When he set her on her feet and drew back to take in her face, she said, "Guess what?"
Looking down at her with pride, he answered dutifully, indulgently. "What?"
She swept her hand around in the air. "This is where I live!"
Deliverance laughed. "I thought so."
"Come in. Oh. Wait." She turned to Storm. "Guess what?"
"This is your dad."
"This is my dad!"
Her excitement was contagious and starting to make him smile a little. How bad could the demon be if he made her that happy?
Storm offered his hand to Deliverance. "Engel Storm."
Deliverance gripped the waiting hand. "You taking care of my little girl?"
Storm withdrew his hand and raised his chin a little. He answered as he was putting his hands in his jeans pockets. "When she's not locked in the cellar."
Deliverance barked out a disbelieving laugh. "I'd like to see you try it. Did she ever tell you what she did to my cousins?"
When Storm turned to Litha for confirmation, she smiled and shrugged as if to say, "Aw, shucks, it was nothing."
Storm was interested. "No she didn't. Was it fire related?"
Deliverance looked at Storm like he must be mentally deficient. Very slowly, as if exercising great patience, he said. "No. Fire wouldn't hurt my cousins."
The unspoken 'duh' resounded loudly in the silent pause that followed. Storm was thinking that it was shaping up to be a long afternoon.
Litha shook her head a little and repeated, "Come in," to her father, the demon.
They gave him a tour of the house. He pretended to be interested in every tidbit about the renovation while rarely taking his eyes away from his daughter. When they circled back to the kitchen, Litha glanced toward the closed pantry door with a dismissive wave in that direction, "I'd offer you something to eat, but..."
Deliverance nodded in the direction indicated. "You have women in there?"
Litha and Deliverance both laughed at his joke. Storm didn't question the fact that he didn't think that was funny. He knew, all the way to his core, that it was definitely not funny and thought it might have even bordered on disturbing. The fact that Litha found Incubus jokes hysterical was disturbing.
"I won't stay long. Just wanted to pop in and bring you a wedding present, or housewarming gift, or whatever you want to call it."
Litha perked up. "Present?" She looked around thinking he had set the bar pretty high with a red, convertible Aston Martin that held a vintage Gucci suitcase full of cash in the trunk. "Where is it?"
"In the abstract."
"An abstract present?" She blinked. "I don't get it."
"Do you want to guess?
"Yes! Let's do that! It'll be fun. Three guesses and I'll give you a big hint. Ready?" Storm was thinking The Order was going to have to overhaul their texts on what to expect from demons. He was sure 'personality like a game show host' was not mentioned. "It's travel related and better than owning your own private jet."
"Wow. Really. Okay. I'm in." She glanced toward Storm. "Storm can play, too, right?"
Deliverance leveled a look on Storm that left no doubt he considered his new son-in-law an intruder on his visit with Litha. "Sure. Go for it."
Litha noticed the change of tone and the reduction in the level of enthusiasm when he addressed Storm, but pretended she didn't. Pick your battles, witch.
"I surrender." Storm would rather observe than horn in on their fun, and observing the dynamic between his bride and her father was both interesting and surprising. He knew Litha had tolerated learning about her heritage and was mentally flexible enough to adapt, but he had no idea she held the demon in such regard and with so much affection. "Litha's better at guessing games."