“It really is.” Her grin lit her eyes, and they flashed like amethyst as her full vampire nature peeked out despite the public venue. “Thanks for saying so.”
When Philippa moved on, Tai lingered, taking in every detail of the featured exhibit one more time until another vampire joined him. This time he checked his peripheral vision, and everything in him went still. It was Claire.
After their hike and swim she’d donned a silver wrap dress that flattered her every line and curve. In spiky hot-pink heels, she stood nearly as tall as Tai. Her espresso-brown hair was still damp, blunt cut just above her shoulders, and he couldn’t help flashing back to the moment she surfaced beside him in the cave, water streaming from her hair to make little runnels into the dips of her shoulders.
She studied Mariah Davis’s work, and her lips pursed. From the day he’d met her, Tai had wanted to taste those lips. He still did, because he was just that pathetic.
“Oh,” she whispered. “Look at these.”
He nodded.
Claire wandered a few steps to a guitar that had been cut into pieces and reshaped to resemble cracking ice. A single musical note appeared sunk into the sound hole, the source of the cracking all around it.
“She doesn’t just use instruments to make art,” Claire said. “I mean, tons of people upcycle old trumpets and flutes into lamps, you know?”
“She uses music to make artaboutmusic,” Tai said.
“Yeah, that.” She met his eyes for a moment, then looked away, focused on a mosaic made of broken bits of vinyl records. She gave a little laugh. “Whoa, major breakage. Kind of hurts to look at this one.”
Her tone was bothered only by the literal shattered records in the art piece. She didn’t intend alluding to their record storethat never was. But when he didn’t respond, Claire’s eyes darted to his, flared with sudden emotion and understanding that deepened their blue-purple to a royal shade. Then she looked away again.
“Tai, I… When everything happened, Ryker told me there was more to it. I didn’t believe him. I still don’t, to be honest.”
He could only nod.
“But if you ever want to prove him right, I’ll hear you out.”
It was more than she’d offered him…ever.
Tai had thought he’d prepared himself to see her again. Not that he hadn’t laid eyes on her in three years, but they hadn’t talked, not really. A few business phone calls and emails, and one other significant call where she’d reluctantly asked him to track down Ember Reed’s missing nephew, a recently turned wolf pup. Tai had asked why him, and she’d said everyone knew he knew everyone, vampires and wolves alike. When he came through thanks to a few mutual connections, she’d managed to thank him, but the grudge hadn’t lifted from her voice.
Now she stood beside him admiring art made of music. For three years her disdain had remained lodged in his chest like a knife, and now here they were, and she said she would listen. Not a demand but an offer.
For a teetering moment, Tai wanted to tell her.
Then reason took over, reminded him that if he told her, she still wouldn’t trust him, and she’d never come near him again either. As much as it hurt to know Claire saw him as arrogant and fake, to know she saw him as weak and defective would be a hundred times worse.
As his silence lasted, she stiffened beside him. She looked away from the art to him, and he did her the courtesy of meeting her eyes, because he could at least give her that.
“Never mind,” she said. “I don’t know why I said that.”
“I appreciate the offer,” he said.
“I love Slake It Off, Tai. I love what the business grew into and what it means to so many vampires, and I’m never going to wish I’d stuck to the original plan.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to.”
“Okay.” She waved a hand at the Mariah Davis exhibit. “Enjoy, I guess.”
Then she walked away.
And he couldn’t catch a break, because Ryker ambled up to him in less than thirty seconds. Said nothing, only stared.
“Don’t, man,” Tai said.
“Haven’t said a word.”
Tai folded his arms over his chest and pretended to study the half-melted flute he’d already committed to visual memory.
