Page 2 of My Blind Date is a Vampire

Unfortunately for me, the fact that everyone in my immediate family was all loved up now, including Sebastian, the formerly perpetual bachelor, had caused my mother to flip her switch and ramp up her matchmaking efforts. She was determined not to rest until I had a bigger ring on my finger than the one Jess wore and had an even more extravagant wedding.

After introducing me to three different guys, one of whom was going through a particularly nasty divorce, I’d snuck up to my bedroom and huddled in the tiny closet with my clothes and cell phone for company.

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I still had some time before Mom noticed that I was gone and sent a search party after me. In the meantime, I checked my inbox for any communication from the principal of Mystic Cove high school. I still hadn’t told anyone that I’d applied for a job in a different town; I’d even snuck away for an interview on Monday. I didn’t want to jinx anything. Not to brag or anything, but I was confident of my chances. Principal Hawthorne and I had clicked during the interview, and I think I passed it with flying colors. She had assured me that she would make her decision by Friday, and it was now late in the afternoon on a Saturday.

Instead of an email telling me that I’d gotten got the job, my inbox was flooded with forwarded job listings from my oldest brother, Charlie, along with some scholarship applications to go back for my master’s degree. His way of telling me to get off my lazy butt and get a job already.

Charlie was only trying to help me get back on my feet, I knew that. But it didn’t ease the sting. Did my brothers think I stayed in my room all day, lazing about and mooching off our parents? I was offended that he felt the need to forward all these listings to me when I was capable of doing it myself. Heck, I’d even subscribed to one of those sites that helped notify you of all relevant employment opportunities based on the information provided on your profile. Teaching jobs were just hard to come by in some areas. Many people stay in those jobs for life. The pay might not always be great, but they do have good benefits. Often, someone has to die or retire for a position to open up.

The door to my closet was pulled open with so much force that it banged against the wall. I scrunched my eyes shut against the sudden influx of sunlight, pausing in the middle of angrily deleting all of Charlie’s emails.

A tiny figure stood in the open doorway of the closet, curiously peering down at me. “Found ya!” Brandon exclaimed, holding one of those huge swirling lollipops in front of his mouth like a microphone. “Whatcha doing?”

“Hiding,” I deadpanned. “Were you looking for me, squirt?” I asked the only other redhead in the family besides Mom and me. Though, Brandon’s hair was gradually darkening to a mahogany brown hair with copper highlights like Bennett, my second brother.

“Grandma is looking for you. What are you hiding from? Are there monsters under your bed? Jayden and I always hide in the closet when there are monsters under the bed,” the seven-year-old told me in a conspiratorial whisper. He and his brother Jayden were only eleven months apart, so they could pass for twins and were usually glued at the hip. Jayden must have been in the backyard playing in the bounce house with the other kids.

“I’m hiding from the scariest monster of all, kid. Your grandmother can be pretty terrifying sometimes. But don’t tell her I said that.” I sighed, holding my hand out for Brandon to pull me up. In an impressive display, he stuffed the lollipop into his mouth and grabbed my hand with both of his sticky hands and pulled me up.

I followed him out of the room, discreetly wiping my hands on the back of my jean shorts. “Where is she?” I asked him as we walked down the stairs.

“Kitchen!” Brandon announced, jumping over the last stair and nearly giving me a heart attack when he stumbled and landed on his knees. Before I could show any concern, he was already running into the kitchen and out the back door to join his friends. I swear kids are made of rubber.

Bas and his new fiancé, Kimberly, were in the kitchen laughing while Mom stacked up empty platters of food and took more out of the fridge, setting them up on the island counter.

Bas was leaning on the counter, scarfing down kebabs, and was the first to see me walk in. “Where have you been hiding? Did Aunt Beth get to you already?” he teased around a bite of his kebab. Aunt Beth was Dad’s older sister and was known to have an extremely sharp tongue. She would mercilessly harp on about other people’s faults and flaws while conveniently playing herself up as a saint. My latest flaw was that I was approaching the big three-oh and was still unmarried with no kids, no job, and no house of my own.

