My Blood Approves (10 page)

“
Milo?” I said cautiously.
He didn’t respond, but I continued anyway. “I know you’re mad at
me, and I don’t blame you. I did a stupid, stupid thing. But um…” I
sighed, and tried to figure out what I wanted to say. “You can talk
to me if you want to. But I just thought I’d let you know that I’m
going to go hang out with Jack. But you can call me if you want to.
Okay?”

He still didn’t answer, but I waited a
minute just to be sure. Then since I’d already spent too much time
getting ready, I hurried out to meet Jack.

I stepped outside, feeling like the worst
sister in the world, just in time to see Jack pull up. I trudged
over to the red Lamborghini and fell into the seat heavily.

The Ramones blared out the speakers, and he
turned them down quickly, looking at me with a mischievous grin.
Even though my sour mood had to be obvious, he was oblivious to it,
so it soon faded away.

“
What?” I asked. He bit his
lip, as if he couldn’t decide whether to tell me or not. “What’s
going on?”

“
I think that its time you
met my family.” He sounded wildly excited by the idea, but also a
tad nervous. Whatever made him nervous tended to terrify me, so I
gulped. “No, it’s a good thing. Yeah.” Then he nodded, more to
himself than me. “Yeah. It’s good.”

- 7 -

He had thrown the car into gear, and we were
flying down the street and turning on the highway before I could
even really protest, not that I would’ve anyway. Meeting families
was usually my least favorite thing in the world, but a family that
spawned Jack intrigued me.

“
After what happened last
night, I think it’s time,” Jack explained, but I had no idea what
his family could possibly have to do with a rabid dog. Unless his
family were dog breeders or something.

Then I remembered what happened and looked
over at Jack’s arm, which was bare thanks to his return to his tee
shirt uniform. (He wore one today that read “Frankie Says
Relax.”)

I leaned in closer to inspect both his arms,
thinking I must’ve looked at the wrong one. But neither one of them
had a scratch or a mark or even a scar.

He noticed me looking and immediately
chastised me. “No. Don’t even think about it.”

“
What?” I leaned back in my
seat, still staring at his arms. “You mean asking how you magically
got rid any trace of the dog bite so quickly?”

“
Precisely. Don’t ask any
questions about anything like that, not about me, not about anyone
else,” Jack warned me.

“
They’re like you, aren’t
they?” By now, nothing should come as a shock, but I still looked
at him in disbelief. Every time I thought things couldn’t get any
weirder, they did.

“
I want you to meet them,
but you can’t be like this. You have to act completely oblivious.”
His tone was light, but he was being firm. “I mean it, Alice. My
family. My rules.”

“
Yeah, yeah, I get it.” I
rolled my eyes and turned my attention to the world speeding past
us out the window. “Where do you live anyway?”

“
In St. Louis Park, by a
lake,” he said. “It’s not that far.”

I didn’t know tons about that area, but what
I had heard is that there were lots of nice, expensive homes. So it
would make sense that Jack lived there, since we were cruising down
the highway in a bright red Lamborghini.

“
Don’t worry,” he attempted
to reassure me. “They’ll like you. I think. Well, Ezra isn’t there.
So it’s just Mae and Peter. That should make it easier.”

“
Where’s Ezra?”

For some reason, knowing one of his brothers
would be gone made me more nervous. Maybe Jack knew Ezra wouldn’t
like me, and that’s why he was bringing me over when he wasn’t
around.

“
Business thing,” Jack
shrugged. “He’s gone a lot with stuff.”

“
Well, the Lamborghini
doesn’t pay for itself.”

“
Yeah, I guess that’s
true.” He looked over at me, and then laughed at my nervous
fidgeting. I had started chewing on my nails, which was an awful
habit that I kept vowing to quit. “Seriously, you’ll be fine.
They’ll like you. I mean, I like you so… they’ll like
you.”

“
Yeah, cause everything in
life is really that simple,” I sighed.

“
This one thing might
actually be,” he smiled confidently.

