Page 15 of Moody as a Minotaur

Right. Fuck. We were in the pub and every single person was staring at me right now. Some people had the audacity to smile, like seeing me with Parker was sweet or some shit.

Why did I lose track of everything else when he was around? And all my carefully thought-out reasons why we could never be together disappeared too. It was ridiculous.

The older woman’s hand was pinching her pointy chin. One of her carefully plucked eyebrows arched high over her icy eyes. She obviously had questions, and I really didn’t want to be the one she cornered to get answers.

“Um, let me help you get up.” Parker scrambled to his feet, then extended his hand to me.

He wasn’t a small man, but I was a lot heavier than he was, so I slid my hand in his and braced my other on his empty chair to push myself up. Once I was on my feet, we righted the table. Parker wrung his hands, glancing over at the pool table like he wanted to join me over there like usual. Instead, he released a soft sigh and sat down with the humans.

“A bit like a bull in a china shop, isn’t he?” the older woman muttered. She didn’t know how true that was. “Is he always this clumsy?”

“I can’t play pool tonight,” Parker said, ignoring her words. But his cheeks darkened and blended with his many freckles, so he must have heard her. “My family came to visit.Unexpectedly.” He emphasized that last word by frowning at the older woman.

She appeared unbothered by his irritation.

“Levi, let me introduce my grandmother, Edith Girard,” Parker continued. “Nana is staying with me for a couple of days.”

“Call me Edie,” Parker’s grandmother said as I shook her hand. The way she said her name was sharp and fast, exposing her teeth. It matched her grip, which reminded me of a rattlesnake bite. It wouldn’t kill me, but it was far from pleasant.

“And I think you may have met my cousin, Finley,” Parker said.

I nodded at the young man, who was across the table. “Hello. Yes, uh, we met. At the motel. Earlier.”

Could I sound any more awkward?

Finley smiled and pushed his hair out of his eyes. Oh, now that I saw Finley with Parker, I realized why Finley’s smile had seemed familiar. It was a bit like Parker’s. “Hi, again.”

“And these are Fin’s friends, Tammy and Kyle,” Parker said.

Everyone was staring at me. Sweat, my ever-present companion today, trickled down the back of my neck. “So, Finley said he and his friends are paranormal investigators. Is that why you’re here too?” I asked Edie.

How many more people were going to join them? Was there a fucking convention for ghost hunters? As owner of one of the few places for strangers to stay in Willow Lake, I should have been informed.

“No.” The older woman shook her head. “I’m in town to check up on my grandson and see if I can figure out why he isn’t married yet. Are you single, Levi?”

“Nana!” Parker reprimanded her. His cheeks were darker than his freckles now.

Finley snorted. “Good luck trying to rein in the Nana-nator, Pow.”

“Pow?” I asked.

“No way, Fin.” Parker held his finger up to his cousin in warning.

Before Finley could retaliate, or tell me why he called Parker Pow, Jeremy arrived to take their orders. Jeremy was the seventh son of a seventh son, and until this past summer, he hadn’t known magic existed. But when he met his fated mate, a werewolf named Adrian, everything had changed. The Eternal Magic blessed him with magic and everything. He didn’t work at the pub often, but hehelped when the place got busy. As the most human of the supes here, he’d obviously been chosen to liaise with these strangers.

Personally, I wouldn’t have picked Jeremy to come over here. He was probably as curious about the supernatural world as these people, and I wasn’t sure he’d ever met a question he wouldn’t ask. His nosiness was legendary. What if he let something slip?

Although, given how pale his cheeks were and how awkwardly his smile fit over his face, I doubted he was any more comfortable with his assignment than I was.

“Are you the owner?” Tammy asked.

“Nope.” Jeremy shook his head. “Why? Is something wrong? Did you need them?”

“Nothing’s wrong, but we’d love to film here. We’re paranormal investigators.” She held out a business card.

A damn business card! How long had they been doing this? What had they seen? Could they see beneath the Eternal Magic’s glamour? If they could, they’d be able to see Gage’s horns. Shit. I glanced around the room, but the demon was nowhere in sight. Good.

“Do you know if the inn is haunted?” Tammy asked as she thrust the card at him again.