The Single Undead Moms Club (Half Moon Hollow series Book 4) (29 page)

—My Mommy Has Fangs: A Guide to Post-Vampiric Parenting

B
eing taunted with popcorn was not easier when the smell came drifting from dozens of cars. However, I had a very thoughtful escort.

For our drive-in date, Wade had packed blankets for us to set up in the back of his truck, plus a cooler full of drinks, including a wide range of bottled blood. The Possum Point Drive-In had a very liberal policy regarding outside food, because there was no on-site concession stand. The owners had tried to establish a hamburger stand early on. But the facilities were overwhelmed by the local population of possums, which broke into the concession every night and destroyed everything in search of food. After several failed extermination attempts, the owners brought in Popcorn Pete, a retired ice-cream-truck driver who converted a hot dog cart to sell popcorn. Possums were less likely to hit a moving target. And the critters were a little afraid of Popcorn Pete, who was surprisingly mean for someone who chose to make his living selling treats to children.

“You know I only drink one or two bottles a night, right?” I asked, marveling at the number of brands resting on “my side” of the ice chest. Wade was busy plugging in a baby-bottle warmer he’d rewired for his car-charger port. All around us, families and couples were spreading blankets in the backs of truck beds and settling in for an evening of old-school fun. The last orange-pink streaks of the sun had disappeared over the horizon as we were leaving my house, meaning the movie would start in just a few minutes.

“I know you’re not going to drink all of that, but I didn’t know what you’d like,” Wade said.

“That’s adorable,” I told him as I climbed into the truck bed. I was in a buoyant, giddy mood. I’d woken up to a day’s mail that included a very official-looking letter from the local family court. Danny was to meet with Judge Holyfield under the supervision of a state-appointed chaperone in two weeks. The letter, which was addressed to my in-laws and to me, included some very strong language about appropriate adult behavior and following the court’s instructions. Specifically, Judge Holyfield wrote that he “didn’t appreciate certain parties ignoring previous instructions and certainly didn’t appreciate accusations of bias toward either party.” He made it clear that we would discuss that behavior when we next met and that any dramatic shenanigans would not be tolerated in his presence.

While I wasn’t exactly thrilled by the idea of having to take Danny to court, it certainly sounded like the judge was unhappy with Les. And I figured it was unlikely that a judge would assign custody of a child to someone who couldn’t be trusted to behave himself. And even if Les and Marge ended up with scheduled visitation, I would find a way to live with it. I was hopeful. Still somewhat romantically confused but hopeful.

“I’m not adorable,” Wade protested. “I am manly and grizzled and have no emotions. None.”

I rolled my eyes, lifted a bottle of Faux Type O, a sort of “Classic Coke” version of synthetic blood, and handed it to him. He dropped it into the bottle warmer and grabbed a Ziploc bag from his glove compartment. Inside was a bright red bandanna.

“Are you planning to chloroform me? Because this sort of ruins the surprise.”

“Just wear it around your neck, smartass,” he said, tying the bandanna under my chin.

“Again, I appreciate your going outside of the box in terms of first-date gifts, but why?”

Wade nodded at Popcorn Pete, who was rattling his cart along the row of cars, yelling, “Popcorn! Buy it or don’t, I don’t give a damn.”

I watched in horror as dozens of customers lined up, buying their little red-and-white-striped bags of popcorn and spreading through the lot like the spores of a particularly stinky dandelion. That synthetic sour-milk smell seemed to be coming at me from all sides.

“Here.” Wade gently pulled the handkerchief over my nose, and the nauseating popcorn miasma was smothered by the spicy, warm scent of . . . Wade.

My mouth went from wincing to watering in seconds. It was like being wrapped in a bubble of Wade’s delicious scent. I was instantly calmed and comforted and crazy aroused all at the same time. I knocked the blanket out of his hands and hauled him into the truck bed with me. I rolled on top of him, straddling his hips as I lowered my face to his. And realized that my bandanna was still in the way. Wade laughed, pulling the red material back down under my chin so he could plant a hot, sweet kiss on me.

“Better?” he asked.

