I leaned closer to her. I tried to remember if she was vegetarian and couldn’t. But I recalled that she preferred simple foods. I pointed her to the vegetarian risotto. “I hear that’s very nice.”
She nodded at me, looking grateful. “Then that is what I shall have.”
Dad got up, ready to go to the bar and order our food. “Come on, Mother,” he said. “You’re holding us all up. And I for one am hungry.”
“Oh, hold your horses. I’ll have the salad and the shepherd’s pie.” She looked very pleased with herself that she’d made a decision. And then she smiled up at my dad as though letting him in on a great secret. “I’ll have the soup for lunch another day.”
“Excellent decision,” said the man who’d lived with her for decades.
Now that I was getting more accustomed to the idea of my parents and Meri and Pete being here, I loosened up a little. I tried to ask more questions about the dig, which I’d much rather talk about than hen parties. Mom seemed like now that she was out of Egypt, she didn’t want to talk about her favorite subject. Instead, she got a very laser-like, beady-eyed stare.
“Your wedding dress. What have you done about your wedding dress?”
I opened my mouth to tell her that the vampires were crocheting me one and then closed my mouth so fast, my teeth snapped together. What was I thinking? And one more panicked text went out to Gran and Sylvia, assuming that one of them would have their phones with them, warning that Mom was in town and Gran was going to have to stay out of sight.
Gran played a large role in my life since the shop had been hers before me, and we talked every day. I was going to have to get rid of Gran’s gingersnap cookies, too, before my mom came up to the flat. I’d fooled her once, telling her that I’d found Gran’s recipe. But, if pressed, I’d have a hard time making a batch of cookies that tasted like my grandmother’s. Besides, I didn’t have time to bake. I had a wedding to plan, a business to run, and now, as though I didn’t have enough to do, I had to entertain my parents and keep them out of the vampire zone.
Life had suddenly become a lot more complicated. And it wasn’t an uncomplicated life to begin with.
“What an age it is since we’ve seen you,” my mother said. This was completely untrue, as Rafe and I had visited them right after he took me to Paris, as promised.
My dad reminded her of that fact, and she waved him off. “No, not that. I mean what an age it seems since we were here seeing you.”
Pete and I shared a horrified glance. The last time we’d all been together, a dreadful demon had nearly killed the lot of us. Partly, it was my mother’s own fault. She had witch blood just like I did, but she’d been in denial her whole life. And that untapped power had been easy for someone with evil intent to take hold of and use against us. Did she really not remember? Or had she shoved that bad experience down in whatever vault she kept all her magic?
Not a question I wanted to pose just at the moment, obviously.
It wasn’t too long before a server arrived, bearing a large tray with our food.
Few things cheered me up as quickly as English fish and chips when it was well done with nice, crispy batter and thick chips, which I still thought of as french fries but managed to refer to as chips. I was getting so English, you’d hardly know I wasn’t the real deal.
“See you haven’t lost any of your American accent,” Pete said, immediately bursting my bubble.
I looked up at him, laughing. “You should talk. You certainly haven’t picked up any Egyptian.”
“Too right.” He looked very proudly at Meri. “But look at Meri there. Her modern English is getting so good, you can hardly tell she doesn’t have a similar background to the other grad students.”
Meri looked down and shook her head bashfully. “I do make a dreadful lot of mistakes.”
Since my parents were talking together, I could say softly, “Meri, you’ve got two thousand years of progress to catch up on. I think you’re doing remarkably well.”
She looked up then and beamed at me. We made our way happily through our meal, catching up and getting more comfortable with each other by the minute. Mother complimented me on the shepherd’s pie as though I’d made it myself, but I liked to see her in such a good mood. It would make it easier when I had to tell her there was not going to be a bachelorette party. Or a hen party. Or anything where I had to wear embarrassing clothing and get drunk and make a spectacle of myself.
We’d reached the coffee stage when, to my great relief, I saw a tall, handsome figure striding our way. My heart still did a foolish leap every time I saw him. I wondered if that would ever end and hoped it wouldn’t.
I had the pleasure of noticing the minute Rafe caught sight of me. His whole face lightened, and he picked up the pace a little. Soon he was by my side, planting a swift kiss on my lips, and then as his face brushed past my ear he whispered, “Don’t worry.” And somehow, now that he was here, I felt that if my worry wasn’t gone, it was at least halved.
“Lovely to see you all again,” he said and shook each hand around the table. He dragged a chair over from an
