6. Are you sure about that?
SIX
Are you sure about that?
Many of the gifts involved clothing in some shape or another, including a mix of pretty lingerie, baby clothes in various sizes, and a disturbing number of fuzzy handcuffs for my enjoyment, which provided a rather strong hint everyone had rightfully assumed I’d fall prey to my husband.
Constantly. Or I’d enjoy using handcuffs to catch him.
Also rightfully assumed.
“According to the number of baby outfits and general supplies here, we are not having twins. We’re having octuplets. Or even more. This is way too much for two babies, Sam.”
“Except the diapers. There will never be enough diapers.” The diaper packs cracked us both up, and a small fortune in baby poop containment devices waited by the door to be sent home via various teleporting family members.
“Storing those until the babies arrive will be amusing, but at least we won’t have to worry about getting most things for their first few weeks of life. ”
“And we won’t need to worry about getting a baby stroller, car seats, baby cages, or toys. There were only two bags, though. We’re going to need more bags. We need to stash emergency supplies for the babies in our cars.”
“You got several gift cards so you can pick out your own bag,” he reminded me.
“I think they forgot weddings aren’t baby showers, Sam.”
“I think they did, too. Almost. The lingerie and handcuffs leads me to believe they were actually aware they were attending a wedding.” My husband chuckled, fetched a pair of red fuzzy handcuffs, and spun it around his finger. “And I don’t have to worry about using my work cuffs on you now.”
Whee! “Gorgon-incubus doohickeys are the best doohickeys.”
“I’m certainly glad you think so. I did order new tack for you, but it won’t be ready for a while. I also put in official orders for your work tack, which will be ready soon, as that was a rush order so you can work. I’m going to have to get measured now, too.”
“Do I get to ride you?”
“Obviously.”
“Is now a bad time to say I don’t have any idea in hell how to ride a horse or unicorn?”
“You’ll be trained, as you’ll have to possibly ride on mounted patrols. Or if we’re required to ride in a parade.”
“No parades.”
“We’re chiefs, Bailey. We can’t avoid the parades, especially if the civilians demand one.”
“But why would anyone demand a parade?”
“They like to show us off during the Christmas parades. This year is the first year since I started I didn’t ride in the parade, but apparently, we got an announcement of our wedding instead. I refused to watch the videos, as I saw no need to embarrass myself.”
“Oh, great. Now everybody knows we’re married?”
“So it seems.”
“Okay. I can live with that. The world now knows you’re claimed. I can handle this like a mature adult.”
My husband grinned at me. “Are you sure about that?”
“I will try to handle this like a mature adult,” I corrected. “I didn’t even run for the bathroom this time.”
“While claiming your life was over because how dare anyone believe you’re an affectionate fire-breathing, meat-eating unicorn capable of love,” he teased.
“I’m so bad at this.”
“You’re exactly what I want and need in my life, so you’re going to have to get used to it, Mrs. Samuel Quinn.”
“Mrs. Samuel Quinn definitely sounds better than Mr. Bailey Gardener.”
“It really does, but I’d tolerate it for you.”
“I successfully got rid of that name, and you will not bring it back. No. I refuse. I’m still mad I can’t change the name on my birth certificate.
How rude is that? And I can’t even get a new one issued with the proper parentage on it because they cap out at three.
Why can’t I get an exception? Gorgons have one. ”
“There are also enough gorgons to make it worthwhile to set up birth certificates for their offspring, whereas you’re a rather unique entity.”
“Just because the good parents had to get creative doesn’t mean they should be excluded from my birth certificate. Then my birth certificate wouldn’t be such a shitty document.”
“I see you have embraced your divine parentage with full enthusiasm.”
“He climbed under a table, Sam. For me.”
“It’s worth mentioning I would happily climb under the table with you, too.
I even considered it at the reception, but the cops apparently wanted to talk with me.
Well, us, but they found you climbing under the table to get some breathing space refreshing and amusing.
You didn’t miss much beyond some snarky commentary about how I’m slow, it was about time, and questions if you’d make them coffee. ”
“It’s good to be wanted.”
“Well, you make the best coffee in Manhattan. Or anywhere, really. I can’t even lie, my beautiful, but I miss your coffee and can’t wait to go home so you can reward me for my excellent behavior. With coffee.”
“Obviously, learning how to make good coffee was my ploy to catch your attention.”
“It was quite successful, although you really caught my attention by disliking me from the start.”
