Page 16 of My Blind Date is a Vampire

“I didn’t mean to scare you, and I didn’t mean to make you cry either,” Landon began. I interrupted him, mumbling under my breath like a petulant child and telling him that I wasn’t crying.

His mouth twitched as if he wanted to smile, but his frown remained in place along with the tortured look in his violet eyes. I felt my eyes start to sting, which was a rather extreme reaction on my part as I had known him for only a week and I’d seen him once out of those seven days, excluding today, and yet I couldn’t help but feel like we were already tethered to each other.

It might just have been a case of me falling headfirst and setting myself up for more pain, but I was already knee-deep in this and there was nothing I could do about my feelings.

“I don’t want us to break this off, Julia, but I fear that it may be inevitable. It might not be today, but somewhere down the line you are going to want to get as far away from me as possible. There are things about me you don’t know, things I should probably tell you right now, but I’m too much of a coward to do so.”

“That’s the whole point behind dating, is it not?” I put the glass down on the counter and cupped his cheek, smiling when Landon leaned into the touch and placed his hand on top of mine. “The reason why we go out on dates and spend time with each other is so that we get to know each other inside and out. We do it so that we get comfortable enough with each other that we can bare our souls to one another without fear of rejection and judgment. We all have a past, Landon; I’ve done things in my past I’m embarrassed about. I didn’t go into this expecting you to be as pure as the driven snow, and I’m not going to force you to tell me anything until you’re ready and trust me enough to tell me your secrets. But we’ll never get to that point if you cut and run now before our relationship blossoms into something more.”

I was rambling, but that didn’t mean what I was saying was wrong. I just hoped that Landon would see sense behind my nonsensical word salad and change his mind. By the looks of him, Landon didn’t know what to believe either, and I felt my heart shrivel up in my chest.

“Honestly, I think it will hurt more if we let ourselves get too attached and then you decide to walk away later down the line—”

Snatching my hand away from his face, I readied myself for his rejection. Mentally, I was already out the door and on my way to buy the biggest carton of mint chocolate ice cream they had in the store.

“But I don’t want to lose you either way, so until I am ready to divulge the uglier sides of myself, I will make sure to give you the best of me so that when the time comes, you’ll at least think twice before dumping me.” His wry statement startled a teary laugh from me. “I might have brought down the mood, but will you still do me the honor of spending the day with me? I really want to give you a tour of my gallery. While I own a few around the country, the one in Mystic Cove is near and dear to my heart.” He outstretched his hand to me.

And like a fool, I took it.

CHAPTER 18

High Tide was the name of Landon’s gallery, which was fitting considering that the sea was a hop, skip, and jump from the converted warehouse. It was actually two converted warehouses, as Landon pointed out when he parked his car in front of High Tide.

“The second building serves as the art school. If things go well, the funds from the auction will help us get started on building a better-equipped art school,” he explained.

The exterior of both buildings was nothing impressive, just a reddish-brown metal siding with tinted windows. Without the gallery’s name hanging above the front entrance, one could have assumed that it was a decommissioned factory or abandoned warehouse.

“Why is it so empty? I expected to see a couple of kids coming in for their lessons or tourists looking to buy souvenirs,” I commented when I noticed how deserted the adjacent parking spaces looked, as well as the padlocked doors and closed windows.

“We’re closed for the day,” came Landon’s distracted reply as he patted the pockets of his slacks.

“You didn’t have to close it down just for me,” I objected when Landon fished out the keys and unlocked the front door. I’d observed the gallery from afar when I came in for my interview with Principal Hawthorne, and again when I was moving into the town. I knew that it was open every day of the week, but it closed a little after midday during the weekend, and the art classes took place every week from Wednesday to Saturday—after school hours during the week and from morning until four-thirty on Saturday—but today it looked like it was just the two of us.

“As much as I’d like to take the credit and claim that I was doing it to be romantic, the fact of the matter is that my staff and I are actually prepping for a fundraising auction. We’re expecting some shipments and setting up the exhibits and we’ll likely be closed until Wednesday, the night of the auction.” Landon smiled down at me, his hand at my back as he ushered me into the gallery.

“Oh.” I flushed, hiding my face behind my hair and pretending to admire the gleaming black onyx tiles. They were so clean and polished that I could make out my reflection clearly. It was a good thing that I’d worn flat shoes because I would have been slipping and sliding all over the place and probably breaking something—like the expensive porcelain jade vase on display.

The foyer of the gallery was not just the reception desk—which was a work of art in its own right—but it was a showroom as well. The walls were painted a soft, dove gray color, and the pedestals were all white, with some of the pottery pieces protected by glass enclosures and some just out in the open. The exposed ceiling beams made the gallery feel modern with a rustic charm.

“These are gorgeous. Did your students make all of these?” I asked over my shoulder before stepping up to take a closer look at the jade vase. It was behind a glass enclosure with a tag on the glass with some basic information on the art piece and its artist.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the vase, which definitely drew inspiration from Chinese pottery, was not a single solid green color, but a myriad of shades of green swirling effortlessly together.

“The ones behind glass enclosures are from professional artists who’ve already made their debut in the art world while the rest are from my students or local artists who are not yet famous. Artists tend to have huge egos that are more often than not very fragile. Who knows what they’d do to me if something happened to their work?” Landon called out, his voice bouncing off the walls of the foyer as he walked behind the reception desk and started clicking away on the computer.

“And your students won’t care if someone knocks their work over? I’m sure they worked equally hard on their pieces. It seems kind of discriminatory that their pieces are given—and pardon me for saying so—subpar protective measures even though they are on display and up for sale.”

“Not to sound harsh, but that’s just the way it is. The bigger and better known the name, the more respect everyone gives you, and those are the artists who’ll be bringing in the big bucks on the night of the auction. But if it puts your mind at ease, I’ll have you know that my assistant has eyes in the back of his head, and there’ll be a visible security presence on the night of the fundraiser. It’s a swanky black-tie affair, though, so no one will want to make an idiot of themselves.”

I walked over to the next pottery piece. Although I wasn’t sure how to describe it, it was quite exquisite, and I was shocked to find that Destiny had created it. When I asked Landon if it was the same Destiny who I’d met at the grocery store—she was easy to describe—he told me that it was. Apparently, she and her sister were women of many talents, including—but not limited to—designing and crafting jewelry and making facial scrubs, scented candles, and the like.

“Their home serves as their store, and they have an online shop as well. Beverly and I have tried to convince them to just set up an actual, physical boutique, but they’re being stubborn about it.”

“It sounds like you’re close to them as well. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were into older women.” He spoke so fondly of them, I found it endearing.

“We might not be related by blood, but they are the only family I have. They helped me through a really dark time in my life. They were the guiding lights I needed when I was going through a life-altering transition, and at one point, they became something akin to my voice of reason… The conscience I needed when all I could think about was…” He stopped, eyes going wide. I guess he realized that he was about to tell me something he wasn’t ready to talk about—whatever it was that made him panic and try to break up with me only half an hour before.

I was dying of curiosity. I wanted to peel back each layer of Landon Grayson until I knew him better than he knew himself, but I promised him that I would not push or pry until he was ready, so I bit back my tongue and waited for him to speak.

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