Mom looked up at me when she heard Bas’s question, her expression immediately darkening. “I have been looking for you everywhere. You were supposed to be helping with the food and drinks, but poor Kim had to step in, and after spending almost twenty hours on call at the hospital,” she scolded. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes while Bas snickered behind my back and Kimberly gave me an apologetic smile.

“You make it sound as if I was sneaking off to smoke weed or something. I just needed some peace from all this craziness,” I huffed, grabbing a tray from “poor” Kimberly and urging her to take a seat. “And you could have easily asked this bozo here to help you out instead of his overworked fiancé,” I pointed out.

“I’m really not that tired, and I don’t mind helping out, Kristen,” Kimberley piped up, trying to diffuse the tension before Mom and I blew up at each other.

“Manning the DJ station is thirsty work,” Bas objected, waving his can of soda pointedly in my face.

“And what about poor Mike? You told him you were going to the bathroom and never came back. The man is out there looking like a lost puppy. The only reason he came to the party is because of you, you know,” Mom griped, not yet willing to let her irritation with me go. My own temper flared. It had been some time since the two of us really went at it, but we both possessed the infamous redhead temper, and mine got me in a lot of trouble with my parents as a kid and teenager. Living with my parents again had the three of us falling back into bad habits.

“No, he came here because of you. You’re the one who put it in his head that I’d be amiable to his advances. The man is going through a divorce, Mom! I don’t need that kind of complication in my life right now, and please, for the love of all that is holy, just butt out of my love life. I’ll date when I’m good and ready and it’ll be someone of my own choosing!” I stormed out of the kitchen, grabbing some platters and depositing them on the buffet table outside.

I spent the rest of the party drifting from one group to another, avoiding my mother. Guilt gnawed at me for the way I’d spoken to her, but I did not regret a single thing I’d said. She was being way too pushy and sticking her nose in where she wasn’t wanted or needed. Her behavior only cemented the fact that I needed to get my own place as soon as possible before either one of us said some things we could not take back.

CHAPTER 3

The call I’d been waiting for all week finally came through the following morning as I was having my morning coffee with my brothers—all of whom had stayed in their old rooms last night at Dad’s insistence so that we could all pitch in and clean up after the party. Only Bennett and his wife had gone home since there was no room for them and their boys, but they had come back for breakfast in the morning.

Despite the obsessive frequentness with which I had been clinging to my cell phone all week and checking my emails, text messages, and phone logs for missed calls, when the call finally came through, all I could do was stare at the screen as if it would grow fangs and bite me if I picked it up.

“Are you going to answer that or just stare at the screen like an idiot?” Bas asked me, his green eyes twinkling with mirth. The rest of my family were eyeing me curiously as well. Even Mom, who was pretending to be engrossed in her omelet, had her ears pricked. We’d grudgingly apologized to each other before going to bed last night, but things were still tense between us.

“Jules, you’re starting to make me worried. Is there a reason you’re not answering?” Charlie inquired, reaching out to pick up my phone. Everyone knew I hated receiving phone calls and preferred communicating through texts and emails whenever possible, but I never just let it ring like this without moving a muscle. I could see why that seemed strange to them.

But there were times when phone calls were unavoidable, and this was one of those times. All I had to do was pick it up from the table and answer.

“I was mentally preparing myself to answer,” I shot back, scowling at Bas and slapping Charlie’s hand away before he could get a look at the caller ID. Just as I reached out to pick up the phone, the call cut off.

My heart stuttered and skipped a few beats and my chest squeezed painfully tight. For a split second, I feared that I might be having a heart attack at twenty-nine, or possibly an onset asthma attack since I struggled to get air past my throat and down to my lungs. That was until I realized that I’d been holding in my breath. Did I just sabotage myself by not answering the call from Mystic Cove High?

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