“You sealed it in the bag so it would smell like you,” I said, giving him an “aw” face.

He shrugged. “You seem to like the way I smell.”

“I love the way you smell, which on any other date would seem like an off-putting thing to say.”

“Being thrown around like a rag doll by my gal is extremely hot but pretty damn emasculatin’,” he muttered against the soft skin of my jaw.

“Well, get used to it,” I told him, turning his head so I could nibble at his lower lip. He groaned and rolled his hips under me.

“Is that your vampire talent?” he asked. “Slappin’ guys around but lookin’ so cute while you’re doing it that they don’t mind?”

I laughed and, realizing that we were still very much in view of people in neighboring cars, sat up, straightened our clothes, and scooted against the back of Wade’s cab so we could watch as the titles to
The Great Outdoors
began playing. “No, my vampire talent is very boring. I’m a stabilizer.”

“What’s that?”

“I suppress the talents of other vampires near me,” I told him as he wrapped his arm around me, settling my head against his chest. I tucked my hair under his chin, burying my nose in his shirt.

“Well, that’s not . . . OK, yeah, that’s pretty boring. But how do you even know that you’re doing it? It could just be a fluke.”

“My, uh, my sire told me all about it. He was the first one to figure it out, because I was suppressing his talent.”

“How did he manage to figure it out when Jane couldn’t?” Wade asked, winding my gold hair around his fingers and watching it uncurl when he released it. I opened my mouth to tell him the story about Finn seeing me at the hospital coffee shop. But then Chet Ripley pulled his family car in front of the Loon’s Nest, and it seemed rude to keep talking. And even though I was watching one of my favorite childhood movies, I couldn’t help but wonder, how
did
Finn figure out that I was a vampire damper? I had never heard of a vampire’s talent being “latent” when he or she was still human. In all the reading Jane had forced me to do, the books stated that vampire powers manifested
after
the newly turned vampire changed. It seemed impossible, even with Finn’s special head-hopping power, for him to sense what I could do.

Why hadn’t I questioned it? Why had I simply believed what he said, even when I’d learned so much to the contrary? Why did I want to believe the best of someone who hadn’t done anything to deserve my trust?

Finn had lied. Or at the very least, he had stretched the truth to the breaking point. Again. I was getting really sick of Finn treating conversations like a taffy pull. I was sick of half-truths and shadows and meeting on his terms.

And here I was, spending my date with Wade thinking about Finn.

I was going to have a conversation with Finn Palmeroy. But first, I was going to watch John Candy shoot a bear in the butt with a shotgun lamp.

I stomped through the lobby
of the Holiday Inn and bypassed the elevator in order to scale the stairs and work off some anger. I’d barely been able to concentrate on what was a perfectly lovely first date with a desirable, extremely fang-worthy man because I’d been too busy turning over all of the possibilities in my head. I’d come up with a dozen plausible explanations that didn’t involve Finn lying to me, but somehow they just didn’t seem as believable, as likely, as that he was manipulating me. Finn was too charming, too smooth. Hadn’t I learned by now not to trust the easy path? Why hadn’t I seen this coming? Why hadn’t I listened to those warning bells?

And because I wanted to catch my sire off-guard for once, I kicked in his hotel-room door and walked in without an invitation. Finn looked deliciously casual, stretched across the bed, going over some paperwork. He didn’t even seem that startled to see me busting into his hotel room like the cops. He just grinned brightly and hopped to his feet.

“Libby!” he exclaimed. “This is a pleasant surprise.”

“Don’t start,” I growled, shoving a hand against his chest as he moved closer. “How did you know what my vampire talent would be?”

Finn frowned, but I could see a flicker of dread in his eyes. “I told you, I saw you at the—”

“No, don’t feed me your bullshit story about seeing the fragile cancer patient at the hospital and feeling moved to help her. Vampire powers don’t manifest in humans, no matter how powerful. Everything I’ve read says so. Now, how did you know I would be able to suppress your wonky brain-walking?”

Finn took a deep breath and started again. “I saw you—”

“Nope!” I shouted at him.

