Page 46 of Bite Marks

“Ren is…” I started, sighing. “Hot. Stupidly hot.”

“So what’s the problem, Vi? She’s obviously into you if she was playing paparazzi all night.”

I groaned and tossed my phone on the table.

“The last shred of sense I have says I absolutely don’t want to date anyone while I’m broke as hell and living on Kaylee’s sofa... Plus, she’s my fucking boss. Supervisor. Whatever. We work together is my point.”

Kaylee scoffed beside me. “Like that matters.”

“So…” Danny started slowly with a look at Kaylee that seemed to saynot helping.“What does your actual brain say?”

“It says that O is a buffet of hotties that I’d like to put my mouth all over,” I admitted, slinging my arm over my eyes.

Especially the tattoos on Ren’s neck. And that dimple on Elsie’s right butt cheek. Or to pull the scowl off Juniper’s grouchy face. And y’know—while I was at it, Dana had the most kissable lips I’d ever seen, especially when wrapped around a straw.

“Why don’t you—I don’t know—get on a dating app or something?” Kaylee offered, unhelpful as all fuck. “You know, since you want to keep pretending like you aren’t totally smitten.”

“Ihave!” I admitted with a groan, rubbing my hands over my face. “But how the hell am I supposed to think about someone else whenthat”—I gestured at my phone, where the photo of us dancing was still glowing on the screen—“is what I’m looking at four nights a week?” I grabbed my sibling’s arm, nearly spilling their plate all over the sofa. “Help me, Danny. Tell me how to get out of this.”

“The heart wants what the heart wants,” they laughed. “Besides, what’s the big deal?”

“I don’t want to have to choose one of them. I…”

“Like them all?” Kaylee supplied. “Seems like they have no problem sharing each other, so why would you be any different?”

“Because I barely know any of them, and they’re fuckingvampires.”

“You could befucking vampiresif you got over yourself,” Danny quipped, making Kaylee laugh.

“Yeah, but how long is that going to take? You spend four nights a week together. You’ll just get closer, get to know each other better…”

“Oh mygod,Kaylee, shut up!”

Danny set their plate on the coffee table, wiping their hands on their pants. “Listen, Vi...”

“Danny,” I warned.

“No, listen.” They took my hand, giving it a squeeze. “It sounds to me like you’re doing that thing where you stand in your own way again, and I need you to stop.”

Kaylee snuggled into my side, tilting her head against my shoulder like she could sense I was two seconds away from getting up and leaving this conversation.

“You deserve happiness, and if that comes from a human, a vampire, or four vampires, who cares?”

“Dan—” I started, but Kaylee interrupted.

“Ren, Dana, and Elsie are the nicest people I know. Even Juniper isn’t terrible after she gets used to you. But you owe it to yourself and to them to give them a chance. A real one, Vi. You can’t seriously think Ren is textingmecute photos and worrying if I drank enough water.”

I sighed, squeezing Danny’s hand.

“What if they want me to choose? I don’t know any of them well enough to make that kind of decision right now.”

Danny shrugged. “So, tell them that, though from what Kay is saying, it sounds like they’d have no problem with you dating all of them.”

“Fine,” I sighed and relaxed into my two favourite people as we watched the game. Ren was right; Mattel was on fire, on his third point of the night already.

As we cuddled together on the sofa, I found myself with my phone back in my hand. I replied to Elsie’s constant stream of questions, this time asking about my preferred popsicle flavour and what my favourite word was.

Grape and eumoirous.

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