his meds most of the time.”

“Paul,” I said uncomfortably.

“What?” Paul blinked at me from behind his Ray-Bans. “I’m just stating a fact. Pops is pretty much bedridden and should be in an assisted living facility, but he put up this huge fuss when we tried to move him to one. So when I suggested I move in to kind of keep an eye on things, my dad agreed. It’s a win-win situation. Pops gets to live at home—with health-care attendants to look after him, of course—and I get to attend my dream school, the Mission Academy.”

I felt my face heat up, but I tried to keep my tone light.

“Oh, so going to Catholic school is your dream?” I asked sarcastically.

“It is if you’re there,” Paul said, just as lightly…but not quite as sarcastically.

My face promptly turned red as a cherry-dipped cone. Keeping it averted so that Paul wouldn’t notice, I said primly, “I don’t think this such a good idea, after all.”

“Relax, Simon,” Paul drawled. “Pop’s day attendant is here, in case you’re, you know, suffering from any feminine misgivings about being alone in the house with me.”

I followed the direction Paul was pointing. At the end of the steep circular drive sat a rusted-out Toyota Celica. I didn’t say anything, but mostly only because I was kind of amazed at how easily Paul seemed to have read my mind. I had been sitting there, suffering from second thoughts about the whole thing. I had never exactly raised the issue with my parents, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t allowed to go to guys’ houses when their parents weren’t home.

On the other hand, if I didn’t in this case, I would never find out what I needed—and I was convinced by now that this was something I actually really did need—to know.

Paul slid out from behind the wheel, then walked around to my side of the car and opened the door for me.

“Coming, Suze?” he asked, when I didn’t move to undo my seat belt.

“Uh,” I said, looking nervously up at the big glass house. It looked disturbingly empty, despite the Toyota.

Paul seemed to read my mind again.

“Would you get off it, Suze?” he said, rolling his eyes. “Your virtue’s in no danger from me. I swear I’ll keep my hands to myself. This is business. There’ll be plenty of time for fun later.”

I tried to smile coolly, so he wouldn’t suspect that I am not accustomed to people—okay, guys—saying this sort of thing to me every day. But the truth is, of course I’m not. And it bugged me the way it made me feel when Paul did it. I mean, I did not even like this guy, but every time he said something like that—suggested that he thought I was, I don’t know, special—it sent this little shiver down my spine…and not in a bad way.

That was the thing. It wasn’t in a bad way. What was that all about? I mean, I don’t even like Paul. I am fully in love with somebody else. And, yeah, Jesse is presently showing no signs of actually returning my feelings, but it’s not like because of that I am suddenly going to start going out with Paul Slater…no matter how good he might look in his Ray-Bans.

I got out of the car.

“Wise decision,” Paul commented, closing the car door behind me.

There was a sort of finality in the sound of that door being slammed shut. I tried not to think about what I might be letting myself in for as I followed Paul up the cement steps to the wide glass front door to his grandfather’s house, barefoot, my Jimmy Choos in one hand and my book bag in the other.

Inside the Slaters’ house, it was cool and quiet…so quiet, you couldn’t even hear the pounding surf of the ocean not a hundred feet below it. Whoever had decorated the place had taste that ran toward the modern, so everything looked sleek and new and uncomfortable. The house, I imagined, must have been freezing in the morning when the fog rolled in, since everything in it was made of glass or metal. Paul led me up a twisting steel staircase from the front door to the high-tech kitchen, where all the appliances gleamed aggressively.

“Cocktail?” he asked me, opening a glass door to a liquor cabinet.

“Very funny,” I said. “Just water, please. Where’s your grandfather?”

“Down the hall,” Paul said, as he pulled two bottles of designer water from the enormous Sub-Zero fridge. He must have noticed my nervous glance over my shoulder, since he added, “Go take a look for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

I went to take a look for myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him…well, okay, it was. Though it would have been pretty bold of him to lie about something I could so easily check. And what was I going to do if it turned out his grandfather wasn’t there? I mean, no way was I leaving before I’d found out what I’d come to learn.