Page 35 of I Hate Myself for Loving You
“Avery, right?” a woman said from the chair in the Adams kitchen. Her blue eyes twinkled even in the dim light of only the stovetop bulb’s glow.
“Oh, my God! You’re the infamous Eva, aren’t you? Max’s grandmother?” Avery greeted her with a warm smile. “I’ve seen your picture.”
“That’s me. Is everyone off in Manhasset with Julia and Xavier?”
Avery nodded with a warm smile. “Yep. They were pretty excited.”
“I so love babies.” She smiled back at Avery and Lassiter. “I must do what needs to be done here and get right off to New York then.”
“What needs to be done here?” Avery asked. “I told Max and everyone I’d hold the fort until they got back,” she assured Eva.
Eva almost ignored her in favor of seeing Lassiter. Her eyes held him while he hovered at the edge of the kitchen. Rising from her chair, Eva smiled. “Oh, you must be Anna’s boy,” she cried, moving toward Lassiter and putting a hand on his arm.
Lassiter cocked his head, seeking Avery’s eyes from across the room. “How… how did you know?”
Eva hugged him with a chuckle. “I’d know Anna’s boy anywhere. Anna and I were raised together. My family adopted her. She was the sister of my heart, though I was a great deal older than her. We had a bond like no other.”
“You knew my mother?” Lassiter asked in disbelief.
Eva beamed. “I did indeed. Such a beautiful girl. Dark like you. She was an impulsive one, Anna was. Anyway, you’re home now, young man. What’s your name?”
“Lassiter,” he answered woodenly. For the first time since she’d met him, Avery sensed he was overwhelmed.
“A fine name for a handsome boy. We have work to do, yes?”
He held up a hand. “Wait. I have no idea what’s going on here. I’m… I?—”
“You’re confused, Lassiter,” Avery offered. “Eva? Could we sit down and talk. Lassiter has some questions, I’d think.”
“Isn’t he here to help his brother? We need to hurry to do that, don’t we?”
Lassiter’s brow furrowed, his eyes confused. “Yes, ma’am, I am. How did you know that?”
Eva rolled her eyes at him and put her arm around his tapered waist. “Because I’m the one who created the spell for Anna, silly.”
Well, of course she had. Avery rolled her eyes. Eva was the answer to everything unbelievable and as far out as you could get in the Adams family.
“The spell?” Lassiter muttered.
“Yes,” Eva said on a sigh. “The spell to keep your brother with you. I didn’t know why Anna needed it. You do know she was married to a vampire, yes? Your father?”
Lassiter nodded wordlessly.
“Well, it would seem there were other vampires who didn’t like your father, Maddon, mating with Anna. Vampires who have no sense of diversity, if you ask this old woman,” she spat. “They didn’t want you and your brother to… to… How can I put this delicately? They didn’t want you and your brother to, well, exist. Not at all. Anna’s plan was to hide you, turn you both into parakeets. I’m sorry for the oddity of the chosen animal, but my spells are limited. I personally would have gone lion, like our Xavier, had I known how.”
“Lion,” Lassiter mumbled, his eyes wide.
“Yes, dear. Anyway, the spell was designed to hide you where necessary. Hide you from your father’s family, heathens that they were. But Anna disappeared shortly after she asked for the spell and then, one day, I woke up and in my heart…” Her voice caught, but she cleared her throat and steadied it. “I felt it. I felt she was gone, but I had no clue where you two were. I searched for you everywhere. It’s left a hole in my heart that, now, can finally be filled.”
Lassiter’s mouth hung open and Eva reached up to close it with a smile. “This morning, when I woke up, I knew in my gut someone needed me here. I wish I’d known sooner. We could have avoided all of this madness my grandsons have kept from me.”
“I’m sure they didn’t want to upset you, Eva,” Avery assured her.
Her eyes twinkled. “If they’d risked upsetting me, all those holes out there could have been avoided, eh?” she teased. “Neither here nor there. I’m so glad it turned out to be you my gut said needed me, Lassiter. What’s your twin’s name?”
Twin? There were two of them? Phew boy, this should be something. Two over the top, uber pains in the asses.
Lassiter still had that hit by a freight train look on his face. “He’s my twin?”
