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I groaned and for a second leaned against her, and then I really snuggled into her, because I was freezing. Because I was in a freezer. Hiding. Why was I hiding? I wasn’t a coward, and I was Bellham’s daughter and heir, even if I was a little bit weird, and my mom was more than slightly unconventional. I’d married Percy, not his family, like he’d married me and not mine. It really was me he loved, not my dad’s money and position. He’d run away from that, and if we really hated working with his family, particularly on this internship, we could figure out how to run away again.
I loved Percy, and he loved me, and maybe it was a gargoyle compulsion, but I was a gargoyle, and what could be more magical than that? Percy. Loving him was more magical than anything. So what was I going to do? Hide in a freezer forever because I was too ashamed of who I was? He’d married me, not some aristocratic blonde with aspirations of grandeur. I could always go back to my accounting major. But until then, I’d try to make a difference, represent the vampire, and learn from his mother how to be a shark. I needed to do everything I could, to learn so that I could protect him now that we were going to be forced into the spotlight. We’d be targets, all of us, and my mom.
I pulled away from Libby and started smiling.
She raised her brows and cocked her head. “That’s a dangerous look.”
“I have freezing hands.”
She nodded. “I noticed.”
“I think that the purpose of husbands is that they have to warm up your cold hands when you stick them up their shirts, right?”
She grinned back at me. “Particularly when they’re standing on a piano, distracted trying to keep Ma’am Granite from falling over.”
“Exactly.”
We walked out of the freezer, smiling together. When I got out into the dining area, I took off the apron and threw it at Rynne, holding up my wrist, so she could nod and then she pointed at her left hand ring finger, because why wasn’t I wearing a ring? I shrugged because the ring had gone through me, not on me.
The sight of Percy on the piano singing his heart out with Ma-am Granite made my own heart twinge. He looked so comfortable in my life. So I was going to look like that in his. I could do whatever it took to build a life with him that we both wanted. My mom was leaning over, having said something apparently hilarious to his mom, who snorted and laughed, choking on her elixir while they melted down on the bar around the piano.
Libby went ahead to join them while I stood there, just looking. This was my family? How weird and wonderful.
“Are you going to join them?” my dad said softly to my left and behind me.
“Yeah.” I turned to look at him. He was looking kind of haunted, kind of nauseous. “Are you coming? You’re part of the family.”
He hesitated, frowning, before he finally shook his head and took a step back. “She’s enjoying this special moment. I don’t want to make her uncomfortable.”
I nodded and then smiled at him. “You’re afraid.”
“Terrified.”
I laughed and patted his arm. “Like Libby said, give it time. I’ll see you later. I’m sure we’ll have tea or something.”
“Sure.”
“And then she’s going to ask you out, because she thinks that you’re hot.”
He stiffened up, once again with the paralyzing fear.
“Are you afraid that she’ll like you or that she’ll dislike you?”
He shook his head, looking at me with a cocked brow. “I am unsure.”
“Ah. How is it going to work out, being married into his family?”
“It will be very interesting to work out the alliances between us. Most marriages between such old families are arranged in childhood.”
I shook my head and had to leave before he freaked me out enough that I went back to the freezer. I put my freezing hands on Percy’s back and relished his shriek that got feedback in the microphone and made everyone in the bar groan and shudder.
He pulled me close and held me so tight.
“Are you okay?” he asked, bumping my forehead with his.
“Cold, but I’m sure you’re going to warm me up.” I winked at him as salaciously as possible, while he shook his head and then kissed me, so quick, sweet, and absolutely delicious, that I couldn’t help but smile and relax against him.
We sang with the band, Libby on her guitar, and Mirabel, the music master on the piano. In that moment, the city came to life, that little weird sushi piano bar came to life and I felt the truth and connection, the love for every person there, even my dad where he watched from the shadows, even that girl at the bar who laughed too high-pitched every time someone said something to her. I leaned into Percy, my husband, my love, and couldn’t help myself.
“I love you, Percival Marigold.”
He turned his head and kissed me, a shockingly intense kiss for public, but the searing flame that swept through me blocked out the rest of the world. When he pulled away, my heart was beating rapidly. This was worth everything, no matter the price.
I leaned my head against his chest and trusted him to not let me fall off the piano, except that he’d recently been unconscious, and Ma’am Granite started toppling…
The End
