Page 48 of Tell Me Why
“The real question is whether Daryll can resist coming to threaten us one more time before sunrise,” Tell said as he settled in and Tina tried to pick which wall she was going to stare at.
It was a challenge, directed at Daryll rather than at Tina, one that left the vampire man very little dignified ground to work with, and Tina almost giggled as she worked it out.
The night was long, but not quite as maddening as the one before, or the one before that, and Tina let herself be grateful for it.
She had windows to look out, ones that came with iron shutters in multiple layers, if she was reading the mechanisms to either side of them correctly, but here and now she could look out over the garden as it rolled gently away from the house, the great oak tree out at the far end only visible in its leaves.
Tomorrow something was going to change.
It made today better.
And that was enough.
There wasa storm during the day. One that shook the house and battered it with buckets of water masquerading as rain, and Tina hoped that it didn’t continue into the night such that they’d be deciding between postponing the conversation with Isabella because they couldn’t hide that they’d been inconveniently outside or dealing with the deluge and the loss of senses that went with it.
It surprised her howscentwas one of the biggest losses, in the rain.
Fortunately, as the sun’s power began to wane, the storm petered out as well, and by the time Tina was getting out of bed, it sounded like it was completely over.
The house below them was full of activity, the familiar sounds of event staff coming in to set up the food and entertainment for the party, and a woman came in about thirty minutes later with costume for Tina and Tell.
Tina had expected formal, but Tina got a black-and-gray cocktail dress with something loosely related to a paisley pattern to it, and Tell got atanjacket and slacks.
Tan.
She looked at it and then at him and then back at it again.
“It will look better than you expect,” Tell said with humor. “They have excellent tailors and… They don’t want us to stand out any more than you want to stand out.”
“I don’t understand,” Tina said, looking at her dress again. “It’s cute, but… I…”
She wouldn’t have worn this in either her old life or her new life.
It was just… completely not her.
“Would Isabella wear this?” she asked, and he shook his head.
“Not that I expect. But the jeans shocked me, I’ll admit that upfront.”
“I don’t understand,” Tina said again, and he shrugged.
“Unless you’re going to go out there and interrupt theirvery importantparty planning, I expect this is not the time to worry about it. Just go get dressed.”
She narrowed her eyes at him.
“You shaved,” she said.
He nodded.
“It was time,” he agreed.
“And somehow you managednotto shave,” she said, and he smiled without looking at her.
“It’s a mystery,” he said. “Go get dressed.”
She went to wash and groom, putting on the dress and evaluating it in the mirror for a moment.
It looked good.
