A Shade of Vampire 8: A Shade of Novak(20)

“I-I’m so sorry,” I said. “Just a moment.”

Adelle withdrew her hands from mine. I turned away from her and flipped open the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, this is Ben.”

“Hi, Ben.”

“Where’s Mom and Dad?”

“They’re not around. They’ve… gone out for the day.”

“Oh, okay. Well, I’m just calling to let you know that Scotland is actually awesome.”

“Oh. That’s good.”

“It’s so much better than it looked in the brochure.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Seriously, great job booking this place.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“And we’re doing just fine. No need to worry about us at all. We’ve already made friends.”

“Well, that’s great to hear, Ben.”

“So tell Mom and Dad when they get back that we’re having fun and they don’t need to worry about us. We’ll call again in a few days.”

“Will do.”

“Cool. Bye, Grandpa!”

I flipped the phone shut as Ben hung up.

Grandpa. I winced at the word. As much as I adored being a grandfather to such beautiful children, this was the one moment in my life when I didn’t want to be reminded of the fact.

I glanced over at Adelle, slipping the phone back into my pocket.

“It was just Ben,” I said, as though she hadn’t been in earshot of the entire conversation.

She blushed and smiled. “You’re so good with them.”

“Yeah,” I muttered, averting my eyes to the floor and kicking around a twig. “I suppose I am.”

“So, um. What was it that you wanted to say to me?”

“Oh… I just wanted to thank you for doing such a good job with my, uh, grandchildren.”

Keep digging, Gramps. Keep digging.

“Oh,” she said. She looked surprised—perhaps even disappointed—by my response. “You’re more than welcome. They’ve always been an absolute pleasure to teach.”

Now sit back and enjoy the view of that perfect moment blowing right out of the window, *…





Chapter 7: Rose





Ben and I made excuses to avoid the beach when it was dark from then on. We spent many daylight hours there, soaking up the sun and swimming in the sea. But when we went out late at night, we made sure that we went to clubs and restaurants further inland.

Unfortunately, I didn’t meet another boy like Caleb.

But after several nights of practice—and Kristal giving me some extra sessions during the day around the condo—I was beginning to feel a bit less of a klutz. Kristal had been surprised that I seemed so disorientated listening to modern music and asked me if I really had never gone to a party before. I explained to her that I’d just always been bad at dancing.

I also went shopping with Kristal to buy some new clothes and a pair of high heels. Despite Kristal pressuring me, I still didn’t cave into buying miniskirts or minidresses. I did make a compromise, however: the dresses that I came home were all shorter than my long summer gowns—they stopped just above the knee, and I felt confident wearing them.

One evening, there was a big boxing match on the TV, followed immediately by soccer, that Jake didn’t want to miss, so Ben decided to stay in with him.

Kristal was excited about the idea of a girls’ night out. “We’ll go out for dinner together,” she said, pulling me into her room and sitting me down in front of her dressing table. “Let me do your hair and makeup.”

I’d gotten used to the fact that she always liked to dress me up before going out. It was for my own benefit, since she always made me look better than I could. I wasn’t used to wearing makeup. I’d never had much occasion to around The Shade.

Kristal began tugging at my long dark hair with a brush, taming it into a slick ponytail. Then she took out her makeup box and set about giving me what she called a “smoky eye” look.

Smoky or not, I had to admit when I looked in the mirror that it suited me. And once I’d changed into one of my new dresses, fastened Griffin’s necklace around my neck and pulled on a pair of heels, I felt thoroughly sexy. I even caught Jake eyeing me as we made our way out through the front door.

Just as we were about to enter the elevator, Kristal stopped abruptly.

“Oh, damn it. Wait here. I forgot something.”

She ran back to the apartment and returned a minute later carrying a small black handbag.

“This is Chloe’s,” Kristal explained. “She left it with me when we were all out the other night and I forgot to return it to her.”

We exited the building and, to my discomfort, she turned right—toward the beach. She picked up her mobile phone and dialed a number.

“Chloe? Hi, you’re at Jacob’s right now? Okay, don’t go anywhere because I’m coming with your bag.”

Hurrying alongside her, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. We reached the beach and stopped once we reached Jacob’s Restaurant. Chloe, a short brunette, sat next to her boyfriend, John. Kristal walked over and handed her the bag. They were sitting at a table outside in the open air, with a clear view onto the beach.