"Otherwise" Caydance said, before Edelira could react, "last night he took me out to dinner at a swanky restaurant on Monterey Bay. I wore a blue green silk dress with a plunging neckline, and he looked handsome in his travelling suit. Tomorrow he is picking me up at school, and we are going to get takeout from the French deli and stay at home, and then Wednesday morning we are going to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art."

"You wore a silk dress to dinner? He is picking you up at school. He is going to a museum. This is surprising!"

Not even best friends needed to know if, as Caydance suspected, Griff needed to assert territory over a hockey-playing, class-auditing, foreign service diplomat to the extent that he was probably missing football practice and a class. There were safety issues involved both at school and at the museum, so his stated reasons were valid. Jack's agency connections had not been able to locate Mackie Alarie.