QUESTION: Pierce and John are discovered by her mom in this scene. How do you think your parents would react to a similar situation?
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“Mom,” I said, sitting bolt upright in bed. “This is not what it looks like.”
“Isn’t it?” my mother asked in an icy cold voice. She was wearing the fluffy bathrobe I’d given her for Mother’s Day. “Because I have the feeling it’s exactly what it looks like.”
I threw the comforter over John, as if, were he hidden from view, he would no longer exist. Perhaps he’d get the clue, wake up, and blink himself somewhere else. It would be the best thing that could happen.
Unfortunately, the lumps beneath the comforter stayed exactly where they were, except that they began to move slightly.
“Actually,” I said, “it’s kind of a long story, but the one thing you should know is—”
John threw the comforter from his head and chest and stood up. Thankfully, he was wearing his jeans, although I didn’t know how or when he’d pulled them back on.
“I’m very sorry we had to meet under these circumstances, ma’am,” he said, extending his right hand. “My name is John Hayden. I’m very much in love with your daughter.”
I don’t know why John didn’t simply grab my hand and blink us somewhere else, the way he had the last time we’d encountered my mother. I supposed it had something to do with what he’d said the night before, about wanting to be open with my parents, and also probably something to do with the fact that no one was actually trying to kill us.
He didn’t know my mom very well.
Her dark eyes widened to their limits. She did not shake John’s hand.
“Pierce, I’d like you and your friend,” she said, stressing the word friend as if it tasted unpleasant in her mouth, “to get fully dressed and then come downstairs so your father and I can discuss a few things with him.”
