Dragon's Second Chance Romance - Riley Storm Page 0,69

I am sorry.”

“We,” her mother added, speaking up now. “We had already been talking this over before tonight and were going to call you to tell you.”

“To tell me what?”

“That we are sorry. Sorry for the way we treated you, for not giving you our support. We were shocked and didn’t understand how you could do something like that. We thought it was our fault, and we let ourselves get wrapped up in our own guilt instead of realizing that you would need us more than ever right now.”

Claire sniffled, fighting valiantly to hold back tears, and knowing the entire time that she was losing.

“We hope you can forgive us,” her mom added. “And you’re welcome to stay here whenever you want, for as long as you want. We’ll do whatever we can to help you out. You’re our only daughter, Claire. We love you.”

“I’m your only child, period,” she teased, trying to lighten the mood. “But thank you, both of you. That means a lot.”

Her parents came forward and wrapped her up in a hug. The tears were at the corners of her eyes, though so far, she’d refused to let them fall.

“Hey,” her mother said, but not to Claire. “Unless I’m blind, deaf, and dumb, you and her are a thing. So get over here and join.”

Claire glanced up at her mom, but she only received a wink in reply.

“Who are a thing?” her father rumbled in surprise.

“Hush,” Wendy Owens said. “Don’t ruin the moment, Chuck darling.”

Pietro joined the hug, his massive arms reaching much of the way around everyone as he pressed in against Claire’s side.

Then, the tears did begin to fall.

Behind them the front door opened.

“Ouch,” Rann said deadpan. “Where was my invite?”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Claire

“Only fifty more community service hours,” she said, repeating the judge’s punishment for her missed day as they exited city hall and within it the courthouse. “That’s not too bad.”

“It should have been none,” Pietro grumbled from next to her as they emerged into the gloriously hot summer day.

She pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes to shield them from the sun, the slight breeze picking up the loose strands of her hair and waving them around. “It’s all good, Ro. I’m more glad that it’s settled. I don’t have to worry about it hovering over my head, you know what I mean?”

“Yeah,” he said. “But that’s fifty more hours that you’re away from me.”

He was mostly teasing, she knew, but in the days since everything had come to a head, Claire hadn’t been anywhere out of the house without him at her side. With the events still so fresh, she didn’t care, but as time went on, she knew they were going to have to establish boundaries.

But Pietro would be okay with that. He wasn’t inflexible. He could adapt. And besides, his kind were down in Five Peaks in force now, looking for the remaining vampires. In truth, Claire felt safer than she had in some time.

“Good riddance to Pete as well,” she said, addressing another reason she felt safe. “So nice to see him shipped off to Kennewick Falls. Now, if they could just find the preacher and do the same, life would be perfect!”

The preacher for the Church of the Anti-Wyrm had gone to ground. Nobody had seen or heard from him since the incident at the broadcasting station. Pete, meanwhile, had turned up a day later on the front steps of the Sheriff’s office, trussed up like a wild hog. Claire would treasure the memory of that image in her head for a long time. The bastard deserved nothing less.

Pietro’s growl rumbled out into the air around them. More than one passerby turned to look, but the pair walked on without pausing. At some point, Claire’s hand found his, and she smiled happily as their fingers intertwined with practiced ease.

“Thank you,” she said.

“For what?”

“Everything. Being you. Being who, and what, I needed, and giving me the space to realize it all on my own.”

Pietro leaned over and kissed the top of her head, spurring little butterflies in her stomach. Claire was certain she was flying, they were so many.

“I feared that you might take ages to realize it,” he teased. “Given how thick-headed you can be sometimes.”

Claire lowered her shoulder and leaned into him as hard as she could. On her end, there was nothing playful at all. Pietro was too big, too strong, for her to overpower if she didn’t give it her all. She was learning though,