Chapter Twenty-one
~Katarina~
Katarina ducked into the Bonesaw’s home, expecting to get an earful for forcing the pair of adults to tend for her child.
After Jessie ran off to close up shop, I rushed to call the school and inform them Mrs. Bonesaw would pick up Isabella…
they only seemed a smidgen miffed. Only to find Isabella sitting at the table with a giant spoon, mixing a large bowl full of cookie dough.
Mrs. Bonesaw was at the stove, adding milk to a pot of noodles and Mr. Bonesaw was chopping up bits of steak on a large cutting board.
A bowl of freshly tossed salad was at the table with a basket of dinner rolls that she could still see the steam rolling off.
“Hey Ma,” Jessie sighed as he scraped off his hooves at the door. “Thanks for making dinner.”
“Evenin’ Mama Bonesaw.” Nik nodded as the dwarvish mother finished stirring in packet of cheese powder into the macaroni.
“FLUFFY!” Isabella discarded her task in exchange for flying across the kitchen floor.
She scrambled up Nik’s side like she was a cat climbing up a tree, a hunting dog nipping at her tail.
Katarina lurched as if to catch her kid who would inevitably topple over.
Thankfully, Nik, without even looking, curled an arm under Isabella’s legs and let her sit against his side like a sack of potatoes he was carrying in from the grocery store.
Isabella put her face against his chest then immediately peeled her face back. “Stinky!”
“Yeah...I am,” Nik chortled as he put Isabella back down.
Katarina crouched as Isabella raced into her arms. I’m about to get the same comment. Isabella didn’t even get her face into her mother’s arms, she put a hand on Katarina’s bicep and grimaced. “Momma stinky too.”
“Thanks, bug,” Katarina snorted.
“Oh, well, if you lot want a shower, dinner’s not quite done.” Mrs. Bonesaw stirred the pot.
“Nah, Nik and I are going to head back out after dinner. We just needed to grab some grub and Rex.” Jessie nodded at his sibling who stopped in the middle of the kitchen doorway with a hand to his chest.
“Who? Muah?”
“Yes, You-ah,” Jessie huffed. “I need you to come with us. We’re going to see Bobby.”
Titan whirled around with eyebrows up to his horns. Katarina did the same, looking at him. Jessie spared her an apologetic grimace before he continued, “Ma, is it okay if Katarina and Bella crash here in my old room.”
“Why? Does this have to do with why I picked up Bella from school? Does Katarina know?” Jessie didn’t say anything, a simple nod.
Mrs. Bonesaw sighed, before she nodded. “Of course they can. Katarina, let me show you to the room. You can wash up in the boys’ bathroom.
Bella, will you give Mr. Bonesaw that bowl you mixed up and help him lay out the cookies for dessert? ”
Katarina stared at Jessie hard. He wrapped an arm around the small of her back, tugging her in close. A kiss to her temple before he whispered, “I promised to keep you both safe, didn’t I? Just wash up, I’ll be back by the morning. Promise.”
“I can go with you,” she blurted out.
“Not on this one, Little Momma.” He kissed her temple again before he pushed her toward his mother with a pat to her backside.
Katarina glared at him, but when she glanced at Nik for some backup, he shook his head.
Oh, so you’re both in on this. She huffed to herself but followed Lailee through the halls of the house.
They walked quietly down the main hallway then rounded the steps.
It wasn’t till they were halfway up that Jessie’s mother spoke up again.
“He told you then. What the family business entails?” Lailee smiled at Katarina sweetly.
Their second floor was cozy and homely, matching the downstairs.
The walls were a cream color with dark brown trim and baby blue accents.
There was a lot of bull with horns iconography along the second floor, but also she saw the pickaxe crest and the healer’s heart sigil in shadow boxes.
The pickaxe crest was for descendants of the Ore, dwarves from the mountainous country, way beyond the borders of King’s Fall.
They were born from the literal heart of the titan that became a mountain, or so the story was told.
Then, of course, the healer’s heart was a sigil bestowed on those who passed healing expert level exams at Ark-U and were practicing specialists in their field.
Or those who were awarded for great heroism in times of great peril.
Katarina stopped to stare at the shadow box, the blue heart dangling from the ribbon as a badge of honor, with images all around it.
Mostly Lailee Bonesaw pictured with the boys.
