Hunting Human - Amanda E. Alvarez [96]
“Okay.” He pulled her to him, kissing the top of her head. “Now,” he said, pulling away from her and picking up his phone, “I’m going to call my parents, alright?”
“Yeah. Fine. First, give me Lucy’s number at the studio. I want to call her, see if I can talk her into coming home early.”
Braden laughed, but scrolled through his phone book, jotting down Lucy’s office and cell numbers on a sticky note. “Be my guest, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. She’s as stubborn as you are.” He handed the note over and dialed his father. “You can use the landline on the desk. Good luck.”
She gave him a challenging look as she picked up the phone.
Braden shrugged. “You’re gonna need it.”
***
Beth checked her watch again. Twenty past seven. Where the hell were Lucy and Chase? She resumed her pacing by the living room window, trying to reach out with her hearing. Was that a car approaching?
No.
Nothing. Just a faint buzzing noise and a headache. She couldn’t calm down enough to concentrate. Braden had been right, of course. Lucy had adamantly refused to leave the ballet studio, insisting that she had a job to do and that Chase could hang out with her for the afternoon. Beth still didn’t understand why Lucy had sounded positively gleeful about it.
“You keep that up and I’m going to have to replace those floorboards.” Anna appeared from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel. “Come on, you can come help me put dinner together.”
Beth pulled herself away from the window and followed Anna into the kitchen. “What can I do?”
“I’ve mostly got dinner handled, but I was going to try my hand at some apple turnovers. you could give me a hand with those.” She gestured to where a sheet of phyllo dough was warming on the counter. “Can you cut those out for me?”
“Sure.” Beth pushed her sleeves up and then set to work rolling the dough out onto wax paper, comfortable in a task she’d done many times in Angie’s kitchen. But the distraction didn’t last long. By the time Beth was laying neatly cut pieces of dough out, she was glancing out the window every thirty seconds.
“They’ll be fine,” Anna said, an amused smile softening her expression.
“I don’t know how you do this, how you stay so calm.” Beth brushed her arm against her forehead, trying to push her sleeve back up her arm. “It’s so stressful.”
“It’s not always like this. In fact, more often than not, I forget there’s anything different about our family. Conflict like this is pretty rare.”
“I’m sorry.” Not for the first time, Beth wondered if she wasn’t being unconscionably selfish staying with Braden and his family. This wasn’t their problem.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Anna waved her off with a hand. “We were probably due. It’s been years since the last confrontation with the Bolveks. And, well, in a family with three sons, and a husband who tends to get pulled into their adventures—” Anna replied as she made quotation marks with her fingers and rolled her eyes, “—you learn to expect these sorts of things.”
“So it doesn’t bother you that I brought Markko to your doorstep? That he threatened Lucy, probably just because she was with me?” Beth asked incredulously.
Anna stuck out a finger and leveled her with a glare. “First, you didn’t bring Markko here. I promise you, he’d have shown up sooner or later.” She held up a warning hand when Beth started to argue. “You didn’t. Braden brought you here and, while I’m not endorsing his method of transportation, the bottom line is you are important to my son. Therefore, you are important to us. It’s that simple.” Anna considered her quietly for a long moment. “I hope someday that won’t bother you so much.”
“I hope so, too,” Beth said, feeling Anna gazing shrewdly at her, looking for the lie in her words. “It’s hard sometimes. You’ve been so accommodating. So welcoming. You and your family make everything seem so normal…I never thought I’d feel that way again.” Words and emotions tangled in her throat, making her voice thick and heavy. “Sometimes I’m afraid