“Can’t a guy take his daughter out to dinner? Does there have to be an ulterior motive?”
“So you’renotavoiding him, then?”
“Who?” When Hannah didn’t respond, I looked over to see her raising a brow at me. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what? Like I know exactly what’s going on despite your best efforts to brush me off?”
“Speaking of changing the subject,” I said as we walked past the doors of a New York-style pizza restaurant. A couple walked out hand in hand, the smell of tomato sauce and garlic wafting behind them. “Pizza. How about pizza?”
Hannah laughed. “Pizza’s great. Don’t think you’re getting out of this conversation, though.”
She was right. I only got out of it for as long as it took us to sit down and order our food. She at least let me get a couple of bites in before she started interrogating me again.
“Are you ready to talk now?” she garbled through a bite of cheese stick.
“About my dating life? To my daughter?” I pretended to think it over. “Not really. What’s going on withyou? Hunt any more vampires lately?”
Hannah rolled her eyes, but the blush on her face was evident. “That was Kian’s idea.”
“You seemed pretty convinced.” I had to admit I was intrigued. “So tell me: what’s your theory? Well, Kian’s theory—or is it Luke’s?”
Now that I’d shown interest in the ludicrous idea, Hannah perked up and started spitting everything out.
Apparently, Luke was secretive about his “profession.” Her word, not mine. Kian even said Luke collected evidence that James was a vampire.
According to Luke’s research, nothing could be found on James before he moved to Salem ten years ago. It was like he’d appeared out of thin air.
He also—allegedly—never slept. I couldn’t confirm or deny that, of course; I’d never seen him outside of the bar.
He didn’t eat. I knewthatone was a lie. I’d seen him eat, hadn’t I? Well, wait. I hadn’t actually seen him put any of it in his mouth, though, had I?
You’re losing your mind, Ryder.
“Lastly, he’s never out in the sunlight,” Hannah finished.
“We work in a bar, Hannah,” I said with a smile. “I don’t think any of us see sunlight.”
“Okay, okay,” she relented. “Maybe itisa little ridiculous. But didn’t you do anything ridiculous as a teenager?”
“Like what?” I scoffed. “Getting drunk on water towers? Don’t get any ideas!” She laughed at that. “But I can’t say I ever hunted vampires.”
“At least I was doing it sober.”
I focused on eating, hoping she’d move away from the subject of my nonexistent dating life.
It didn’t work. “You can’t avoid him forever.”
I closed my eyes and sighed. “I know. But I can avoid him until I know what I’m going to say.”
“About what?”
I eyed her across the table. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Stubborn as hell. You really are my kid,” I muttered, earninga giggle. Realizing she wouldn’t move on from the conversation, I gave in. “I caught him with someone else.”
Her brow furrowed. “Were you exclusive?”