“You’re a sucker for punishment.”
“It’s not a punishment if I like it, Bailey,” he reminded me.
I loved my gorgon-incubus doohickey. “Did we get anything we can use immediately?”
“You got that really nice red leather notebook with organizer.” Quinn rummaged through our gifts until he located it.
He handed it to me before digging out one of the fancy pen boxes we’d also received.
“You’ll definitely like it, as it has pockets, a place to put your new pen, and it’ll fit nicely into that tote someone gave you. ”
“Oh! The tote.” I joined my husband in searching the gifts until I found the black leather bag with extra-long adjustable straps. “I can wear this as a unicorn. It’s magically fireproofed, and it can withstand up to napalm, Quinn.”
“It’s like someone had it made with you in mind,” he replied with his most wicked smile.
I bounced back to the couch, took the pen, which was made of some dark, lustrous wood, and tested the leather notebook to determine it fit in the bag with room to spare. “Oh! I bet my gun will fit in here, too. And my wallet, and I bet I could fit something for lunch in here, too.”
“Bailey, do you really think I’m going to let you pack lunches when I can take you out to eat most days of the week? We can have dates every day if we do that. Anyway, we both got those weird bento boxes we can use if you really want to take lunch to work.”
The idea of daily lunch dates with Quinn hadn’t crossed my mind, and I stared at him with wide eyes. “But won’t that be expensive?”
“Salary,” he reminded me.
I blinked. “Oh. I can afford lunch dates now, can’t I?”
“You could afford lunch dates before, Mrs. Millionaire.”
Right. Outside of buying an excessive number of coffee machines for the station, I had barely touched the money I’d received as my danger pay for leveling 120 Wall Street so the gorgon dust infecting the building couldn’t spread. “I guess I can, can’t I?”
“You’re brilliant with budgeting, Bailey, but you can afford to come to lunch with me.
And trust me when I say this: you’ll be grateful to escape for even half an hour on a bad day.
Our job isn’t easy, and I doubt it’s going to get easier.
It’ll be good for us, because we’ll be working together. It’ll be hard, but it’ll be good.”
Things worth doing were often difficult. “What else should I put into my bag if lunch doesn’t need to go into it?”
“Your laptop will fit, as will your phone. I might have to get one for myself, honestly. It looks really convenient for when we’re sporting four hooves and a fur coat.”
“We’ll test drive the bag looking into this gorgon and rabies problem. Did you get a bag or something?”
“I have a manly messenger bag which is also immune to fire-breathing unicorns, but I don’t know if the strap is big enough to get around my neck when I’m a cindercorn.”
“Show me!”
Like my bag, which was designed to accommodate me while a cindercorn, Quinn’s was black and fireproofed to survive my wicked ways.
His was a little wider and lacked the third strap meant to keep it snug to my body and prevent the bag from getting in the way of my legs.
“Mine isn’t quite as elaborate as yours. ”
“We can add a third strap to yours, and it’ll be fine.
My third strap can be removed, too. All we’d need to do is add a clip to secure it to your saddle if it’s not being worn around your neck.
Honestly, the strap should be fine as long as it’s snug enough on your neck so the bag can’t bang into your legs.
The handles on both look sturdy enough we can carry them in our mouths if needed.
We’re nose breathers, so it’s not like we need to open our mouths when we run. We’ll fiddle with it until it works.”
“Mine will definitely fit gloves, bags and any other tools we’ll need if we find anything that might count as evidence. We’re going to have to work on your evidence handling skills, Mrs. Cindercorn.”
“It’s not my fault the bomb squad hadn’t swept better. If they hadn’t left a bomb up there, I wouldn’t have played around with the evidence. Or pulled the wires. Or decontaminated the exterior. Basically, don’t do anything I did with that bomb, and I’ll be mostly okay.”
“Sadly, you’re right.”
I stuck my tongue out at him before resuming my exploration of my bag, stuffing both of my laptops inside because I could. “This is nice!”
“Before we leave, we can go make use of your gift cards, too. One of the group gifts should have enough for a new leather coat if you want one.”
I sucked in a breath, as leather coats fell into the domain of wishful thinking unless Quinn showed up with one and tricked me into wearing it. “For me? But it’s your card, too!”
“As my cops know what style of leather coat I like, they bought the coat. You watched me look it over for ten minutes, remember?”
Oops. “I was busy looking at you and not your coat,” I confessed.