Page 92 of Vampires and Violas

“I thought you were in investments?” my father asks, growing even more suspicious.

“Dad,” I warn.

He shrugs, not the slightest bit repentant.

“Okay, well.” Mom looks between Cassian and Noah, her concern evident. “But what does Kevin think about all this? Where is he, anyway?”

Oh…oh no.

I didn’t tell them about my ex-boyfriend. I mean, IknowI didn’t tell them. I figured I’d deal with it when they got back.

And look.

They’re back.

“Um, okay. So…” I catch Noah’s eye and wince when he shoots me an incredulous look. “That’s kind of a long story, but Kevin and I aren’t together anymore.”

“Because of these two?” Dad demands. “We leave for a few months, and we come back to find you’ve broken it off with your long-time boyfriend and are now cohabitating with a couple ofrich, pretty boys. Piper, are you doing drugs? Worse? What the hell is going on here?”

Dad isn’t really a bad language guy, at least around us. Maybe at work. I don’t know. But anyway, I can tell he’s pretty concerned.

And, okay, when you look at our situation from the outside without all the info, it probably looks a little alarming.

But I don’t know how to fix it, at least not yet.

Thankfully, I don’t have to. Because Max, bless his often-annoying heart, walks through the front door.

“Max!” Mom exclaims, her face softening.

My brother ambles in all casual-like, grinning at our parents like the charming suck-up he is. “You guys are back.”

Grateful for the moment to think, I take a deep breath. Noah stares at me, silently asking me how we’re going to explain this.

I have no idea.

Max hugs Mom and then gives Dad one of those side-arm guy embraces.

“Do you know your sister has leased a room in your grandparents’ house to a guy none of us has met?” Dad demands.

Here we go.

Growing up, I was the golden child. Teachers loved me, I got good grades, and except for that pesky vegetarian “nonsense,” I was the model child.

Max barely made it to graduation. He skipped school more often than he went, started his band, almost lost his driver’s license a week after he got it, and refused to work for Dad in the family business.

He was the black sheep. I was the darling lamb.

But after high school, Max got his act together. He’s held down a steady job, even though it wasn’t the one Dad had lined up for him. He hasn’t had a speeding ticket in a good eightyears, and his band doesn’t interfere with paying the bills. He even bought a house. (Which is,obviously, the measure of a successful adult.)

And just like that, Max miraculously became the golden child—or at least a little shinier than me.

But maybe that could work out in my favor. All he has to do is take my side.

“Yeah, I know,” Max says calmly, jerking his head toward Noah in a cool hello.

“And you’re okay with that?” Dad says, growing even more agitated.

Max shrugs. “Well, yeah. I didn’t really want Piper here alone, you know? Not with her stalker and the vampire diagnosis.”

---