“I KNOW THAT YOU’RE PERFECTLY capable of cooking Thanksgiving dinner, Lula,” I say in exasperation. “But I just thought it would be nice if I helped you with a few things. I work in a bakery, I could do the rolls and it really would be no problem.”
“Girl, you get outa’ my house and stop tryin’ to impose on ma’ family,” Lula growls at me. She literally shakes a frying pan at me.
I turn to Ian, exasperation on my face. “A little help here?”
“I…psh,” he says with a shrug and a shake of his head.
“Really?” I say, completely and utterly annoyed. “Look, Lula—”
“I said get outta’ my house!” she bellows at me.
I raise my hands in surrender and walk out the back door.
“Liv, wait!” Ian calls as he follows me out into the backyard.
“Wait for what?” I yell as he jogs and stops in front of me. “Your grandmother hates me. She won’t even let me in the door most days. Thanksgiving is in two days and she keeps saying she has all week to buy the food. There’s going to be nothing left at the market!”
“Yes, I know she’s completely bat-shit crazy,” Ian says as he puts his hands on my upper arms. “And she sleeps through half the day most days and Thanksgiving won’t be any different. Let’s you and I go right now and get the food. She won’t know any different.”
I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. “Why is your grandmother such a bitch to me?”
“Did you just call my ancient, wrinkly, half-crazy grandmother a bitch?” Ian laughs.
“Well, that’s what she is!”
Ian shakes his head with another laugh. “Yeah, she is.” He takes my hand and starts walking me to his van. “But honestly, I think she hates you because she knows what you’re going to be someday.”
“You told her?!” I gasp in horror.
“No, no!” he reassures me as he opens the passenger door for me. I slip in and Ian rests in the doorframe. “Lula has just always had this…vampdar.”
“A vampdar?” I ask in bored disbelief.
“A vampire radar,” Ian just says as a smile tugs on one side of his mouth. “She just knows when one is close by, other than that one time she slept through one breaking into her house. But she knows. Even if you aren’t a vampire yet.”
“Hm,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. “Key word is yet.”
“Let it go,” he says as he leans in and presses a kiss to my lips. I try to glare at him as he backs up and walks around the van to the driver’s seat.
Over the past month and a half, Ian and I have become experts in going out into town together without appearing to be together. Because with him being an enemy of the House and me having claim over it and all, it won’t lead to any good, us being seen together by anyone.
So we go to stores together. We each take our own baskets, grab our own food. We pass by each other in the aisles, only slyly making eye contact. We checkout separately and one of us returns to the car and the other follows a few minutes later. That’s the dangerous part, when we drive together. Most days we don’t risk it.
We’ve gone to restaurants together, but separate. I manage to drag out Rath every so often—it’s pretty rare. Ian brings along Elle. We catch each other’s eyes. Smile knowingly and continue with our separate meals.
And most nights one of us sneaks to the other’s house.
It’s a weird, disjointed relationship. We both know our expiration date is approaching, but it doesn’t make it any less delicious before that day.
“ALIVIA, WAKE UP.”
My eyes squint open to find Ian lying right in front of me, his nose only an inch from mine. A smile is already splitting his face. The little wrinkles he gets around his mouth and eyes when he does so sends a wave of happiness through my soul.
“I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“What is it?” I ask, sleepily rubbing an eye.
“Don’t ask questions, just get dressed.”
So I do. It’s cold, even in the house, the last Sunday in November. I pull on a sweater and jeans. Barely able to contain his excitement, Ian takes my hand the second I’m done and drags me down the stairs and out the door. We pile into his van, and he heads down the driveway.
“Ian, where are we going?” I ask with a laugh. His excitement is contagious.
“I realized that in this town, I’m never going to be able to take you on a proper date,” he says as he takes one of my hands in his. He raises it to his lips and presses a kiss to the back of my hand. “So I thought we’d get out of town for the day. I wanted to go overnight, but I know you have to work tomorrow morning.”
“You’re making me think I should call Fred and tell him I’m sick,” I say as I raise an eyebrow at Ian.
“I’m thinking maybe you should,” he responds, a hungry look in his eyes.
We drive two hours north to Jackson. I flew into the city when I arrived, but immediately left it. It’s a city, much like any other. A mix of old and new buildings. Rolling greenery.
