Page 54
TREY
“Is this your new boyfriend?” Roxy eyes me up and down. Her panic spreads through my body like wildfire.
If Arella notices Roxy’s clenched jaw, she probably thinks it’s just because her grandma is tense over the Caleb situation. I know better; that prickling in her chest is freaking her out. It’s freaking me out too. The last thing I expected to find on the other side of this door was a Zordinary.
“How about I introduce Trey inside?” Arella says. “With Gramps.”
“Um, sure...” Roxy hesitantly steps aside to allow us in. “Grandpa is in the living room.”
As I step into the large entryway, I offer up one of my many charming smiles. Roxy’s expression remains stony. She slams the door shut, then races down the wide hallway ahead of Arella and me.
“Phil! Ari’s here.”
A deep voice replies from the next room. “Wonderful. Let’s meet the bastard who convinced our grandbaby to leave a perfectly good marriage.”
Damn. He sounds like a fucking delight.
Arella gives my hand a reassuring squeeze as we enter the living room.
The Christmas tree by the window is slightly smaller than the one Arella and I picked out for our place.
Red stockings hang over the mantel, where a gaslit fire sits.
Christmas-themed blankets are neatly folded and draped over the back of the couch and chairs.
Every surface is covered in picture frames.
In a recliner sits an old man, who sets his book down on a side table and stands. He plasters a fake smile over his lips as if he didn’t just say a rude comment he very much wanted me to hear.
His fake smile remains on his lips until the second I get within two steps of him. As the zense activates in my chest, his face falls, his back straightens, and his shoulders square. A rush of horror radiates off him. Just like me, he also expected to meet an Ordinary today.
As an attempt to ease the tension, Arella fakes a smile of her own. “Grammy, Gramps, this is the amazing guy I’ve been telling you about.”
I play along, sticking my hand out to the gray-haired man. “Nice to meet you. I’m Trey.”
The man takes my hand, shaking it like he’s trying to squeeze my hand to death. Next, I offer my hand to Roxy. She shakes my hand a little gentler, yet still stony-faced.
Arella doesn’t acknowledge their rough demeanors. “Trey, these are my grandparents, Phil and Roxy.”
I almost scoff out loud. Her grandparents? What a joke. I’ve got half a mind to hoist Arella over my shoulder and run her out the front door. Save her first, ask questions later.
I don’t do that because, based on the many loving photos surrounding me, this couple hasn’t done any harm to my girl.
From the many stories Arella has told me about them, they took good care of her after her parents died.
I’m not leaving here until I find out why two Zordis would bring an Ordinary girl into their lives like that.
A long silence fills the room as Phil and Roxy’s frenzied energy swirls around me.
I’m waiting for one of them to say something.
Neither does. They just keep staring at me as if waiting for me to make the first move.
What move? I’m not sure, but they look ready to hoist Arella over their shoulders too.
Arella is the first to break the silence. “Why don’t we all sit down and get to know each other?”
In silence, Arella and I claim the love seat behind us.
I feel the need to grab her hand and hold it in my lap, so I do.
I don’t miss the way Phil scowls at our conjoined hands as he stiffly returns his ass to his recliner.
Roxy eyes her husband as she settles on the couch across from us.
It’s as if she has a feeling Phil is going to attack me and she needs to stop him before he does.
“Tell us how you two met,” Roxy says with a forced friendly tone.
I’m not gonna win any points by telling them that Arella and I originally met on the side of a highway while I was working a top secret ZIRDA mission to find out what makes her immune to Zordi powers, so I keep quiet.
Thankfully, Arella has all the right words. “We met at the Soul House, a music bar in downtown LA. Trey’s a musician, and his band plays there on the weekends.”
Phil’s hard glare flicks from Arella to me. His tone comes out displeased. “You’re in a band?”
“Yes, sir.” Calling the man sir doesn’t seem to win me any points either.
He scowls at me so hard, his entire forehead creases into thick folds. “Do you happen to have a real job on top of that?”
“Grandpa,” Arella scolds. “Trey’s band does really well online. They’ve also released two original albums, and all their shows always sell out. Just because it’s not a regular nine-to-five doesn’t mean it’s not a real job.”
I don’t care what this wrinkly fart thinks of my career choice. I have well beyond the means I need to take care of the woman beside me.
Phil narrows his gaze on Arella. “You left a hardworking cop for a man who sings songs on the Internet for money?”
