Hugh suddenly became very interested in finishinghis food as fast as he could. “Nothing. Just, you know, plans.”
“Plans,” Samuel echoed suspiciously. “On a Tuesday morning. On your day off.”
“People have plans on Tuesdays. That’s a thing that happens.” Hugh began backing toward the door with a hunted expression. “Normal people. With normal plans.”
“You’re not normal,” I said, deadpan.
“Hugh.” Victoria’s tone could have frozen lava. “What aren’t you telling us?”
Hugh’s retreat halted at the doorway. He looked like a man weighing his options and finding them all terrible.
“I have a date.”
The dining room went deathly quiet.
“A date,” Victoria repeated.
“Yes, Mother. A date.” Hugh’s chin lifted defiantly. “It’s when two people who like each other spend time together. Socially.”
“Who with?” Samuel asked.
Hugh hesitated. “Beatrice Lupton.”
I sucked in air and earned a mildly disapproving glance from Victoria.
2
DATING AND OTHER DISASTERS
Beatrice waspart of the Lupton pack, the family who had been not-so-subtly positioning their daughters as potential matches for Samuel before I’d stumbled into the picture and stolen the Hawthorne alpha from right under their noses. I’d gotten to know Beatrice and her sister Lauren after the Holt ball and the ill-famed crystal skull incident.
Contrary to expectations, I now counted them among my supernatural friends.
Victoria carefully set down her newspaper. “I see.”
I bit my lip. I wasn’t sure if her tone meant she was processing things calmly or if we were about to see a replay of some terrible Greek tragedy, except with more screaming. The way Bo shuffled closer told me he was thinking the same thing.
“It’s just coffee,” Hugh said hastily in the fraught silence. “We ran into each other at that new café downtown. She’s actually really nice when she’s not,you know, being paraded around as alpha-bride material.” He glanced guiltily at Samuel.
Samuel’s expression was unreadable. “And you didn’t think to mention this earlier?”
“I’m mentioning it now.” Hugh darted toward the sideboard and grabbed another piece of toast. “I’m late. We’ll talk later!”
He fled before anyone could respond.
The silence stretched on. I broke it by munching on some bacon and earned myself another tart look from my future mother-in-law, as well as a hungry stare from Bo.
“Well,” Victoria said finally. “This is an unexpected development.” The Hawthorne matriarch uttered the last word in a tone rapidly approaching doom.
Greek tragedy it was then.
From the way Beatrice and Hugh had been making discreet cow eyes at each other at our last meeting, I wasn’t surprised at all.
“Beatrice isn’t bad,” I said while unsubtly feeding my dog some bacon under the table. “She’s really nice once you get to know her.”
Bo inhaled the treat noisily and drew a contemptuous sneer from Pearl.
I debated voicing the disturbing similarities between the cat and her owner but vetoed my own impulse. Who owned whom was still a subject of debate.