All three of the rascals loved on their mother or tried to fist fight each other while she posed with her degree.
The one in the top corner, it was lopsided and a little blurry, was Titan Bonesaw with his beloved wife on his right shoulder, flexing his muscles and her degree held up.
“The boys all helped me get through school. Lots of late night shifts, studying, and making boxed dinner because we couldn’t afford anything else.” Lailee teased, standing beside Katarina with a faraway smile plastered to her lips.
“They were so cute,” Katarina sighed dreamily, spotting Jessie in the middle of the boy huddle.
Getting a noogie from Elliot, whom she’d not met yet, and giving Rex one, whom she had.
She rocked back on her heels to study the whole hallway.
Full of photos, only one professionally done, the rest were shots from someone’s disposable camera or a phone.
She stopped to inspect the team photo for Elliot Bonesaw.
“Wait, he’s the captain of the SportsBall team? ”
“Was,” Lailee chuckled, “Elliot’s the coach now. He evolved into coach this year. They had an away game or you would have run into him and Cassie. You’d really like her. She’s kinda spunky.”
“Spunky?” Katarina snorted. “That’s what moms call unruly daughters that never listen to a word they have to say.”
“Like I said, spunky,” Lailee teased with a wink.
“No, Cassie is such a wonderful girl. She pushes Elliot to balance the sport with family more. She’s from a big family too, so sometimes we get the whole herd together at this pizzeria near the field.
You’re, of course, invited. Cassie’s a journalist, she was given the story on Elliot’s last season and the sparks… just…flew.”
Katarina wiggled her eyebrows, causing Lailee to cackle as she led her further down the hall.
It warmed her to know Mrs. Bonesaw also liked Elliot’s girlfriend.
Which, she found, a few feet down, between two bedrooms were a collection of newspaper articles all pinned to a shadow box with photos of a curly haired blonde on the side of the field next to Elliot, both passionately cheering.
Katarina stopped to look at the pair, posed by a bar in ‘post game’ interview attire. They’re cute together.
“Now, the bathroom is here. Faucet is a simple turn; left is cold, right is hot. All the soaps are on the rack hung on the faucet. Oh! This is Jessie’s old room, there’s still a bunch of big t-shirts and gym shorts in there, all clean, in the drawers.
” She bounced around, showing everything off to Katarina before she pivoted on her heels.
Katarina lurched, frozen like a deer caught in her crosshairs.
Lailee smiled. “And, I know it’s hard. Jessie won’t want to include you in most of what he does.
If you ask him to tell you, he’ll tell you.
But the dirty work? Titan didn’t want me tagging along either.
Especially not while the boys were young and needed a parent to tuck them in at night. ”
“And Nik?” Katarina wasn’t sure why she blurted it out, only to see Lailee’s face brighten.
“Well, Nikolai’s a good boy. Always has been.
He’s pretty set in his ways, but you can’t blame him for that.
It’s safer, or at least, he believes it’s safer if people don’t know him all the way.
But he’s a good boy. He cares for Jessie like no other and I can tell he feels the same for you.
He’ll want to protect you too. Keep you out of all their mess.
” Lailee shrugged with a hum. Her gaze fell away from the succubus, roaming down her hall of memories.
When her attention returned to Katarina, it was soft and a little misty.
“You know something no one told me enough while I was raising them?”
“What’s that?” Katarina softened, her shoulders slouching.
“You’re doing a good job, Katarina. You’re a good mom.
Your baby’s got a roof over her head, food in her belly, and you’re teaching her to take care of herself.
To value herself and love herself the way society often doesn’t teach little girls.
Teaching her to know good people when she sees them.
And no one recognizes how hard it is to help sculpt a whole new human from scratch, especially on your own.
So, don’t beat yourself up over the little lumps and bruises…
” Lailee gave Katarina’s calf an affectionate pat.
“You’re doing a good job. Dinner will be done by the time you get out. ”
Katarina sank back against the bathroom doorframe, winded and teary eyed.
She strained her ears to catch a scrape of her daughter’s squeal of joy when Lailee joined them in the kitchen again.
She’s safe. She’s fed. She’s growing. And she’s learning that sometimes the hardest thing to do is to take care of yourself…
but it’s so important to do. So, putting strength back into her bones, she headed into the bathroom full of little blue cows and a checkered shower curtain, and threw herself into the shower.