Simply stated, that does make me sound bad.
“Grandpa,” Arella scolds again. “First of all, Caleb isn’t a cop.
He’s a security guard at a museum. Second, Trey doesn’t sing songs on the Internet for money.
Being in a band is like running a business.
What he sells just happens to be the music he writes.
And third, you promised you’d behave today. ”
It’s good to know I wasn’t the only one who received a behavior lecture before this meeting that’s going sooo fucking well .
Arella continues, “How about you give Trey a chance?”
Phil sighs and rubs the back of his neck. “All right, boy. Tell us. When you met Ari and she told you she was married, why did you still pursue her?”
“Phil...” Roxy says at the same time Arella drops her jaw.
“Grandpa!”
I really wish she’d stop calling him that. Everyone here knows this man isn’t really her grandpa—except her.
Phil doesn’t quit. “What kind of man steals a woman away from her husband?”
“Grandpa, stop.”
“Not a real man, that’s for sure. What made you think you had any right to dig yourself into a perfectly good marriage and?—”
“Grandpa!” This time, Arella yells, and it shuts him up. “Stop saying my relationship with Caleb was perfectly good . It wasn’t.”
“He put a roof over your head, didn’t he? He loved you, cooked for you, and made you happy. What about that wasn’t good?”
“First of all, I had my apartment way before I even met Caleb. He’s the one who moved in with me. Second, I did all the cooking. He’s terrible at it. And third, I’ve explained it to you already: Caleb and I weren’t good for a while. A woman needs more than just a roof and food.”
Phil lets out a condescending pfft . “What else is there?”
Arella loses it. “Affection! Passion! Complete and utter devotion! Caleb stopped giving me any of that months before Trey and I started anything. There was absolutely no passion in our marriage, and neither of us were devoted to the other.
“For god’s sake, Grandpa, the man is gay!
And he’s already dating his friend Rakesh.
Now stop talking about Caleb. I came here today so you could meet Trey, the man who’s sitting right here.
The man who I’m passionate about. Who’s devoted to me and has promised to take care of me better than anyone can. ”
Phil rolls his eyes. Now I know where Arella gets it from. He shoots me a skeptical glare. “If this band thing doesn’t work out, how are you planning to take care of my granddaughter?”
I’m so fucking close to aiming a fireball at him and accusing him of kidnapping an innocent three-year-old Ordinary girl. I almost do, until Roxy slaps her thighs.
“How’s about we all take a break, huh?” Roxy grimaces at her husband. “Phil, how’s about you and I meet in the kitchen?”
Phil stays where he is. “And leave her alone with him ? Are you crazy?”
What the fuck? Does he think I’m gonna hurt Arella? Or is he more afraid I’ll spill their secret? It’s definitely the latter.
Roxy grits her teeth together. “If he wanted to hurt her, he would have already. Now come.”
Okay? Maybe he is worried that I’ll hurt her. If that’s the case, this grumpy asshole knows nothing about me.
Roxy’s words give me a little confidence that, on some level, we all want the same thing. These people don’t want anything to happen to Arella any more than I do. Having one thing in common is good, I guess. Well, technically, we have two things in common, if I count having powers.
The second her “grandparents” stomp down the hall and disappear into another room, Arella turns to me. “Oh my god, Trey. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into Gramps. He’s not usually this mouthy. He promised me he’d try to like you.”
Her “grandparents” liking me is no longer what I’m concerned about. “Um, babe, do you remember when your grandparents took you in, or is that just what they told you happened?”
“I was three. I don’t remember anything that happened at that age.”
My eyes scan the room, looking at every picture frame in sight. I don’t see what I’m looking for. “Are there any pictures of your grandparents with you as a baby? Like from before your parents died?”
“Um, I dunno. Why does that matter right now?”
“Are there any pictures of your grandparents with your parents?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
I stroke my stubbly chin as the gears turn in my head. “I dunno. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.”
I haven’t told Arella what I know about her parents yet.
Mostly because whenever I bring them up, it doesn’t seem like she remembers our conversation about how her name was Hannah Calder at one point.
I’ve been waiting for either her to dream about it or a good time to tell her.
We’ve been too busy being happily in love for me to want to drop a bomb that big on her.
Arella throws her head into her hands and groans. “This is a disaster.”
I’m still trying to piece things together as I drape an arm around her back. “Everything will be okay, babe.”
Table of Contents
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- Page 39
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- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54 (Reading here)
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63