The car started slowing down, and he turned
off the road, meaning we were getting closer, and my heart thudded
painfully. When he pulled up to his house, I cringed.

Incredibly, beautiful and massive, it was
more of a mansion or a castle than a house. There was a five stall
garage at the end of a short, winding driveway. The whole place had
been done in some kind of pale sandstone.

The front door entered right into a rounded
tower. There was a large rectangular window above it, covered in
rod-iron bars. The tower flowed into what would otherwise be a
rather conventional square house, if not for the gorgeous black
iron balcony coming out of a second story window underneath a
weeping willow.

“
Oh my gosh,” I gasped as
we pulled into the garage. “You live here?”

“
Yeah.” He heard the awed
tone in my voice and chuckled. “It’s just a house.”

“
Nothing is ‘just’ anything
with you,” I said under my breath.

He laughed harder and started getting out of
the car, and I followed suit, but much slower. I had never felt so
intimidated in my entire life. Everything about me suddenly seemed
plain and dreary, and I felt totally ashamed that I had let him see
the inside of my disgustingly tiny apartment.

“
You know I didn’t buy
this, right?” Jack turned to look back at me as we walked past the
four other vehicles in the garage (Mae’s black Jetta, a green Jeep
Wrangler with a canvas top, a black Lexus LS, and a shiny silver
Audi TT Roadster). Then he gestured to the impressive collection of
cars. “I didn’t buy any of this. None of its really
mine.”

“
Then who did buy
it?”

“
Ezra, mostly. And Peter.”
We had reached the huge wooden door that presumably led into the
house, and he turned back to grin at me. “Mae and I are just eye
candy.”

Jack threw open the door, shouting hello. I
had barely crept in the house behind him when a giant mass of white
fur flung itself at him.

It caused a mild flashback to the night
before and I almost yelped, but Jack was scratching the dog and
telling her how pretty she was, and I realized that it was just his
gigantic Great Pyrenees.

“
Matilda!” A warm voice
with a soft, British accent filtered through the house, and then I
saw her rushing in to greet us.

She was beautiful, probably in an
unconventional sense, but that almost made her more stunning. Her
long, light brown waves of hair had been clipped back to keep it
out of her honey colored eyes. Her skin looked like white
porcelain, but warmth came off her in comforting waves.

She went over to the dog, pushing her down
off of Jack with ease, and in a slightly scolding tone, she said,
“Oh, Matilda, do be a good girl. Please.”

“
Ah, she’s alright.” Jack
crouched down to continue scratching the dog’s head. Watching him
play with her, I realized for the first time how hard it must’ve
been for him to kill that dog.

“
I’m so sorry,” she
apologized breathlessly, putting her hand over her heart to show
how sincere she was. She looked at me for the first time and
smiled. “Matilda’s still a puppy.”

“
Mattie’s always a good
girl, aren’t you?” Jack’s voice was verging on baby-talk, and
Matilda licked his face appreciatively.

“
Well, look at you!” Her
smile grew broader and warmer. “You’re lovely!”

“
Thanks,” I mumbled,
feeling my cheeks burn with embarrassment. She was far more
beautiful than I could ever hope to be, and I didn’t know really
how to respond to her open affection.

“
Oh, sorry.” Jack gave the
dog one final pat before standing up. “Alice, this is Mae. Mae,
this is Alice.”

“
It’s a pleasure to meet
you,” I floundered.

Something about her made me feel safe and
oddly loved, but it was so unexpected that I didn’t really have
time to collect my thoughts and respond.

“
The pleasure is all mine!”
Mae gushed, placing her hand over her heart again. “You really have
no idea.”

“
What have you been saying
about me?” I gave Jack a sidelong glance, wondering what he
possibly could’ve said to get her so excited over me. He was the
one with all the magical powers. I just argued with him and got
myself in ridiculous situations.

“
Not that much,” Jack
shrugged, but he didn’t seem embarrassed or surprised by Mae at
all.

