Page 120 of My Vampire Plus-One

Reggie seemed to come back to himself, as if my presence reminded him that while he and my dad had gotten on like a house on fire since they started spending time together, spitting facts about the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire was not something that could ever happen.

He sat down in the chair opposite my dad, his posture relaxing slightly. “We’re almost done here.”

“I’d say we’re entirely done here,” Dad said, cheerfully.

Reggie groaned. “Fair enough.” And then to my dad he added, “I apologize for my outburst. I’m a bit of a sore loser.”

Dad chuckled. “Happens to the best of us. That said, even though I won this game—”

“Which was probably due at least partly to your having memorized all the answers over the past twenty years,” I quipped.

Dad gave me a sly, incriminating smile, but didn’t deny my accusation. “As I was saying, Reggie‚ even though I won, you areverygood at the history questions.” He peered at him. “You said you were in tech support for a while, but you must have also taken a lot of history courses in college.”

He shook his head. “I’m self-taught.”

“Self-taught? Meaning, you watch a lot of the History Channel? You read biographies?”

“Uh…” Reggie reached up and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Something like that. Though most of what I’ve seen on the History Channel is overdramatized nonsense.”

Dad was positively beaming now. “That’s what I’ve always said!”

“Like that dumb thing they put on a few years ago about Archduke Ferdinand?”

Dad scoffed. “Trash. If you want, I can recommend you arealdocumentary about Archduke Ferdinand that will change everything you thought you knew about the start of World War I.”

Reggie looked delighted. He opened his mouth to say something else, and I rushed into the room in case he blurted out something that would incriminate himself and alarm Dad.

“As glad as I am that the two of you are getting along so well,” I said, “we do really need to get going. Mom left twenty minutes ago. And Reggie, you said you’d help me with my makeup.”

Reggie’s eyes widened a little in surprise, as though he’d forgotten all about Gretchen’s wedding. “You’re right,” he agreed. Turning back to my dad, he said, “Any chance we can continue this later? You’re a fascinating conversationalist.”

My dad chuckled at that, eyes twinkling. “If I had a nickel for every time someone said that to me, I’d have a nickel.” And then, to me, he added, in a conspiratorial whisper, “This one’s a keeper, Ame.”

Something warm and lovely bloomed in my chest at his words. And at the realization that my dad approved of someone so important to me.

Later, after Dad had left to finish getting ready himself, I grabbed Reggie’s arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Thanks for making an effort to talk to Dad about history,” I said. “Ever since he retired, he hasn’t had anyone to talk to about this stuff.”

“I know the feeling,” Reggie said, wistfully. “And it’s my sincere pleasure.”

•••••••

“Hold still.”

“I am holding still.”

Reggie gave me a skeptical look. “You keep jerking away from me.”

“That’s because you keep coming at my eyes with a stick with black sludge on it.”

He chuckled, then set the stick in question down on my parents’ downstairs bathroom counter. “Some people call this mascara. And you don’t have to be so petulant.” He leaned forward, lightly kissing my cheek. “Youaskedme to do this. Remember?”

“Sorry,” I said. “I don’t wear makeup often. I haven’t had somebody apply it for me since I was in high school, and Sophie and I were getting ready for prom.”

“Then how fitting it is to have your boyfriend do it for you as we get ready for your cousin’s wedding.”

My boyfriend. A pleasant shiver went through me. “I think it will be easier if I do this myself..”

“Maybe,” he said. “But I love doing makeup.”