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“Lower your voice, Dad.”
“I’m sorry, Anita, it’s just that I do not understand how this happened. You hated vampires and saw them for the monsters they are, and then suddenly Judith is showing me images of you online dating one.”
Judith said, “I thought he’d just like to see you all dressed up on Jean-Claude’s arm, but that’s not how he took it.”
“I know.”
“I’m sorry that he started calling you about Jean-Claude. I swear to you that wasn’t my intent,” she said.
“I know that, Judith. It hadn’t occurred to me that Jean-Claude would be a big enough celebrity to interest your magazines and gossip sites.”
“Are you kidding? Vampires and other supernatural celebrities are the hottest thing out there.” She flashed a truly dazzling smile at Jean-Claude. It reminded me that when I was butting heads with Judith as a kid, I had resented her for being beautiful in a way that I could never be—tall, blond, blue-eyed, Nordic. The only thing I’d inherited from my father was the pale skin, so I had the dark hair and eyes but still couldn’t tan at all. At least growing up we’d all had to slather on sunscreen.
I looked at her now talking animatedly to Jean-Claude about some of the rumors about other supernatural celebrities. Andria joined in some and it became small talk mostly about other people. Some we knew, some we didn’t, but that was okay; it was small talk about other people you could speculate on without hurting the feelings of anyone at the table.
My dad didn’t take part in the conversation, and mostly neither did I. He and I sort of stared at each other in matching brooding looks. Then my phone rang, and the dial tone meant it was Sergeant Zerbrowski of the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team.
“Ma petite, you promised no work tonight.”
“I know.” I hit the button to cut the phone call off. “I’ll text Zerbrowski back and tell him to call another marshal.” I was already typing on my phone.What’s up? I’m at dinner with family introducing them to Jean-Claude.
I watched the little bubbles letting me know that he was typing back. The table had gone quiet, and everyone was watching me stare at my phone. “Sorry,” I said, “this will just take a few minutes.”
Zerbrowski texted back.Sorry, forgot it was tonight. How’s it going?
I thought for a second, then texted,Dad accused Jean-Claude of murder and damning my soul to hell by marrying me.
He texted,Jesus.
“Is your ringtone fromA Charlie Brown Christmas?” Andria asked.
“Yes,” I said, still looking at my phone.
I’m so sorry, Anita. Hang in there. I’ll call Kirkland tonight.
I texted back.Let him put all that new FBI training to work.
I don’t think they teach this at Quantico.
I wanted so badly to text back and ask what he meant by that, but I’d promised Jean-Claude that I wouldn’t abandon him for work tonight, no matter what the crime. I meant that, I really did, but still…I used the new mantra I was trying to work out with my therapist. I thought it loud in my head:I am not the only cop in the world. I’m allowed to have a life outside the job. If I try to save everyone all the time, I end up losing myself.I was still working at editing it down to something less wordy and easier to think or say quickly, but it was a start. I’d ask Zerbrowski for crime details tomorrow, after Jean-Claude and I had made it through tonight.
“What happened to you, Anita?” Andria asked.
I glanced at her, away from my phone and Zerbrowski’s bubbles that let me know he was still typing. “What do you mean?”
“You wouldn’t even admit to liking any of the Charlie Brown Christmas specials when you were a teenager. Now it’s your ringtone. You vowed never to marry because it was stupid. You hated that I was pretend-planning my wedding when we were kids. You were disdainful of the whole idea. Now here you are planning the biggest wedding of the year, maybe the decade. How are you the same girl I grew up with? That’s what I mean.”
“It’s not my ringtone, it’s Sergeant Zerbrowski’s ringtone.”
“Why would you use it for a police sergeant?” Dad asked.
Zerbrowski texted back.We got this tonight. You take care of you and Jean-Claude. Tell me all the juicy parts tomorrow.That last made mesmile as I looked back up at my family. The truth was that though his wife, Katie, was one of the neatest people I knew from clothes to house, Zerbrowski would leave the house just as neat and within seconds he just seemed to attract dirt, and his clothes wrinkled like magic. His car was one of the messiest I’d ever driven in, and that included boys I knew in college. The fast-food wrappers that piled up like an archaeological dig had disappeared when his doctor told him he needed to lower his cholesterol, but he’d just found other things to throw into his backseat. He’d once had a suspect claim that having to sit in the backseat of Zerbrowski’s car was cruel and unusual punishment. It reminded me of the character Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown, but I meant it like a cute idiosyncrasy, like you do with friends; my family would think I was insulting him, so I just said, “Zerbrowski and I work together a lot, unofficial partners, so it’s the Linus and Lucy theme.”
“That’s still way too cutesy for you to choose for another police officer,” Andria said.
“It’s not just your attitude toward vampires that’s changed, Anita, it’s everything,” Dad said.
“She grew up, Fredrick.”
