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Thankfully, Gretchen came to my rescue. She walked in the back door and stated, “Drake get over here and help an old woman out. Use those muscles for something other than flexing in the mirror.”
I snorted and paused on the stairs then decided it would be rude to not offer my help as well. I mean, the woman was cooking for me all the time after all.
“Here, let me.” I held out my hands to take one of the bags from her as Drake grabbed the others. We had a moment where our eyes locked and it was like a jolt hit me right in the chest. Weirded out by the feeling I was having, I hurried to put the bags on the island before turning on my heel and darting up the stairs.
My steps slowed as Gretchen and Drake began talking. Knowing I was out of sight, I pressed myself against the wall and leaned in, hoping to hear something that might explain all the strangeness going on around this place.
“How do you think it’s going?” Gretchen asked.
A chair scraped against the floor and Drake answered, “Hard to tell. She’s more suspicious than she was before.”
Before? Who were they talking about? Couldn’t be me, I’d never met the guy before today.
“Well, you’ve only got six months to make it work,” Gretchen told him, followed by some pots and pans clanging together. “You better get a move on or this will all be for nothing.”
Drake groaned. “Don’t remind me. This whole thing is a crock of shit. Who in their right minds could fall in love that quickly.”
There was a pause before Gretchen said, “You did before remember?”
“What are you doing?”
I jumped in place and nearly fell down the stairs, Darren grabbed a hold of me before I could break my neck. I clung to him and stuttered out, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Darren replied stiffly before removing himself from me as if I had some kind of cooties. “So what were you doing loitering on the stairs? Not eavesdropping are you?” Darren asked loudly and the talking in the kitchen promptly stopped.
“Uh…no no. I wasn’t eavesdropping.” I raised my voice and called behind me, “I wasn’t eavesdropping.” Then turned back to Darren. “Excuse me.” I marched up the stairs making sure my shoes stomped hard on each step. When I reached the top of the stairs I found Darren following behind me.
I growled, spinning around to shove a finger at his chest. “Look, I don’t know what your problem is but you’ve been nothing but a dick to me since we met this morning. So why don’t you just stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours okay?”
Darren glanced down at the finger touching him and then back up at me, his expression softening. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to give you that impression. Please understand that I had no intentions of being a dick to you.”
I huffed and crossed my arms. “Well, you could have fooled me.”
A little laugh came from Darren. “Yes, well. Let’s start over, shall we?” He held his gloved hand out toward me.
I stared at it briefly before grasping it with mine. What the hell? Might as well make my life easier. “Those gloves are weird by the way.”
Darren’s lips ticked up. “Yes, I know.”
Dropping his hand, I walked toward my room once more. Darren didn’t follow after me and I was almost to my room before I stopped and thought of something.
“Hey, can I ask you something?” I peered over my shoulder at Darren who waited for me to continue. “The last maid here…was she some kind of vampire goth freak?”
Darren’s face expression went flat. “What do you mean?”
I felt like such an idiot. “There’s a lot of vials of blood in my room and I just thought maybe the last maid was into some kind of weird shit.”
Placing his hands behind his back, Darren inclined his head, amusement twinkling in his eyes. “I suppose you could say that. Good night, Piper.”
I watched as he walked back down the stairs, my hand on my door handle as I shook my head. “Weird family. Just so fucking weird.”
