I don’t know what made me say it. The minute the words were out of my mouth, I wished the grave beneath us would open up and swallow me, too.

So you can imagine my surprise when Jesse demanded, in a voice I barely recognized as his, it was so filled with pent-up emotion, “Is that what you think? That I wanted to leave?”

“Didn’t you?” I stared at him, completely dumbstruck. I was trying very hard to remain coolly detached from the whole thing, on account of having had my pride stomped on. Still, my heart, which I could have sworn had shriveled up and blown away a day or two ago, suddenly came shuddering back to life, even though I warned it firmly not to.

“How could I stay?” Jesse wanted to know. “After what happened between us, Susannah, how could I stay?”

I genuinely had no idea what he was talking about. “What happened between us? What do you mean?”

“That kiss.” He let go of my hand, so suddenly that I stumbled.

But I didn’t care. I didn’t care because I was beginning to think something wonderful was happening. Something glorious. I thought it all the more when I saw Jesse lift a hand to run his fingers through his hair, and I saw that they were shaking. His fingers, I mean. Why would his fingers be shaking like that?

“How could I stay?” Jesse wanted to know. “Father Dominic was right. You need to be with someone your family and your friends can actually see. You need to be with someone who can grow old with you. You need to be with someone alive.”

Suddenly, it was all beginning to make sense. Those weeks of awkward silences between us. Jesse’s standoffishness. It wasn’t because he didn’t love me. It wasn’t because he didn’t love me, at all.

I shook my head. My blood, which I’d begun to suspect had somehow frozen in my veins these past few days, seemed suddenly to begin flowing again. I hoped that I was not making another mistake. I hoped this was not a dream I was going to wake up from anytime soon.

“Jesse,” I said, feeling drunk with happiness, “I don’t care about any of that. That kiss…that kiss was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

I was simply stating a fact. That’s all. A fact that I’d been sure he’d already known.

But I guess it came as a surprise to him, since the next thing I knew, he’d pulled me into his arms, and was kissing me all over again.

And it was like the world, which had, for the past few weeks, been off its axis, suddenly righted itself. I was in Jesse’s arms, and he was kissing me, and everything was fine. More than fine. Everything was perfect. Because he loved me.

And yeah, okay, maybe that meant he had to move out…and yeah, there was the whole Paul thing. I still wasn’t too sure what I was going to do about that.

But what did any of that matter? He loved me!

And this time when he kissed me, no one interrupted.

Suze’s supernatural misadventures continue in the sixth Mediator book,

Twilight

The following is an excerpt:

I found the stone exactly where Mrs. Gutierrez had said it would be, beneath the drooping branches of the overgrown hibiscus in her backyard. I shut off the flashlight. Even though there was supposed to have been a full moon that night, by midnight a thick layer of clouds had blown in from the sea, and a dank mist had reduced visibility to nil.

But I didn’t need light to see by anymore. I just needed to dig. I sunk my fingers into the wet soft earth and pried the stone from its resting spot. It moved easily and wasn’t heavy. Soon I was feeling beneath it for the tin box Mrs. Gutierrez had assured me would be there….

Except that it wasn’t. There was nothing beneath my fingers except damp soil.

That’s when I heard it—a twig snapping beneath the weight of someone nearby.

I froze. I was trespassing, after all; the last thing I needed was to be dragged home by the Carmel, California, cops.

Again.

Then, with my pulse beating frantically as I tried to figure out how on earth I was going to explain my way out of this one, I recognized the lean shadow—darker than all the others—standing a few feet away. My heart continued to pound in my ears, but now for an entirely different reason.

“You,” I said, climbing slowly, shakily, to my feet.

“Hello, Suze.” His voice, floating toward me through the mist, was deep, and not at all unsteady…unlike my own voice, which had an unnerving tendency to shake when he was around.

It wasn’t the only part of me that shook when he was around, either.

But I was determined not to let him know that.

“Give it back,” I said, holding out my hand.

He threw back his head and laughed.

“Are you nuts?” he wanted to know.

“I mean it, Paul,” I said, my voice steady, but my confidence already beginning to seep away, like sand beneath my feet.

“It’s two thousand dollars, Suze,” he said, as if I might be unaware of that fact. “Two thousand.”

“And it belongs to Julio Gutierrez.” I sounded sure of myself, even if I wasn’t exactly feeling that way. “Not you.”

“Oh, right,” Paul said, his deep voice dripping with sarcasm. “And what’s Gutierrez gonna do, call the cops? He doesn’t know it’s missing, Suze. He never even knew it was there.”

“Because his grandmother died before she had a chance to tell him,” I reminded him.

“Then he won’t notice, will he?” Despite the darkness, I could tell Paul was smiling. I could hear it in his voice. “You can’t miss what you never knew you had.”

“Mrs. Gutierrez knows.” I’d dropped my hand so he wouldn’t see it shaking, but I couldn’t disguise the growing unsteadiness in my voice as easily. “If she finds out you stole it, she’ll come after you.”

“What makes you think she hasn’t already?” he asked, so smoothly that the hairs on my arms stood up…and not because of the brisk autumn weather, either.

I didn’t want to believe him. He had no reason to lie. And obviously, Mrs. Gutierrez had come to him as well as me, anxious for any help she could get. How else could he have known about the money?

Poor Mrs. Gutierrez. She had definitely put her trust the wrong mediator. Because it looked as if Paul hadn’t just robbed her. Oh, no. Then, apparently seeing my expression—though I don’t know how, since the clouds overhead were thicker than ever—he softened his tone.