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His dad chortles. “Scare her away! This is the woman who slays demons for my son. She isn’t scared of a little old hug.” He yanks me away from Grayson and pulls me into a bear hug, which lifts me off my feet. To my relief, he lets me down and motions us into the house before he can squash me.
I start to walk inside, but my foot catches on the door sill and I go flying. Grayson wraps an arm around my waist to stop me from falling flat on my face. In my defense, the door sill is elevated way higher than normal.
“Would you look at that? The demon slayer is a klutz.” Norman chuckles.
“Dad.”
“It’s fine.” I smooth my hand down Grayson’s arm. “He’s not wrong.”
“And we both know you’re not as klutzy as you pretend to be.” I ignore him. Now is not the time to discuss my inability to walk with two left feet.
“Come in. Come in.” Armela ushers us into the kitchen where we take seats around the table. Before I can blink, there’s a coffee cake in front of me and I can smell the coffee brewing.
“When did you get into town?” Armela asks as she serves us cake.
“Yesterday.”
“Of course, Bill’s birthday.” She sniffles but blinks away her tears before they have a chance to fall. Of course, Grayson’s parents practically raised Bill. They must be feeling his loss too.
“Where did you stay last night?” Norman asks.
“At a hotel.”
“Why didn’t you stay here last night?” I blush as memories of all the things Grayson and I did last night flitter through my mind. I wasn’t exactly quiet.
Norman looks at my face and winks. “We wouldn’t have minded. I’m half deaf anyway.”
Armela slaps him. “Stop embarrassing them.” Lucky for me, she deliberately changes the subject. “I’ll bring out Grayson’s baby album as soon as you finish your cake.”
I bite my tongue to stop myself from cheering in excitement. Grayson groans.
Armela points at him. “Don’t you dare say a word, young man. I have waited a long time for you to bring a woman home.”
My eyes widen as I glance over at Grayson. “Have you never brought a girl home before?”
He shrugs. A shrug is not an answer.
Armela pats my hand. “He was waiting for the right woman.”
“Mom, stop scaring her.”
“What? I’m not scaring her.”
She totally is, but I’m not admitting my fear to his parents on the first meeting. What I am going to do is kill Grayson as soon as we leave. How dare he ambush me like this! And could he have warned me his parents are crazy? Yes, yes, he could have.
I shovel my cake in my maw. I want those embarrassing Grayson stories. The shoveling is not due to my desperate need for an excuse to not talk. Nope. This coffee cake rocks.
An hour later I find myself sitting in Grayson’s childhood living room laughing my ass off. “He didn’t!” I exclaim.
“Oh, he did.” Norman frowns at his son. “Nearly got expelled for it too.”
“What were they thinking bringing a live animal into a school full of teenagers?” Grayson grumps as I continue to giggle. “It was entirely too much temptation.”
“Then it wasn’t your fault you set the donkey free?”
“How was I supposed to know the donkey was going to find its way into the cafeteria and steal all the bananas off students’ trays?” Notice he didn’t deny freeing the animal.
While I wipe tears of mirth from my eyes, Grayson stands. “We need to get going. Suzie has work in the morning, and I have a class.”
