She did take a step back, but it was a tiny one. "So--are you okay? Really?"
"Sure. It's not exactly the Ritz, but it's not bad. They're not keeping us here to hurt us, I know that." Michael stretched out a finger and touched her lips. "I'll be back soon."
"Better be," Eve said. She mockbit at his finger. "I could totally date somebody else, you know."
"And I could rent out your room."
"And I could put your game console on eBay."
"Hey," Shane protested. "Now you're just being mean."
"See what I mean? You need to come home, or it's total chaos. Dogs and cats, living together." Eve's voice dropped, but not quite to a whisper. "And I miss you. I miss seeing you. I miss you all the time."
"I miss you, too," Michael murmured, then blinked and looked at Claire and Shane. "I mean, I miss all of you."
"Sure you do," Shane agreed. "But not in that way, I hope."
"Shut up, dude. Don't make me come out there."
Shane turned to the policeman. "See? He's fine."
"I was more worried about you guys," Michael confessed. "Everything okay at the house?"
"I have to burn a blouse Monica borrowed," Claire said. "Otherwise, we're good."
They tried to talk a while longer, but somehow, Sam's silent, rigid back turned toward them made conversation seem more desperate than fun. He was really hurting, and Claire didn't know--short of letting him go for a jog in the noontime sun--how to make it any better. She didn't know where Amelie was, and with the portals shut, she doubted she could even know where to start looking.
Amelie had gathered up an army--whatever Bishop hadn't grabbed first--but what she was doing with it was anybody's guess. Claire didn't have a clue.
So in the end, she hugged Michael and told Sam it would all be okay, and they left.
"If they stay calm through the day, I'll let them out tonight," Richard said. "But I'm worried about letting them roam around on their own. What happened to Charles and the others could keep on happening. Captain Obvious used to be our biggest threat, but now we don't know who's out there, or what they're planning. And we can't count on the vampires to be able to protect themselves right now."
"My dad would say that it's about time the tables turned," Shane said.
Richard fixed him with a long stare. "Is that what you say, too?"
Shane looked at Michael, and at Sam. "No," he said. "Not anymore."
The day went on quietly. Claire got out her books and spent part of the day trying to study, but she couldn't get her brain to stop spinning. Every few minutes, she checked her email and her phone, hoping for something, anything, from Amelie. You can't just leave us like this. We don't know what to do.
Except keep moving forward. Like Shane had said, they couldn't stay still. The world kept on turning.
Eve drove Claire to her parents' house in the afternoon, where she had cake and iced tea and listened to her mother's frantic flow of good cheer. Her dad looked sallow and unwell, and she worried about his heart, as always. But he seemed okay when he told her he loved her, and that he worried, and that he wanted her to move back home.
Just when she thought they'd gotten past that . . .
Claire exchanged a quick look with Eve. "Maybe we should talk about that when things get back to normal?" As if they ever were normal in Morganville. "Next week?"
Dad nodded. "Fine, but I'm not going to change my mind, Claire. You're better off here, at home." Whatever spell Mr. Bishop had cast over her father, it was still working great; he was singleminded about wanting her out of the Glass House. And maybe it hadn't been a spell at all; maybe it was just normal parental instinct.
Claire crammed her mouth with cake and pretended not to hear, and asked her mom about the new curtains. That filled another twenty minutes, and then Eve was able to make excuses about needing to get home, and then they were in the car.
"Wow," Eve said, and started the engine. "So. Are you going to do it? Move in with them?"
Claire shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. I don't know if we're going to get through the day! It's kind of hard to make plans." She wasn't going to say anything, truly, she wasn't, but the words had been boiling and bubbling inside her all day, and as Eve put the car in drive, Claire said, "Shane said he loved me."
Eve hit the brakes, hard enough to make their seat belts click in place. "Shane what? Said what?"
"Shane said he loved me."
"Okay, first impressions--fantastic, good, that's what I was hoping you'd said." Eve took a deep breath and let up on the brake, steering out into the deserted street. "Second impressions, well, I hope that you two . . . um . . . how can I put this? Watch yourselves?"
"You mean, don't have sex? We won't." Claire said it with a little bit of an edge. "Even if we wanted to. I mean, he promised, and he's not going to break that promise, not even if I say it's okay."
"Oh. Oh." Eve stared at her, wideeyed, for way too long for road safety. "You're kidding! Wait, you're not. He said he loved you, and then he said--"
"No," Claire said. "He said no."
"Oh." Funny, how many meanings that word could have. This time it was full of sympathy. "You know, that makes him--"
"Great? Superbly awesome? Yeah, I know. I just--" Claire threw up her hands. "I just want him, okay?"
"He'll still be there in a couple of months, Claire. At seventeen, you're not a kid, at least in Texas."
"You've put some thought into this."
"Not me," Eve said, and gave her an apologetic look.
"Shane? You mean--you mean you talked about this? With Shane?"
"He needed some girl guidance. I mean, he's taking this really seriously--a lot more seriously than I expected. He wants to do the right thing. That's cool, right? I think that's cool. Most guys, it's just, whatever."
Claire clenched her jaw so hard she felt her teeth grinding. "I can't believe he talked to you about it!"
"Well, you're talking to me about it."
"He's a guy!"
"Guys occasionally talk, believe it or not. Something more than pass the beer or where's the p**n ?" Eve turned the corner, and they cruised past a couple of slow blocks of houses, some people out walking, an elementary school with a TEMPORARILY CLOSED sign out front. "You didn't exactly ask for advice, but I'm going to give it: don't rush this. You may think you're good to go, but give it some time. It's not like you have a sellby date or anything."