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Asher smiled but shook his head. “I am a grown-up vampire. I will have security with me, and I will not be your excuse to miss introducing Jean-Claude to your father.”
“You can’t feel my feelings, or hear my thoughts, so how did you get to be so smart?”
He grinned wider, flashing a little fang and making the scars on his face stretch. It was his smile when he was comfortable and feeling loved. It made me happy to see it. “I do not need to read your mind, only your face and the way you hold your body. That told me everything I needed to know.”
I went up on tiptoe and gave him a careful kiss good-bye. “I wish I could kiss you more thoroughly, but I’m wearing too much makeup to smear my lipstick.”
“We will have other nights to smear your lipstick on more interesting parts of my body than my mouth,” he said with a look in his eyes that made me shiver against him and Jean-Claude.
“Come,ma petite, before we both forget ourselves and stay here.”
We left to make the restaurant reservation and introduce Jean-Claude to my dad. I’d rather have stayed and talked to the cops, or at least held Asher’s hand while he talked to them. I didn’t wish for a fresh crime scene to get me out of dinner, though I used to do that, but too many times my phone would ring right after, and someone would be dead. It got me out of the awkward social situation, but I’d started to feel almost like I was cursing the victims, causing it somehow. My therapist said that was magical thinking and not true, but I could raise the dead from their graves. If I could do that, what’s a little magical manifestation? So I very carefully did not think I’d prefer a serious crime scene to dinner with my family. I was a grown-up; I could do this. Jean-Claude took my hand in his and said, “We can do this,ma petite.” Funny, I believed it more when he said it.
10
Jean-Claude had renteda stretch limo for tonight since we’d planned on bringing my family to the restaurant in style; with just us Nicky, Ethan, and the Wicked Truth it had seemed a little empty, but I was still happy with my decision. My dad would behave himself more in public than in the privacy of a car. He’d proven that on the drive to the hotel. The first time Jean-Claude met my dad, a fancy restaurant sounded like a much better bet to keep Dad under control. I’d given orders to the security duo that was driving my family to the restaurant that my grandmother couldn’t come. If my family tried to bring her, security should call me, and I’d tell them over the phone that the dinner was off. I trusted Milligan and Custer to do their jobs and to call me, but my stomach was still tight with anxiety as I walked on Jean-Claude’s arm toward the table. The hostess had left her station at the front of the restaurant to escort us; that was part of her job, but she was enjoying it a little too much. She was tall and slender, with just enough curve to fill out the shining, curve-hugging dress in the appropriate places. She acknowledged my existence but saved her smiles for Jean-Claude. I didn’t mind her flirting with him; I mean who wouldn’t. It wasn’t even that she was doing it with me on his arm. What bothered me was she was so damned blatant about it. One touch to the shoulder or back to direct us, I’dgive her that, but adding two touches to the arm that didn’t have me hanging on it was a bit much. The last straw was her touching the small of his back to direct him to his chair when I was still standing right there. If her hand went one inch lower I was going to have to defend his honor.
I settled for moving him around like you would on the dance floor, so I was suddenly closer to her. She looked almost startled as if she’d forgotten I was there. I smiled up at her with my best business smile, bright and empty of real emotion. “Thank you for walking us to our table, we’re good now.”
She blinked at me, her glance sliding to Jean-Claude and then back to me as I stepped forward ever so slightly to invade her personal space. She took two steps back, almost stumbling on her high heels. They were too high for standing all night; maybe she’d worn them just for Jean-Claude. I smiled brighter.
“Of course,” she said, “my pleasure.” She did one quick glance at Jean-Claude as she said it. “Your waiter, Paul, will be with you momentarily. If there’s anything else you want, don’t hesitate to ask.” She finished the sentence gazing into Jean-Claude’s eyes and even did the girl eye flutter like she should have a fan to wave in front of her face.
Ethan stepped up and said, “Could you direct us to our table? It should be very close to theirs.” He even wasted a smile on her. It took her a second to smile back, and then smile more. Ethan wasn’t Jean-Claude, but he also didn’t have a fiancée glaring at her. I realized that Ethan had redirected her away from us; not all bodyguarding is about violence. I hoped she didn’t take his flirting too seriously, because his girlfriend Nilda was a lot less tolerant than I was, and she was a werebear. The thought of what Nilda might do to the hostess put a real smile back on my face as Jean-Claude turned me toward the table and my chair.
It was only then that I let myself look at my family seated around the table. I realized that the flirty hostess had helped calm my nerves,and that I had been convinced that Dad wouldn’t stand up to his mother, and even though our security hadn’t called to warn us, I was still expecting Grandma Blake to be sitting at the table scowling at me. The relief when I saw everyone but her and Josh at the table was so immense I felt weak at the knees. That was when I acknowledged that Nicky had been right at the airport; I was afraid of my family. My grandmother because she abused me, and the rest of my family because they didn’t protect me from her.
11
“Thanks for leavingGrandmother at the hotel,” I said.
“What choice did we have? You made yourself very clear that if we brought her you would refuse to sit down and talk with us about your upcoming marriage or anything else,” Dad said. Great, he was going to start out angry. Worked for me.
“I still can’t believe you brought her after I told you not to.”
“She’s my mother, and she is worried about your immortal soul.”
“I’m your daughter and my immortal soul is just fine.”
He pushed his chair back and stood up, facing me across the table. “That remains to be seen, but Josh will miss tonight because you insisted on your grandmother staying at the hotel.”
“Fredrick!” Judith said. “Sit down.” She touched his arm.
He turned his glare from me to her. “I cannot allow her to disrespect her family this way.”
“You’re making a scene, Fredrick,” Judith said; her voice was low but angry. Maybe we could all have a fight before we even sat down and then it would all be over. They’d fly home, and Jean-Claude and I would marry without any of them. I could walk my own damn self down the aisle.
“Ma petite, introduce me to your family.”
I turned to glare at him, but the moment I looked into his face Ifelt petty and unreasonable, and damn it, I would not be the unreasonable one tonight.
I started speaking while I was still looking at Jean-Claude. I would not make a mess of tonight. I would not disappoint the man that I loved by behaving badly. I was better than that. “Dad, this is Jean-Claude; Jean-Claude, this is my father, Fredrick Blake.”
“Doctor Fredrick Blake,” my father said.
“Really, Dad,” I said as I turned and looked at my dad.
Judith was tugging on his arm trying to get him to sit down. “Fredrick, please.”