“I knew you—”

I shook my head. “Nuh-uh.”

“I read your ad—”

“Try again.”

“What do you want me to tell you?” he demanded.

“I want you to stop lying to me!”

“Fine! Fine, you want to know why I turned you? I turned you as a favor to your father!” Finn shouted.

The world seemed to tilt on its axis. I felt a strange, tight pressure at my chest and sank into the desk chair, my hands cold and numb. My fangs slid out so quickly it hurt. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Libby, let me explain, please.”

Finn took a step closer, and I shot him a vicious look. “Don’t you come any closer to me.” He froze in his tracks, hands raised. “Now, talk.”

“I’m a friend of your father’s.”

I couldn’t even begin to give voice to all of the questions bouncing around my brain. How did he know my father? How did my father know about me? Why had he never come forward to meet me? Why had he sent Finn to spy on me? Why was Finn telling me this now? What did this mean?

“If you’re making this up, Finn, so help me, I will find a way—”

“I know. I don’t have to be a psychic to see how violent your reaction would be. I’m a friend of your father’s,” Finn said.

“And his name is . . .”

A frisson of doubt slid over his features.

I bared my fangs at him and growled.

“Max!” he exclaimed. “His name is Max Kitteridge, and for right now, that’s all I should tell you.”

Somewhere, in a less angry, frantic corner of my brain, I remembered Finn telling me stories to comfort me while I was being turned—stories about his buddy, Max, and the trouble they used to get into. He was telling me stories about my
father
, and I hadn’t even realized. Betrayal, hot and acidic, burned through my chest.

“And you didn’t think this was something you should tell me? You didn’t think I should— I’ve never even
met
my father. I don’t know what he looks like. I know nothing about him. And you knew this whole time? How am I supposed to feel about that?”

“I know, it was wrong. I tried to find a way to tell you, but there’s no easy way to fit ‘By the way, I’m your long-lost father’s best friend since we were both human’ into the conversation. I barely got the chance to get to know you myself, so how was I supposed to tell you that? Libby, from the moment I saw you, I wanted to know you. And that had nothing to do with your father or you being sick or your talent—”

“What do you mean, ‘since we were both human’?” I interrupted him in a tone that made Finn wince. “Are you telling me that my father is a vampire, too?”

He cleared his throat and took a cautious step closer. “Yes.”

“And the whole thing about my talent being able to suppress yours? Was that a lie, too?”

Finn ran his fingertips along my arms, and I jerked them out of his grasp. He cleared his throat again. “Oh, no, that’s true. Just being near you has given me a whole new grasp on my control. But I didn’t realize that was what was happening until after you were turned. Your father sent me to town to check on you. And I did see you at that coffee shop, and I did see inside your head and see how desperate and sick you were. I went to your father, told him what you were thinking of doing, and he sent me to intervene. He wanted to turn you himself, but he thought you might find that confusing, meeting him and going through all the changes at once. He wanted to make sure you were safe, not left with some creep you met over the Internet.”

“Yes, it would have been tragic being saddled with someone I couldn’t trust as a sire,” I deadpanned.

Finn cleared his throat. “I was supposed to leave you alone after I turned you. But I couldn’t.”

“Right, because I was a solution to your problem.”

“But that’s not why I couldn’t leave you. I want you, Libby. I want to spend time with you and be part of your life. I know you’re upset with me now, but if anything, this is something to celebrate. Your father, Max, he wants to be part of your life so much, but he wanted to give you time. You can have more people in your life who understand you, who love you. How is this bad news?”

“And I’m sure you told him to stay put, give me more time, while you figured out how to best take advantage of my talent.”

“No, you don’t understand,” he protested.

“Oh, no, I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp of the situation,” I growled at him, getting up and yanking the battered hotel-room door open. “You stay away from me. And you tell my father . . .”

The unfamiliar word seemed to choke me, solidifying in my throat like a stone.

“What do you want me to tell him?” Finn asked, his voice so soft and gentle it broke my heart. “I’ll do anything you ask of me, Libby, just please, listen to me.”

“Tell my father he’s about thirty years too late.”