“Me?” I squeaked, my shoulders bunching up at the idea of spilling all my secrets.
“You’ve been here a year now and we hardly know anything about you,” Bethany continued with a disappointed frown.
“That’s not true,” I argued, avoiding both of their astute gazes. I hadn’t been very forthcoming with information, because trying to lie to a lawyer was like taking a polygraph test on steroids. On top of never being good at hiding my thoughts on my face—something Rayne didn’t need his powers to see—it was near impossible for me to tell my coworkers anything without giving away my double life.
“Okay, fine. We know you’re from a small town outside of Atlanta. You have a mom and a dad who you don’t speak to much. You’re not married. No kids. And your favorite color is a pale crystal-like blue, but not like the sky, almost white.”
I stared at her for a long moment. “You remember all that?”
Jack chuckled. “She’s not my paralegal for nothing. Bethany has a memory like a steel trap.” He tapped the side of his head with a proud grin. “You say it, she remembers it.”
Bethany beamed at Jack as we stopped before one of a dozen bars in Seabrick. For a place as small as it was, they sure liked to drink.
Jack held the door open for us and we walked into The Croaking Parrot. While it was named after the colorful bird, the inside of the bar was the complete opposite. Dark wood covered the floor, the walls, and even the bar top. The only color that filled the place was the mismatched barstools ranging from cold silver metal, to bright orange and red plastic, and a multitude of different woods. The only thing that did match were the tables spread throughout the rest of the bar’s interior.
I’d wonder why the owner would call it The Croaking Parrot, except there were tons of pictures on the walls of different parrots, or maybe it was the same parrot in different places? Hell if I knew. They all looked the same to me. A creepy stuffed parrot sat behind the bar on the shelf next to the mirror-backed shelves.
Freaky.
The place already bustled with happy hour nine to fivers, ready to get their weekend drink on. We were lucky to find three stools next to each other at the bar in the crowded room. Bethany obviously hoped Jack would sit next to her, but we ended up with me in the middle of the two of them. I could already feel myself needing that drink.
“What are you having?” The bartender was a pretty, alternative looking woman with shaggy pink and green hair, with one side hanging down over half of her face and the other side of her head buzzed. An array of earrings lined the visible ear. They went along well with the brow, nose, and lip piercings. I itched to ask her if she ever had trouble getting through airport metal detectors.
“I’ll have a Cosmo,” Bethany chirped, beaming at the woman, picking a very businesswoman drink.
“Whatever you have on tap is fine.” Jack inclined his head toward the beers.
“And you?” The bartender stared hard at me with a less than thrilled attitude.
I shifted in my seat, not sure what I wanted to drink. I could tell the bartender was getting irritated by my hesitation, but before I could answer, a warm arm wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me back against a familiar chest as a smooth, no-nonsense voice told the bartender, “She’ll have wine. White. No Riesling. And make it two.” The bartender left with a nod to fill our order while Bethany gasped.
“Oh, my. Who is this gorgeous piece of eye candy? You have been holding out on me, Piper.” She gave me a chastising look as she giggled and blushed at the man behind me.
“Do you know this man?” Jack questioned with a bit of stiffness to his voice.
I placed my hand over the arm around me and leaned back against him. “Yes, this is Darren. My boyfriend.”
“You have a boyfriend?” Bethany’s eyes bugged out of her head and her mouth dropped before she clipped it shut and gave me a knowing look. “Now I know why you never talked about your home life. I wouldn’t want to tell anyone about someone who looked like him.”
Darren’s arm tightened around me, not because he was uncomfortable with her words, he’d had worse said to him by creatures who wanted to do more than drool over him. I hoped one day I’d have that easy of a reaction to someone talking about me like I wasn’t there. Unfortunately, my mouth and temper seemed to be the cause of a lot of my issues with the Durands. Sad but true.
Thankfully, Darren answered for me. “We prefer to keep our business and personal lives separate.”
“Is that so?” Jack directed the question toward me, suspicion beginning to creep into his voice.
I dipped my head and pretended to be bashful. “Uh, yeah.”
“Is that who you were texting?” Bethany asked, finally getting over her surprise.
The bartender came back and handed out the drinks. I took a sip of mine with a sigh. “Yeah.”
“That’s so sweet.” Bethany giggled and drank from her Cosmo. “How long have you two been together?”
I twisted in my seat so my back was to the bar and I wasn’t having to split my attention between the three of them. “A few years now.” I sipped from my glass as I met Darren’s dark eyes. He quirked a brow at me, but didn’t argue.
It had taken two months before I could get Darren to stop wearing his butler suit. He’d even conceded the gloves after I’d pestered him for a whole day about them. We weren’t working with vampires now. At least, not face to face. It took a while to get used to Darren in jeans. Even now I had to do a double-take sometimes. If Darren in a suit was delicious, then Darren in tight-fitting denim was practically sinful.
“And what do you do, Darren no last name?” Jack inquired with more prejudice than I expected from my boss.