“
Shall I give you the grand
tour?” Mae asked, looping her arm through mine. Then she looked
over at Jack. “Would that be alright with you?”

“
Yeah, go ahead.” He had
already started playing with the dog again, seemingly contented to
let Mae kidnap me and do as she pleased.

“
This is the entryway,
obviously,” Mae gestured to the vaulted ceilings and marble floors
around us, and the rings on her fingers flashed in the
light.

Then she started to lead me into an
adjoining room, which appeared to be some kind of expansive living
room. The rest of the house had dark golden oak wood floors and
cream colored walls. Somehow, it managed to combine a warm modern
motif with touches of a castle. It was beautiful and perfect and
really, so utterly Mae.

“
Here’s the living room.
Windows, fireplace, etc.” Before I could even really take it all
in, she started leading me into the kitchen. The tiles were granite
in natural neutral colors and the cupboards matched the hardwood
floors.

Off the back of the kitchen, giant windows
and glass French doors revealed a beautiful view of the lake. A
massive stone patio sat right outside the doors, leading down to
the lake.

“
This is the kitchen, and
the view.”

“
That is truly
breathtaking.” I pulled away from her just enough so I could peer
out the window. It was dark out, so I couldn’t fully appreciate it,
but several large lights lit the backyard and I got a glimpse of
it.

“
That’s why Ezra chose this
place.” Mae put her hand on my arm when she returned to my side,
and I noticed that her skin felt the same as Jack’s – silky soft,
but completely temperatureless, like touching a doll. “This land,
anyway. He built the house.”

“
He designed it and
everything?” I know I sounded surprised, which made me feel
embarrassed.

Of course her husband had built this amazing
piece of architecture. They were obviously superior to everyone in
every way, and I'd better start getting used to it.

“
Well, I helped, a little.”
Mae smiled modestly at me, and I realized that I was already
falling in love with her. Not sexually or anything lesbian like
that, but they were just so inviting and charismatic, I couldn’t
help it.

That’s when I realized that I was a little
bit in love with Jack. He was impossibly wonderful, and I couldn’t
stand to be away from him. I had started craning my head to look
around for him when Mae pulled onto the next room.

“
This is a really fast tour
you’re giving me,” I commented as she went through the grand dining
room connected to the kitchen. We had just started down a hall and
she laughed.

“
Well, you’ll see the house
enough, I’m sure.” Her eyes sparkled at me, and I knew that she was
implying that I’d be hanging out there more, which suited me just
fine. “I really just wanted a chance to get acquainted with you,
and this seemed like the perfect way.”

“
Oh.” I nodded as if I
really understood.

“
There’s the lou if you
need it,” Mae gestured to a gorgeous bathroom, and then vaguely
pointed to two rooms at the end of the hall. “That’s Ezra’s office
at the end, and our bedroom next to it. They’re not that exciting,
really.”

“
Somehow, I doubt that,” I
said, but I let her pull me onward and up the stairs. She claimed
that she wanted to get acquainted with me, but I didn’t understand
how she really meant to do that when she as rushing me through the
house.

“
Here’s Jack’s room,” Mae
pointed to an open door at the top of the stairs, and I took a
moment to peek in.

The walls were dark blue, as he had told me
they were, and the bed was massive and laid out in black silk
blankets. A giant flat screen television hung on the wall, and tons
of gaming gear and videogames filling the built-in entertainment
center in the wall. Some clothes were strewn about the room, but
really, it was exactly as I expected it would be.

“
There’s a guest room, with
another bathroom, at the end of the hall,” Mae explained, then
looked a little perplexed. “I don’t know why there’s another
bathroom up here. Each bedroom has its own attached bathroom, and
its own fireplace. I think someone must’ve suggested it to Ezra
that it was a good resale point.”

“
This house is all
bathrooms and fireplaces,” a velvety voice grumbled, and my heart
stopped at the sound. It was coming from the bedroom across the
hall from Jack’s room, and completely unabashed, I took a step
towards it.