Ian pulls his van into a parking spot outside a restaurant and takes me inside. It smells like potatoes and eggs and bacon and every other amazing breakfast food.
“Table for two?” the hostess says. Ian nods and she takes us to a table toward the back, right next to a window.
After we order, Ian takes both of my hands in his, pressing my knuckles to his lips. He stares at me, studying me in the deepest sense of the word.
“What?” I say with a happy smile. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
A small smile pulls at his lips and he shakes his head. “I just… I just wish that we could do this, all the time. Without hiding and being on our toes every second of the day.”
My eyes soften and his words melt all the female parts inside of me. “I know.”
And I imagine it for a moment. The two of us running away, leaving Mississippi. Going to…Nebraska. Surely there aren’t any vampires in Nebraska. We could live a normal life without kissing in the shadows or behind closed doors. We could just be…together.
But I can’t say any of those things. Because I made Ian make me a promise, and I have to keep it, too. And I will only do that by not daydreaming too hard.
“What do you want to do today?” he asks as the waitress brings us our brunch. “What could we never do in Silent Bend?”
“Um,” I take a moment to mull it over as I take a bite of the French toast. “All of those cliché first date things normal people get to do. A movie. A walk in the park. Ice cream.”
“It’s only like forty-five degrees outside, Liv,” Ian chuckles as he bites into a piece of toast. “You want ice cream?”
“I want ice cream,” I laugh at myself and him. I pucker out my lower lip in a pout for effect.
“Alright,” he says. “The woman wants ice cream, so she’ll get ice cream.”
I want to say that I only want to go out for ice cream with him, but that’s just too much for our very few weeks we have left. So instead, I simply lean over the table, and Ian meets me halfway. Slowly, softly, our lips linger.
As people walk by on the street outside that window right next to us. Here we are, kissing, being together, for everyone in Jackson to see. And for this moment, I don’t care who sees.
“I’M REALLY SORRY TO LEAVE you hanging last minute,” I say into my cell phone that night. I cough for effect. “I just don’t want to bring the plague into the shop.”
“Don’ worry about nothin,’” Fred says on the other end. “I’ll get things takin’ care of. You rest up.”
“Thanks, Fred,” I say. I feel bad for lying to him since he’s being so kind and understanding. “I’m sure I’ll be fine by Wednesday.”
We say our goodbyes and I hang up.
The city of Jackson is laid out before me. Our hotel room is on the seventh floor, which isn’t very high, but it isn’t the most vertical city. City lights twinkle in the dark and it’s just beautiful. Made all the more beautiful by the perfect beautiful day I’ve just had.
Ian and I did all those mundane, normal date things. We saw a chick-flick, took a walk through the freezing cold park after we got our ice cream. We held hands and kissed and cuddled for all to see.
I’m going to miss all of this when we have to leave in the morning.
A sliver of light cuts through the dark hotel room. I turn to see Ian walking out of the bathroom, a burst of steam following him from the shower he’s just taken.
He wears a pair of sweats I’ve seen him sleep in many times. But his chest is bare. And I bare no shame as I let my eyes wander over his skin.
Cut chest. Rising and falling valley of stomach muscles. Shoulders that beg me to touch them. Scars dot his body here and there, but they only add to the rugged beauty that is this man who I wish could be mine. Forever.
Ian’s eyes never once leave mine as he slowly crosses the room to me. And with every step he takes, I feel my temperature rising a few degrees.
Finally, an eternity later, he stops just an inch from me. “You’re so beautiful, Alivia.” His fingers hesitantly come to my sides, sending sparks racing through my body. His nose brushes mine, his lips just a breath away.
He smells like soap and heat and desire, and it leaves my head spinning. His still wet hair drips onto his shoulders, and my own wet hair drips down my back, soaking the oversized shirt I’m wearing over my underwear.
“I don’t want to leave tomorrow,” he whispers. He traces his nose over my cheek, and then his lips are brushing against my ear.
“Just pretend tonight is all there is,” I breathe. “It’s just us. Just tonight.”
His lips kiss my ear, and then they part and his teeth send an explosion of desire rocketing through my veins.
Suddenly, the inch of space between us is far too much and I am not in possession of my own body when I clasp my hands behind his neck and wrap both of my legs firmly around his waist.
It’s just Ian. Just me.