“That’s good to hear,” I said.
“How’s Eric?” Quinn was really making an effort. Tij looked mildly inquiring.
“Eric is my boyfriend,” I explained to her. “He’s a vampire.” I automatically looked out at the backyard to gauge how much sunlight was left. Eric wouldn’t be up for another hour. “He’s fine, Quinn.”
Tij seemed intrigued, but Quinn took her arm and steered her away. “We’ll talk later,” he said.
“Sure.” They fell into conversation with Togo. The three looked like trees among regular people.
Deidra and Craig had already made a round of handshaking, thanking the people who’d come to save their lives and their wedding. Then the newlyweds changed and slipped away on their honeymoon, which was the most sensible thing in the world for them to do. Quinn and Tijgerin walked them out to Craig’s car, and when they came back inside, Quinn tracked me down in the kitchen, where I was mining Bernie’s pantry for some more garbage bags.
Quinn looked very serious. We were alone in the kitchen, which was pretty amazing.
“Hey,” he said, and leaned against the counter. I pulled a bag from the cardboard box and shook it out. Then I pulled the crammed bag from the kitchen garbage can and cinched it shut.
“It’s been a long day, huh? What did you want to talk about?” Might as well get right to it. I stuck the full bag by the back door and inserted the new one.
“The last time I saw you, Bill and I got stupid and you got hurt,” Quinn said. “Eric ordered me out of Area Five, and I had to go. I don’t know if you realized that E(E)E and Special Events are mostly vampire owned?”
“No.” I wasn’t surprised, though. The two catering and event companies employed both humans and shifters, but I was sure they’d required lots of capital to start up, and they’d begun their operations in a very luxe way. That’s kind of a vampire signature.
“So I can’t afford to offend a lot of deaders,” Quinn said, looking away as if he were sure this admission would make him look weak. “They’re silent partners in the rest home my mother stays in, too.” Quinn had already paid off one family debt he owed the vampires.
“They’ve got you every which way,” I said. We looked at each other directly.
“I want you to know,” he said. “I want you to know that if you don’t want to be with Eric, if he’s using any kind of coercion on you, if he’s got any leverage on you the way they do on me . . . I’ll do anything in my power to get you free.”
He’d do it, too. I suddenly saw a whole different life opening up before me, and my imagination painted it rosy, for a moment. I tried to picture living with Quinn, who was warm and generous and a magnificent lover. He really would do everything he could to pry me away from Eric if he thought I had the slightest misgivings about my relationship with the vampire, no matter what the consequences were for him.
I’m not a saint. I thought of how wonderful it would be to be with a man who could go shopping with me in the daytime, a man I could have a baby with, a man who knew how to treat a woman well. But even if I decided I wanted to leave Eric, Eric would always be sure, through his vampire contacts, that Quinn paid and paid and paid.
I looked past his shoulder out the bay window to see Tijgerin, who was happily devouring her third hamburger. I didn’t know much about her, but I did know there were very few weretigers left in the world. If Quinn and Tijgerin mated, they could have a tiger baby. And from the way she’d looked at Quinn, I thought I could assume she was unencumbered by a boyfriend at present. She and Quinn had been smacked in the face with their mutual attraction, and I admired him all the more for sticking to his declared program in making this offer.
I took a deep breath before I spoke, aware that this was a huge honor he’d paid me.
“Quinn, you’re a great man, and you’re so attractive, and I am so fond of you,” I said. I looked him right in the eyes because I wanted him to see how much I meant every word. “But . . . and some days I think, unfortunately for me . . . I love Eric. He comes with a thousand years of baggage . . . but he’s it for me now.” I took another deep breath. “With regret, I’m going to turn you down, but I am your true friend, and I always will be.”
He pulled me close. We hugged each other hard, and I stepped back. “You go have a good time,” I said, blinking furiously, and then he was gone.
After a few moments of recovery—and feeling definitely on the noble side—I drifted into the backyard to see if Sam needed anything. The gas grill had been turned off, so he’d cooked everything there was to cook. The outside lights were on, but there was a sharp contrast of light and shadow in Bernie’s backyard. Someone had brought out a CD player and turned the volume up. I wondered why Jim Collins hadn’t appeared to protest.
I saw a small figure emerge from the shadows at the corner of the house. It was a woman wearing a vest with a bra under it, and a tiny skirt, and gladiator sandals. The evening was cooling off rapidly, and I figured the newcomer would be covered in goose pimples soon. Her short dark brown hair was slicked back smoothly.
And then I recognized her.
Jannalynn was dressed to kill. I’d imagined her being here in a moment of craziness, and here she was.
Awkward.
Sam saw her at the same moment I did, and I could read him like a book in that moment. He was happy to see her, but he was also flabbergasted—and that’s the best way I can put it.
“Hello, young woman,” said Bernie, stepping in the Were’s path. “I don’t believe I’ve met you yet. I’m Bernie Merlotte.”
Jannalynn took in the cheerful gathering, saw all the twoeys having a good time, and I guess she had her own black moment when she wondered why Sam hadn’t invited her when there were so many other two-natured guests. I was glad I wasn’t in her line of sight. I stepped back into the kitchen . . . because frankly, I was scared to death of Jannalynn. I’d seen her in action, and it was no fluke that the packleader of Shreveport had named her his enforcer.
“Hey, honey,” she called, spotting Sam over his mother’s shoulder.
Bernie turned to check that this young woman was addressing her son. It was hard to read Sam’s face, especially from the kitchen. I was looking out the window, thinking it would be better not to make an appearance until this situation had been smoothed out a little. Though this was a minor problem compared to the terrors we’d faced today, I still wasn’t rushing into some kind of touchy greeting with Sam’s girlfriend.
I didn’t know if I was being a coward or simply being prudent. Either way, I was staying put until I got a cue.
“Jannalynn!” he said, and he embraced her quickly. It wasn’t exactly a boyfriend hug, more a “Hi, buddy, good to see you!” thing. “I didn’t expect you could come.” When he took a step back, I could see that his brows were sort of knit with doubt.
“I know, I know, you brought Sookie to meet your family. And I know why. But I couldn’t stay away when I heard the news on the Fur and Feathers website.”
None of this was scanning naturally. Jannalynn was smiling too brightly and doing a weird imitation of a brittle socialite. She looked exactly like someone who knew she was making a huge mistake.
Maybe I should just stay in the kitchen? For a long time? Maybe the rest of the night? I was pretty tired, but I also didn’t want to feel I was being held hostage by my own social sense.
I heard the toilet flush, and Luna came into the kitchen, making a beeline for the back door. When she saw me, she stopped by my side and took in the scene.
“Okay, who’s the fashion-challenged skinny chick?”
“Sam’s real girlfriend.” Luna raised her eyebrows at me, and I hurried to explain. “He’d already asked me to come to the wedding with him, and he hasn’t been dating Jannalynn that long. Plus, she has some social issues that he kind of wanted to prepare his family for, and not while they were trying to deal with a pressure situation like a wedding.”