When the laughs died down, I muttered, "No...not yet, Mom." Teren squeezed my hand on the word "yet", and looking over at him, I noticed him winking at me. Hmmm...maybe he did want that future for us?
Teren filled in the blanks on our big announcement, while I continued gazing at him. "My father has fallen ill and I need to be with him...to help out on the ranch for a couple of months, until he's better." My mother's expression turned sympathetic. As she looked about to reply, Teren cut her off with, "Emma is going to come out with me...to help my step-mother."
Mom's face softened into a small smile as she gazed at me in approval. My sister, however, gasped and tears sprang to her eyes. She looked shocked and horrified, and about to loudly protest...right in front of Mom.
"But...Emma...?"
My mother looked over to her with thin lips. Teren looked about to say something, but I quickly beat him to it. "Ash...I need to go to the restroom, will you come with me?"
Her mouth in a hard line, she nodded her half-haired head and stiffly stood from the table. I rose from the edge and, locking my elbow with hers, quietly walked away.
Ash wasn't so quiet. "Emma...that's nuts. You can't be around him while he changes. That's...that's near suicide!" She was whispering, but I shushed her anyway. I looked back at Teren; he was flushing slightly as he tried to assure my mom that nothing was wrong. He'd clearly heard my sister say that and I'm sure he wasn't crazy about the comment.
Ashley didn't say anything else and we shuffled into the bathroom in a sullen silence. I checked under all the stall doors. When I was positive we were alone, I turned back to her.
"Emma...please," she started immediately.
I put my hands on her arms. "He asked me to be there when he died, Ashley. How could I possibly say no to that?"
Examining my face, she opened and shut her mouth several times. "But...Emma...?"
I ran a hand down her scarred face as her tears spilled over. "Please don't worry about me, Ash. His family will keep me safe." She closed her eyes and started to cry in earnest. I held her close and rubbed her back. "It will be okay, I promise." I didn't mentally overlook the fact that the only assurance I could give her was a promise, and I knew from experience just how empty those promises can sound.
She held me back and cried a moment longer on my shoulder before pulling back to look at me. I wiped some tears off her cheeks as she sniffled. "You'll be careful?" she asked hesitantly, like she didn't want to sound too approving of my plan, but she knew she had no choice-my mind was made up.
I held her face in both hands. "I will be the most careful human around a hungry vampire, that anyone has ever seen...okay?"
Pursing her lips, she shook her head, but then she nodded. To ease her mind even more, I added, "I won't be there for the actual change. Once his heart stops, his father will drive us safely away, until Teren has had his fill of cattle."
She looked at me blankly, and then smacked my shoulder. "You couldn't have led with that! Geeze, Emma...I was picturing them tying you down next to him like some virgin sacrifice."
Rubbing my shoulder, I rolled my eyes and we both started to giggle. "I'm hardly a virgin, Ashley."
She laughed harder and gave me a huge hug. All was forgiven. "I love you, sis."
I held her back just as tight. "I love you too. I'll be fine...okay?"
"You better be," she muttered and I thought I heard her add, "I'll stake his ass, if you're not."
Cleaning up our sodden faces, we hugged one last time before exiting the bathroom to rejoin dinner. Teren and my mom were laughing over something as we calmly approached the table. Teren eyed me with a clear question in the slight arch of his brow. Too low for the others to hear, I muttered, "She's fine...we're fine." He nodded once and flicked his eyes to Ashley as she sat down.
Meeting his gaze, Ashley muttered something under her breath. I didn't hear what she said, but Teren's eyes saddened as he flicked a quick glance to me. He nodded briefly to Ashley, before picking up his fork and resuming his meal, which had arrived while we'd been in the bathroom, since the waitress, Debby, knew perfectly well what we'd order.
I glanced up at Ashley across from me as she picked up her fork. She gave me a small grin before shifting her focus to her meal. My mother seemed oblivious to the silent conversations going on around her, but after wiping her mouth with a napkin, she did ask me if I was all right. "Yes, I'm great. Everything is great," I assured her.
She gave me an odd look for half a second, and then asked Teren, "What will you have to do on the ranch?"
I wondered if Mom suspected something was going on, but was choosing to ignore it. My mom would fight for me like a mother bear if the situation called for it, but Teren and I were happy, and relatively healthy, so whatever was going on, obviously wasn't dangerous in her eyes. Sometimes, living in ignorance is the easiest way to get through life...especially when it comes to your loved ones.
After the meal, we hugged goodbye in the parking lot. Teren muttered something in Ashley's ear again, before helping her into the car. Once we were back in his vehicle, I asked, yet again, what he and my sister were chatting about. With a half-smile, he told me, "At the table, she threatened to kill me if anything happened to you. I just told her that I would let her stake me, if anything happened to you."
I shook my head in disbelief at these people who loved me so fiercely.
The following week and a half were a blur. I'm sure the days happened. They must have. I was pretty sure time travel wasn't possible. Of course, just a few months ago I'd felt the same way about vampires. But somewhere in the goodbye meals with my family, a final double date with Tracey and Hot Ben, who was anxious for Teren to return for more "guy time", and arranging for Spike to live with my mom and sister while we were gone, so we didn't tempt Halina, days flew by.
