Page 22 of Reaper and Ruin

It was only as we reached the door that I realized he was still completely naked. “X! You have no clothes on!”

“Well, that’s their punishment, isn’t it?”

Seeing X naked wasn’t much of a punishment if you asked me. But that was kind of beside the point.

X cleared the sleepy gravel from his throat. “You can just be on your merry way now! We’re awake, we’ve called the police, and we are naked!”

I rolled my eyes.

He was the only naked one. At some point during the night, I’d put on the shirt he’d given me the day we’d met, snuggling up in it with him wrapped around me so it would smell like him again.

“Who are you?” a voice called from the other side. “This apartment isn’t yours! Now I’m the one calling the police!”

X snorted, but I recognized the voice and lunged for the door, twisting the deadbolt and flinging it open. “Judy!”

The small dark-haired woman on the other side blinked at me in surprise, her slightly taller, though still-not-as-tall-as-me husband standing behind her. I threw my arms around Toby’s mom, and she quickly relaxed in my embrace, hugging me back.

I grinned at Toby’s dad over her shoulder, and he smiled back affectionately.

But his eyes held a sadness I’d never seen in them before.

Mine probably did too.

“I’m so sorry,” was all I could get out. It didn’t even begin to cover the vast, gaping hole inside me that opened up any time I was reminded of my best friend.

Judy patted my back. “Violet, are you aware there is a naked man in your apartment with nothing but a frying pan to cover himself?”

I cringed and glanced back at X, who had indeed grabbed the frying pan Whip had used the other morning to make us breakfast. He’d left it on the countertop to dry after he’d washed it.

And now X was defiling it with his junk.

I was going to have to buy a new one.

I gave Judy a strained smile. “Uh, yes. I am aware. X, meet Judy and Warren, Toby’s parents.”

He grinned sheepishly. “I normally wear less frying pans when meeting parents.”

They both gave him a disapproving look.

He grimaced and jerked one thumb toward my bedroom. “Maybe I’ll just go down here now.”

He spun on his heel, and I tried to hold in a laugh at his naked ass leaving the room.

I turned back to Judy and Warren, ready to explain, but Judy gave me a disappointed frown. “Must be nice for you, having a lovely time while our son is dead.”

I froze to the spot, her sharp, biting words cutting right through me. I was so shocked I couldn’t even speak, let alone defend myself. Guilt roared in my ears, screaming that she had a point. I’d spent the last couple of weeks bed-hopping with gorgeous men.

While Toby lay in a morgue somewhere, waiting on a coroner to release his body for burial.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

Judy passed me by, beelining for Toby’s bedroom that I hadn’t touched since that night.

She didn’t make eye contact though.

Tears pricked the backs of my eyes. Toby’s parents had never had a problem with me when he’d been alive. We might not have been close exactly, but we’d definitely been friendly. They’d been warm and welcoming when he’d taken me back to their place for Thanksgivings and Christmas dinners because I had no family of my own to go home to.

It had always just been me and Toby. They’d accepted me because I was an extension of him.