I exhaled. “Yeah. She loves me, but sometimes she tries too hard to prevent me from repeating her mistakes.”
“What do you mean?”
I traced the plastic edge of my phone case. “She met my father in the UK, and they started a secret relationship. When her family wanted her to come home and marry someone they’d picked, they ran. Dropped everything and came to the States.”
Graham nodded, urging me to keep talking.
“Money was always tight growing up. They fought. A lot. He blamed her for him not finishing school. She blamed him for being a bad provider. Then, when I was old enough to go to school, Maa went to work. She started making more than he did, and that somehow made it worse. Instead of yelling at each other, they just stopped talking. One day, my father just… left.” I swallowed. “She doesn’t want that for me. But she also wants to give me the freedom to choose. She liked Karim because he had money and roots in the old country. She wanted him to take me to India, show me where she came from, because she can’t do it herself. And she thinks if she’d picked differently, I’d have had more.”
I could still hear her voice, the way it cracked when she said, I wish I’d chosen better for you.
“She’ll say things like if she’d married the doctor her family chose for her, I’d have grown up in a large home with new clothes, and always have enough to eat. And I always have to remind her that if she hadn’t chosen my father, I wouldn’t exist at all.”
I blew out a breath, suddenly aware that I was spilling not just my life story in front of Graham, but the gritty part of it. The insecurity of knowing that my very existence had trapped my mother in a hard life. The poor guy didn’t sign up for this.
“I’m sorry. I made things all weird.”
“No, don’t be. We all have burdens.”
“Even gargoyles?”
“Especially gargoyles.”
But he didn’t offer, so I let it be. I’d spilled enough for both of us for one day.
As if on cue, his body language changed, and so did the general atmosphere around us. It lightened like it was giving me permission to step away from the past, the instability it had left behind, and enjoy today,
“Ready for the best coffee you’ll ever try?” Graham asked with a grin.
“Am I ever. Last one to the door is a rotten egg!”
Thebellabovethedoor chimed as Graham all but body-checked me intoThe Witch’s Brew, his wings catching briefly on the door above like he’d forgotten he’d had them. I bet they got in the way often. He was a huge guy even without them, and they stuck up over his body, despite being already folded. Even in Darlington, he still wore his glamour when he went out. I guess old habits die hard.
I took one look at the inside ofThe Witch’s Brewandimmediately decided this was my new favorite place in Darlington, except Graham’s bed.Crystals dangled from the ceiling like Christmas ornaments, mismatched mugs lined the counter, and shelves upon shelves of knickknacks cluttered thewalls. Was that a taxidermied raven? And a jar of… eyeballs? Please don’t be real eyeballs.
The coffee shop was a maximalist’s wet dream. And it was a wonderful departure from the decade-long chokehold minimalism had had on our collective psyche.
“This place is perfect. Five stars.”
“You haven’t even tried the coffee yet,” Graham muttered, rolling his eyes.
“Details, details.” I waved him off and sauntered toward the counter, where a redheaded woman with a warm smile was wiping down the espresso machine.
“Griselda,” Graham said, with a familiarity that told me he came here often, even though there were dozens of coffee shops closer to the penthouse. “You have red hair again.”
“Yeah, I got sick of maintaining the black.” Griselda’s eyes were on me, though, and I could sense an unasked question already. “You must be new. I haven’t seen you around.”
“Meera is visiting from New York. I’m giving her a tour of the city.”
Technically true. But not the whole truth. Our little outing had two purposes. The first was that I wanted to see Darlington, and because Graham had been a jerk to me for days, I’d told him he owed me a tour. And second, Graham wanted to see if my presence in the city would draw out my ex.
The lead Mateo and Desmon’s men had been following had run cold. They still didn’t know who Karim had worked for and where the hell he was now that his office had been torched. His apartment had been abandoned too.
They were using me as bait, and I honestly didn’t mind. At least they believed that the wolf shifters and wizards who had been after me were off my tail. They should know Desmon already had the egg by now, so there’d be no point in going after me anymore. So it would probably just be Karim. And I was a hundred and ten percent sure Graham could take him.
I wasn’t too excited about going back to my old life, not with all the new friends I was making here and this exciting new thing between Graham and me now that he’d given up hiding.
After our shower yesterday, he’d brought over my toothbrush from the guest bathroom and made a little spot in his personal bathroom for me. That had to count for something, right?
