"Other than her being a person I knew and would naturally be interested in, I'm pretty sure Tina was the one who asked for your contacts and claimed it was Jane. But I don't know why, and I can't prove it."
Ophelia's lips pursed. "Why would she do that?"
"I just said I don't know why," I reminded her.
"It was rhetorical." She pulled her phone from her back pocket. "I'm going to make some calls."
I stared after her. Jamie came over and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "I know it can be confusing when she just walks out in mid-conversation like that."
I pouted as Jane called us to the dinner table. "No, I just remember what it was like having a grown-up cell phone."
I dragged myself up the stairs. I was so very tired, and I had who knew how many weeks of not going to work, the one place I was allowed to go regularly, to look forward to. I slumped into my room and kicked off my shoes, nearly hitting Ben, who was sitting at the foot of my bed.
"Hey. How are you doing? I haven't even asked how you're handling the reunion with your parents, who seemed like perfectly nice but reasonably distraught people from the five minutes I talked to them."
He shrugged. "It went better than I thought it would, to be honest. They get points for not freaking out, calling me a demon, and disowning me, which is how I've seen it play out for other members of Jane's Newly Emerged Vampires Support Group. I get points for not freaking out and biting them. So points all around."
"Not weird for you, then? Seeing them months after you died and introducing me as your girlfriend . . . after not talking to me about calling me your girlfriend."
"Oh, no, that was weird as hell. And as for calling you my girlfriend, I probably overstepped there. I'm sorry. But I'm not planning to see anyone else. I like you, maybe more than like you, but I don't think either one of us is ready to say more. I'm not saying we're forever, which takes on a whole new meaning for me recently, but I don't see myself wanting to date anyone else anytime soon. I would like it if you, also, did not date anyone else. This sounded so much better in my head."
"I'm sure it did." I kissed him, a quick peck on the lips. "And I agree that I don't want to date anyone else, either."
Ben grinned. He was nice enough not to mention my deliberately leaving out the bits about my feelings. "Excellent."
I nodded toward a pretty silver-wrapped box he was holding. "What do you have here?"
"Something for you," he said.
"It's a little early for Christmas presents," I said, opening the box to find a stack of CD cases, each labeled with a year, starting with 1996 and ending the year my dad died.
"What is this?"
"I took those videos from your dad, and I converted them to DVDs for you. I was going to give them to you before dinner. You know, because holidays are about family, and I wanted to give you a piece of yours back. But then Jane had me cleaning the bathrooms and moving furniture, and then I got ambushed with a reunion with my parents and Jane put the house in DEFCON 1. And I lost track of it."
"Aw, Ben. Thank you." I pulled his shirt, yanking him close and kissing him fiercely.
"It was no troub- No, I'm not even gonna lie. It took me weeks to track down the right sort of converter to transfer VHS tapes to DVD. It was a huge pain in the ass. But I wanted you to have them, because I like you so very much." He handed me several thumb drives. "Here are the digital files, if you want to upload them to your cloud."
"You are seriously overestimating my technical ability, but it doesn't mean I appreciate the gesture any less."
"Do you want to watch one?" he asked. "We could play it on your laptop."
I was hesitant. I hadn't watched these videos in years. I'd never shown anyone the tapes, not even Morgan or Keagan. It was very likely I would ugly-cry my way through any one of these DVDs. But Ben had done such a nice thing, and I kind of wanted to share this with him. I scanned through for one of the least emotionally stressful years. I popped the DVD into the slot on the side of my laptop and clicked play.
Ben was propped against the mountain of pillows, leaning against the headboard. I lay back, snuggling against his side. My dad's handsome face filled the screen. The sight of his bright blue eyes, the straight nose I'd inherited, and the strong, square jawline made my chest go heavy and empty at the same time. My memories were so fuzzy now; I couldn't tell what was a true memory and what was recalled from watching the tapes.
"I still think this is a bad idea. There is potential for some serious emotional warping here," my mom's voice said off-screen. My breath caught in my throat, and I could feel the tears gathering in my eyes. I missed her voice so much. I missed that exasperated, fond tone where you could tell she was smiling even if you weren't looking at her. This was a mistake. I was going to end up full-on ugly, running-mucus crying in front of Ben. There was no coming back from that.