Page 119 of My Vampire Plus-One

Honestly? I could get used to this.

“You deserve me,” I said. “You buy me terrible vegetarian snacks because you don’t understand what humans eat but you also don’t want me going hungry during a snowstorm. You force me to take time for myself, reminding me in a way I can never seem to remember that I’m worth it. You make me laugh.” I grinned at him. “And you think the way I talk about taxes is sexy.”

“Itissexy.”

I laughed. “To you, maybe. No one else thinks so.”

He looked horrified. “That cannot possibly be true.”

“Oh, but it is.” I leaned in close again and rested my forehead against his. “You like me for who, and what, I am. I may not know the specifics of what will come next if we stay together after the wedding, but for the first time in my life, I welcome some happy uncertainty.”

Without warning, he tackled me, pressing me back against the couch cushions until I was lying prone beneath him. I yelped in surprise, then sighed a moment later when he settled more comfortably on top of me. His forearms came to rest on either side of my head, bracketing me, his lips less than an inch away from mine.

The look on his face was full of such unbridled joy it took my breath away.

“I meant what I said the other day, Amelia. I will never ask you to change anything about yourself just for me,” he murmured. “You are perfect and brilliant, just as you are. Every day you let me be near you will be perfect, too. No matter how many days there are, in the end.”

As he kissed me, my mind drifted back to the night we first met. How wild he’d seemed to me then, with his trench coat andimpossible questions. How ridiculous a request it had seemed to pretend to laugh with him.

I don’t know how to pretend, I’d explained.

Maybe I’d gotten a little better at pretending since then. How fittingly ironic it was that now, at Gretchen’s wedding, there would be no more pretending between us at all.

EPILOGUE

Letter from Zelda Turret, formerly Grizelda Watson, to Reginald Cleaves

Hey Reg,

It’s been a while. How’s tricks, kid?

I wanted to let you know that those losers who chased you around all those years somehow found their way to my yoga retreat out here in Napa. (I’m in Napa now by the way. Wild, right???) I don’t know if they’re here because they’re turning over a new leaf from the nonsense vendetta business, or if they’re here to sniff around for evidence they’ll never find (I remain eternally grateful that there was no CSI: Sevastapol in 1872). Either way, everyone in the world is right about how annoying they are.

The good news is they seem to have forgotten all about you. The bad news is now they’re my problem (though I have a plan in place for if they get too snoopy).

Keep it real, friend. If you ever happen to be out this way let me know and I’ll show you around.

Grizzy

ps: Thank you, by the way, for keeping my name out of this mess all these years. You’re a real one.

One Month Later

“Reginald.” Dad’s voice was patient, if not a little patronizing. “It’s okay. No one ever beats me at Trivial Pursuit.”

Dad was dressed for Gretchen’s wedding, sitting on his living room couch wearing the smug look he got whenever he won this game. Which was basically every time he played.

Reggie was dressed for the wedding, too, wearing his new charcoal-gray suit that looked just as gorgeous on him as it had when he tried it on for me last week. I still couldn’t believe Frederick and I convinced him to wear a conventional suit today instead of one of his more eclectic outfits, but it meant a lot to me that he’d agreed.

He didn’t seem to notice I was watching them from the doorway. What hedidseem was outraged. He turned on my dad. “You don’t understand,” he said. “The answers on the back of that little card are wrong. I wasthere.”

Dad stared at him. “You were in Constantinople in 1835?”

That was my cue to intervene. So far, Sam was the only person in the family who knew what Reggie really was. It was important to Reggie that it stay that way, at least until we could determine how my family would react to the truth.

I cleared my throat, and two pairs of eyes snapped to mine.

“Almost ready to go?” I asked.