Wicked Soul (Ancient Blood #1)(73)
A wry smile pulled on his lips as he opened the passenger side door for me. “It’s Aleric’s. This was the most modest of his collection.”
“Oh, well that makes so much sense,” I muttered as I slid in. So much for keeping a low profile during the visit with my family.
* * *
The knowledge that we were approaching my childhood neighborhood and a reunion with my extended family seemed to drain the energy out of me for every mile we came closer. When we finally pulled up in front of my aunt’s house, I knew I would never be able to get through the evening without Warin by my side.
Warin parked the flashy car, and I drew in a deep breath, trying to steady my nerves.
"You’re frightened,” he said softly.
Smoothing my hands over my dress to stop the slight tremble in them, I turned to him with an attempt at a smile. It failed pretty miserably. "My family is sorta my kryptonite."
“Do you wish to leave?”
“No, I… it’d just be worse if I stayed away. Just… please promise me you won’t leave my side,” I begged.
Cool fingers touched my chin, gently turning my face to his. “I’ll stay by you. I promise.”
I took another deep breath and managed a slightly more sincere smile this time. “Thank you.”
The door opened before we made it all the way up there, revealing Edna’s thin form. “Olivia, darling, how good of you to find time to visit your family! And you must be the young man Lily talked about. Will, right?"
“Warin,” I automatically corrected.
"Come on in—you're the last ones to arrive," Aunt Edna didn’t acknowledge the correction as she swept us inside.
Everyone was there. All the aunts, cousins, uncles, my grandparents, and of course my mother, her boyfriend, and my little sister. They were all staring when we came in—at Warin, at his flawless features and his casual, but expensive-looking clothes—and I knew that they were trying to figure out what on Earth he was doing here with me.
"Oh, Olivia!” My mother got up from the group of relatives she was sitting with and came over to give my frozen form a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Goodness, I had forgotten how big you are!"
I’d inherited my biological father's height and bone density, and had always towered over the other women in the family. My mother and grandmother had never let an opportunity to tell me how unfeminine it was.
"Gary, come meet Olivia.” My mother waved over her boyfriend, and my sister trailed along.
Gary grabbed my hand with a big smile and crushed it enthusiastically in his. "So this is the wayward daughter! It's great to finally meet ya!"
I smiled politely at him. "Hello, Gary. I have heard many good things about you."
When he released my hand, I turned to Warin, who had been watching the exchange in silence, a hand lightly against my lower back. "This is Warin,” I said.
Gary grabbed his hand and gave him a hearty slap on the shoulder, and I shot Warin an apologetic sidelong glance when my mother pulled him into an awkward hug.
"Oh, it is so good to see that Olivia is finally socializing with people of class," my mum chirped, pulling him by the hand toward the group of relatives she had sat with before. "We have been so worried about her life choices these past years."
Warin let himself get led away, and I briefly greeted my sister before I nervously followed, only to get shanghaied by other aunts, uncles, and cousins for how-do-you-dos, including Kathy—with her fiancé (Brad, twenty-eight, successful local realtor, Audi)—who wanted to know how long I'd known Warin and what he did for a living.
"About a month.” I looked around to locate him, and saw that he was sitting on the sofa in between Mom and Edna, a group of my relatives leaning in, unquestionably in order to ask him every detail of his life.
"And I honestly don't know what he works with—some form of business management. Excuse me, Kathy." I managed to duck past Uncle Rogan and find my way to Warin’s side.
"...always had the urge to go against all rules and sensibility," I heard my mother say, which got a confirming laugh from Edna.
"Oh, do you remember when she just had to waste her money going to college—to study art? Of course, she never completed it.”
I breathed deeply as I counted slowly to ten. Art school had been my big dream—the reward I’d clung on to to get me through the difficult years in middle and high school. I’d managed to get in on a scholarship, but during a big project that counted toward half of first year’s grade, Mom had called to tell me my grandma was dying and I had to come home. I’d been too weak to tell her no, failed the project and thus my first year, lost my scholarship… and Grandma was still very much alive.
And that’s the how the story of “Liv can never complete anything” came to be family legend, retold at every gathering.
When I opened my eyes again, Warin caught my gaze. He reached up and grabbed my hand in his so he could pull me down next to him, making Edna scoot to the side.
"I appreciate Liv’s free spirit. And she is an amazing artist," he said.
Blessed be Warin. I pressed against him for a brief moment to let him know I appreciated it.
"But you can't live off being an artist," my mom snorted, earning a nod from Gary. "It's alright for women who have the necessary qualities to find a man to support them, but Liv…” She laughed lightly. “Liv isn't exactly that type."