Tracey threw me a going away party on my last day, much to Clarice's dismay. She brought me a bouquet of wild flowers and enough chocolate cupcakes for the entire staff, which I think finally made Clarice okay with the whole distraction. After handing me a cupcake with a lit sparkler on the top, Tracey and I hugged for several long seconds. We both had tears in our eyes as we pulled apart, and I already missed my vivacious friend.
After the mini bon voyage, I went home. Teren was already there in my drive, waiting for me so we could prepare for our trip. I packed multiple bags of clothes and supplies for our "vacation that wasn't a vacation" and then we added my stuff to Teren's few bags. My addition loaded up his Prius to near bursting. Teren wryly commented that his parents did own a washing machine, so I didn't need to pack half my closet. I gave him a sour face for that. Over packing was a woman's prerogative. I'd even refused his offer to do it for me again. As good as he was at it, the selecting and folding of clothing calmed my mind and my nerves. Honestly, I think that's why I seriously over packed. Stopping had caused my mind to drift to unpleasant things, so I'd purposely avoided doing it.
And so, on a cloudless, blue, autumn Saturday morning, after a peaceful night of holding each other until we fell into a deep sleep, my vampire and I headed out to his parents' ranch, where he was slated to die within six weeks. I cast a final glance back at my house as we pulled out of the driveway. The early morning sunlight sparkled in the windows and the house almost looked like it was winking goodbye to me. I smiled at the blue beauty with the old-fashioned white shutters and flower boxes, and a bright red door. My grandmother's house, that looked like a half-gallon carton of milk smashed in-between other half-gallon cartons of milk, each holding the other up for support. I was going to miss it. I silently wished the house well in my absence, and turned back to the road.
We were quiet as we drove along, passing by people walking their pets and older couples, holding hands as they went about their morning. I watched a particularly cute, wrinkled couple and let out a soft sigh. That would never be Teren and I, but we would still have a great life together. Once we got through his death, of course.
Hearing me sigh, Teren stretched out his warm hand and placed it over mine on my knee. I turned my palm and laced our fingers together. He exhaled in a long, steady breath, like he was struggling with a nervous stomach. He glanced over at me and tried to smile, but it quickly fell off his face.
Feeling a jittery tension in the air, I tried to lighten the mood. "You know, you never did teach me any Russian."
He looked over at me with a genuine smile on his lips. Mission accomplished. "I guess I didn't, did I?"
I raised an eyebrow and patiently waited for him to start. He laughed, once he realized I wanted my first lesson right now. With a smile still on his lips, he flicked a glance back to the empty stretch of road, leading to a main artery out of the city. Returning his eyes to me, he warmly said, "Ya tebya lyublyu."
I scrunched my brow and tried to repeat the odd sounding phrase. "Ya tebya..."
"Lyublyu," he said again, with a warm glow in his eyes that matched the one on his lips.
I tried again, saying the words as close as I could to English, so the strange pronunciation made sense to me. "Ya teb-ya lou-blue." He nodded, his smile proud. Feeling more confident, I spouted it out again, trying to match his authentic cadence. He laughed a little and nodded again.
When his eyes turned back to the road as we hit the highway, leading us away from our homes, I wondered what I'd said. "What did I say?" I scanned his face as I asked him. His eyes twinkled in the morning rays, but he didn't answer me. That wasn't a good sign. I frowned. "Teren...what did you have me say?"
He started chuckling at my tone, but he still refused to answer me. I exhaled a dramatic breath, "Oh God. You made me say something dirty, didn't you?"
Laughing in earnest, he looked over at me with adoration clear in his features. Shaking his head, he softly said, "It means 'I love you'."
I felt my cheeks heat as I started laughing with him. Squeezing our laced-together hands, I looked out the window at San Francisco streaming by me. Darn romantic vampire. As more and more of the city fell behind me, and romantic Russian syllables danced in my head, I asked Teren something that I'd randomly thought one day, back when he'd first told me what he was.
"Do you ever walk down the street and have a woman pass you and think-hmmm...I'd like a bite of that girl?" I twisted my head to grin in his direction.
Teren laughed at my odd question. "Of course...who doesn't?" He shrugged and continued laughing, all worry momentarily gone from his features, as I kept the mood in the car light.
I frowned playfully. "I'm serious, Teren."
He bit his lip to rein in his chuckles and looked back over the road. "Well, if I see a pretty girl, who smells appealing, I may wonder for a second if her blood is a particularly good...vintage." He shrugged again. "But that's about it."
I smiled as I thought about my next question. "Did you think that about me?"
He looked over at me with an open, loving, honest face and then responded suggestively with, "Why do you think I called you?"
My body felt red-hot all over. His eyes lingered down my skin before turning back to the road. His smile was that alluring half-grin that was so darn sexy. My hand clutching his suddenly wanted to be running through his hair and across his strong shoulders. I may have gotten carried away with my mood relaxing questions.