Page 45 of Bear My Heart

"Hah! You're wrong about that, but it's a nice thing for you to say. Okay." Shanti took a deep breath and almost swayed with it. "Nap time, I think. And maybe dinner afterward, and tomorrow I can see Shkalnik properly? And meet your family then? Do they know about me yet?"

"If they knew about you, they'd have met us at the airport," Pete said wryly. "I'll call them in the morning and let them have a few hours to get used to the idea before I bring you to meet them, but they're going to be very excited."

"I'm excited too," Shanti promised, then yawned again. "And I'll be even more excited after some sleep. I'm going to…" She waved at the second bedroom, then went in and flopped on the bed fully dressed. Peter chuckled, closed the door behind her, and managed to get most of his suitcase unpacked before he took a nap, too.

He was fairly sure the only reason he woke up was that his phone rang a few hours later, dragging him out of a complicated dream that vanished as soon as he recognized the phone for what it was. He fumbled for it, said a groggy, "Hello?" and heard his brother Jack's voice on the other end of the line.

"So are you in town, or did I drive the truck out there for no reason? Are you coming over for dinner? You haven't been home in almost eighteen months, man. Mom's breaking out the halibut."

"Halibut," Pete said blearily. "Deep-fried?"

"Obviously."

Pete chuckled and rubbed his eyes, still trying to wake up. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll come over. Um. I have a date."

"A date?" Jack fell silent a second, processing that. "Wait, you brought a girl home? From Outside?"

"Yeah, from the town I was working in. Her name's Shanti and she's amazing."

Jack went quiet again before his voice brightened. "Wait. Wait, are we talking a date with a D or a date with an M?"

"A date with an M? An m'date? A d'ma…oh! Yeah." Pete chortled again and sat up, still rubbing his face. "A date with an M. Tell Mom and Dad so they can get some of it out of their system before we come over tonight, yeah?"

"This is the best day of my life," Jack said gleefully. "Now they'll stop nagging me to find a nice girl and settle down and have some babies."

"Oh, God. No babies. Not right now. Tell them they're not even allowed to bring it up or Shanti and I are running back Outside and never coming back. She's a take-it-slow kind of girl."

"Really?" Jack sounded genuinely interested. "I didn't think mmmdates took it slow. Does she even know?"

"Yeah, of course, but she's still a take-it-slow kind of girl."

"Huh. Wait, like how slow? Not like waiting until you get married slow, right?"

Pete pulled the phone away from his ear to glare at it like his brother could see him. "That's none of your business."

"So definitely that slow. Wow. Whoa. How do you know if you're, like, compatible, in that case?"

"Jack!"

"I'm just asking!"

"We're mmmdates," Pete muttered. "I think it's pretty safe to say we're compatible."

"Oh." Jack went quiet again for a second. "Yeah, of course. That makes sense. Okay, I'll tell the 'rents. What time will you be over?"

"I don't know. Text me with whenever Mom thinks we should have dinner and we'll come over an hour or so before that. What time is it, anyway?" Pete pulled the phone away to look at it again, seeing that it was just after two even as Jack said as much. "Yeah, okay, we'll be over around four, four-thirty."

"Okay, bro. See you then."

Jack hung up and Pete flopped over backward on the bed before realizing that way lay more napping and no dinner. He got up, tapped on Shanti's door, and called, "I'm going to shower. My parents would like us to come over for dinner."

Shanti said, "Mghghghnnn," in response, which he took to be an indication he'd been heard, but then, on his way into the bathroom, he heard a very clear, "Oh God, what?" as she realized what he'd said.

He called, "Don't worry, it'll be fine!" and heard her, "Says you! They're your parents!" as the bathroom door closed behind him.

CHAPTER 23

Shanti was almost certain meeting Peter's parents would go well. That was why she only changed her clothes four times, trying to find the right outfit, after showering. That, and she had packed light so she only had about four outfits to change into at all, or she'd probably have tried on several more outfits. Peter very patiently told her she looked wonderful in all of them, and even chose his favorite: a burgundy sweater over a cream blouse with a short black skirt and chunky heels. "I knew I needed five pairs of shoes," she told him worriedly, and he grinned.