“Shut up,” Astra shot back, but there was no real heat in her voice.
Her younger sister was right. She’d been a bit of a hypocrite when it came to Rune. If he’d said anything about her tendency to be assertive or to refuse to simper, she would have told him where to shove his attitude.
“How serious are you about this guy?” Sylvie asked.
Astra sighed. “Pretty serious.” She crossed her arms on top of her desk. “You know how Mom always says we’ll know immediately when we’ve met the ‘right guy’?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s the right guy.”
Sylvie blew out a breath. “Shit. Man, when you go off plan, you really go off plan. Mom and Dad are going tofreakif you bring a vampire home for family dinner. Then, they’re going to put him through the ultimate gauntlet.”
Astra winced. “Maybe, but he’s the one for me. I figure that I’ll introduce the concept slowly at first, maybe mention it after we’ve been dating for a little while. Then, maybe introduce him to Devorah and Sirena first. I’m pretty sure that if he can handle them, he can handle Mom and Dad and their insanity. Right?”
“Not a bad plan,” Sylvie said. “What does the vampire think of this?”
“His name is Rune, and we haven’t really discussed it yet. We’ve only been dating two, almost three, weeks. We’re not exactly at themeet the parentsstage yet.”
Sylvie’s expression was skeptical, but she only replied, “If you say so.”
Before Astra could make a sharp comment in return, there was a knock at her office door, and it opened.
Her father stood there, dressed in a pair of dark jeans, a button-down shirt, and a tie. It was the closest he got to a suit. Ever.
Though he was nearing one hundred, as a descendent of a Norse demigod, he aged much slower and only appeared to be in his late forties.
“We need a meeting, guys.”
It drove her mother crazy that Astra’s father insisted on calling his daughters “guys”, but he refused to stop.
Astra and the rest of her sisters really didn’t care, but their mother still rolled her eyes at him even after all these years.
“What’s up?” Sylvie asked.
“Just run-of-the-mill stuff. We have some contracts coming in and we need to get organized.” He grinned at his youngest. “Glad you’re here now, kiddo. Your mom and I want to retire soon but we can’t as long as your sisters are having to put in fifty to sixty-hour weeks.”
“So, I’ll be putting in those long weeks instead of you?” Sylvie asked, batting her eyelashes.
“Yep.”
Astra and Sylvie shared a look as their father turned and walked away.
“I guess we’d better get back to work,” Astra said, getting to her feet. She grabbed the cup of coffee, her tablet, and her phone.
Sylvie stopped in front of her door, keeping her from exiting. “Listen, sis, if you ever need to talk about what’s going on between you and Rune, you know I’ll listen. Right?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Good, because I know I’m younger than you and all, but I’ve had more experience disappointing Mom and Dad, so I’ll be able to help you deal.”
Astra shouldered her sister out of the way, making her laugh. “You’re a pain in the ass.”
“I know. That’s why you love me, though.”
Astra shook her head as Sylvie walked back to her office. The sad part was that Sylvie was right. She did love her. Not because she was a pain in the ass, but because she was closest to her.
No matter what Sylvie thought, Astra didn’t live her life according to her parents’ expectations. But she also didn’t have any experience with disappointing them either. It just so happened that the road she saw her life going down matched up with their idea of what it should be.
