“I heard you got married!” she says with a wide smile. “I always knew a pretty girl like you wouldn’t stay on the market long.”
It’s a compliment, yet I still find it offensive for some reason. Like it’s bad to be on the market or something.
“I did.” I smile back and hold up my hand. Light catches on my ostentatious ring, and my heart does that flutter thing it does when I think about Lucas.
“Oh my goodness, that’s quite a rock you’ve got there!” Mrs. Bishop takes my hand and brings it closer to her face. “Is that real?” she asks in a hushed tone.
“It is.”
“Wow. You landed a good one.” She gives me a wink. “Smart girl, marrying rich. Now you don’t have to work anymore. What does your husband do?”
“Something in finance that’s too complicated for me to figure out,” I say with a fake smile. Good thing I married rich, right? “Want to see wedding photos?” I ask a little too eagerly.
“Oh, I’d love to, dear!”
My phone is already in my hand from taking pictures of my animals, and I quickly open my email and click on the link the photographer sent. I can’t help the smile that comes over my face when I see Lucas standing by the altar, looking so fucking sexy in his suit.
“That’s him,” I say, gooney smile still on my face.
“He’s very handsome.”
“He is,” I gush and flip through a few more photos. There is only one of me with Michael, and it’s a shot from behind where you can’t see his face when he’s walking me down the aisle.
I’m suddenly hit with emotion and have to quickly blink away tears. Anything having to do with family kills me a bit on the inside, even after all the years I spent repressing the issues I undoubtedly still have.
I was never sure if I’d get married, and I never ever thought my father would walk me down the aisle. Even if asshole Martin offered, I wouldn’t have let him come within a mile of my wedding.
But to have my father, my real father, there…it means so much to me. Michael took another risk coming to Earth to be with me on my wedding day. He looked at me with love in his eyes and never once judged me for marrying a vampire.
And he’s an archangel, for crying out loud. If he’s okay with it, then the stupid Grand Coven should be, too.
“You looked beautiful, my dear,” Mrs. Bishop says. “And very happy.” She swipes back a few photos. “And just look at the way he looks at you. It reminds me of my second husband.”
“That’s one of my favorite photos.” I’m smiling again, and we go through the rest of the photos, and then I walk Mrs. Bishop to the counter.
“You know she hates vampires, don’t you?” I say as soon as she leaves.
Betty laughs. “Yeah, I’ve heard her rants about them before. She has no idea Lucas is a vampire?”
“Nope.” I shrug. “She’s very old-fashioned, and that’s being nice.”
“You are too nice. Though it’s not like I’m going to say anything.”
“You’re like the sweetest person on the planet,” I laugh.
Betty wrinkles her nose. “I try. But is it a bad thing?”
“Not at all.” I go to the front display and help Betty finish straightening the books. Danielle comes back up to the register, cooing over Scarlet.
“She’s so cute.” Danielle bends down and loves all over her. “Didn’t you get her before you got married?”
Well, shit. I know where this is going. “Yeah, she was a gift.”
“That’s one nice wedding present.” She smiles down at Scarlet. “Aren’t you? You are! You are the cutest little present.” The smile disappears from Danielle’s face, and she looks up at me. “She hasn’t grown at all, has she?”
“No, she, uh, has a rare disorder. Dwarfism.”
“Really?” Danielle turns her head, looking at Scarlet. “She looks normal and proportioned.”
“It’s a mild case,” I blurt and know I need to stop talking. “And she’s receiving treatments,” I add for good measure just in case I can adjust her glamour. Though at this point I might need to change her into a different breed and say I got a new dog.
A customer comes up to the register to check out, and Danielle goes back to the counter.
“Is she a familiar, too?” Betty whispers, looking at Pandora, who’s walking along the top of a shelf.
“No. Scarlet is…she’s something else.”
Betty looks at Scarlet and then slowly shakes her head. “I can’t believe it’s all real. Magic…familiars…demons,” she whispers.
“Is it surprising, though?” I ask, genuinely curious. “After vampires came out, didn’t you wonder about what else was real?”
“Yeah, I did. It kind of scared me, though.” Her eyes widen. “What about werewolves?”
“Real.”
“Fairies?”
“Real but very rare to find nowadays. They have their own dimensions.”
“Unicorns?”
“Nearly extinct, but some do believe they exist in the same realms as the fae.”