CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
~
Jennifer left the dinner table and darted up the stairs to her bedroom; her footsteps sounded heavy as she dashed up the stairs. Parker grabbed a handful of plates with a chuckle. “She loves playing those games,” he said.
“Amy was over here this morning, and they were bashing a giant cartoon turtle to bits, at least I think it was a turtle…”
“Sounds like fun; maybe I should get up to spec on kids” gaming. I don’t think she needs to play a shoot ‘em up game.”
“Yeah, me too; now she doesn’t have Faith to play with, and Amy is picking up extra shifts at the bar. I suppose I should try to master the dark arts,” Evie sighed. “No time like the present.”
“I’ll load the dishwasher, then come up,” Parker said, disappearing into the kitchen.
Evie started up the stairs and paused. The sound of Jennifer chuckling was good to hear after the last few days.
“Gotcha!” Faith’s voice jolted Evie into a panicked run, and she darted up the stairs as fast as her legs would carry her, and her stamina lasted.
Evie hit the door with magic, sending it crashing back on its hinges and entered the room ready to fight Faith with everything she had. “Hi, Aunt Evie,” Jennifer said, her cherub features fresh from chuckling hard as she sat on the floor, gamepad in hand.
Evie looked at the open window, and there, perched on a tree branch, was Faith, gamepad in hand and a wide grin of mischief on her face. “What the absolute…?
“I’m supervising,” Lex’s voice came at her before his upside-down face appeared outside the top of the window.
“Faith!” Evie snapped.
“Ah, come on, Evie,” Faith said with a teasing grin. “I can’t get in. She’s sitting in the middle of the room, so I can’t grab her, not that I would, and we have a game to finish.”
“Faith!” Evie said again with disbelief.
“Faith!” Parker said from behind Evie. He’d heard the door crash and ran up the stairs in a heartbeat.
“Hey, Parker,” Lex said, still hanging around.
“Yeah, come on, Aunt Evie,” Jennifer said. “Aunt Faith did save my life – alot.” The get-real face that Jennifer offered made Parker slap his hand over the smile that spread his lips.
Evie pointed a finger back over her shoulder at Parker. “I can literally hear you grinning.”
Parker chuckled and dropped his hand. He’d been busted, and there was no use in trying to hide it. “What big ears you…” The elbow jabbed into his ribs from his mate silenced him.
“Where’s the harm?” Faith said, smirking.
“Yeah, where’s the harm?” Jennifer asked, like a little sage, that cherub face upturned, her eyes pleading.
Evie chewed her inner cheek in silence.
“And I am chaperoning,” Lex said with a teasing wave.
“Do not make me hurt you,” Evie warned Lex.
“It’s all about the gaming,” Faith said, innocently. “And spending quality time with my favourite niece.”
“Yeah, the gaming,” Jennifer said with a shrug. “And I’m her favourite.”
Evie fidgeted from one foot to the other as she chewed it over. “Serendipity!” she wailed; two vampires and one shifter groaned at the level of the shriek.
Serendipity hightailed it into the room, hit the brakes and eyed Faith and Lex at the window. She let out a loud warning hiss. “Bats in trees – not good. Break the branches!”
“Relax, Dippy, it’s all about the gaming,” Jennifer said.
“How many lives left?” Faith asked the cat and got another hiss back in return.
Evie kicked out a hip and folded her arms. “Remember that ice cream deal, Dippy?”
“Oh, do I!” Serendipity said, jumping up on the bed behind Jennifer and sitting like the cat that got the cream.
“Reinstated,” Evie said.
Serendipity lifted a paw and patted Jennifer on the head. “Hey!” Jennifer grumbled, tilting her head back to look at the cat behind her. “What gives?”
“Free ice cream for me, apparently,” Serendipity said with a contented purr.
“She’ll get so fat she won’t be able to leave the bed,” Faith said.
“Whatever works,” Evie said with a shrug. “If Jennifer moves towards the window…”
“I will have a hissy fit the likes you’ve never seen before,” Serendipity said, taking the opportunity to hiss at Faith.
“Deal?” Evie asked Jennifer.
Jennifer shrugged. “Sure,” she said and considered it. “If I don’t go anywhere near the window, do I get ice cream too?”
“No,” Evie said, lifting her chin. “For you, it’s all about the gaming, right?”
Jennifer sighed. “Right,” she muttered.
Faith chuckled. “She got you there, minion.”
“I’m leaving the door to your room open,” Evie said.
“I’m a vampire, not a boyfriend,” Faith said.
“Boys suck,” Jennifer said, pressing the start button on the game while Faith was distracted and whacking Faith’s character. “Ha! Too slow.”
“Hey, I did not teach you to cheat!” Faith said, scowling.
“Amy did!” Jennifer said.
Faith tossed a questioning look at Evie. “And you are worried about my bad influence on the child?”
~
The end of summer couldn’t come soon enough for True. Her belly was growing faster than her wardrobe, and she found herself feeling more tired than she’d ever been. Misery loves company, and both Dani and Evie were pregnant. She loved that the babies would be raised together in the pack, a new generation.
“It takes a village,” True said, raising her glass of juice in a toast. She was sitting beside Heath on the back deck.
All the gang were there for lunch. The tables had been pushed together, and Faith and Lex were seated at the far end. Faith had been decidedly well-behaved, considering she was a newbie, and there had only been a few hiccups along the way.
The sun was out for the first time in a week, but the sea winds were chilling, and the waves were choppy.
“A village,” they toasted.
“Good,” Hope said. “Because I’m going to need one.”
True almost choked on the sip of juice, and silence hung in the air as everyone stared at Hope. Drew was sitting beside her with a smug grin on his lips. “You’re…?” True asked, wide-eyed, chin lowering as she questioned her with a hard stare.
“Yep,” Hope said, pursing her lips as if she was considering saying more but didn’t.
“Well, it’s good to see my advice to Drew paid off,” Nana said, causing splutters of chuckles around the table.
Drew fidgeted in his chair. “I thank you for your advice,” he said, not wanting to rock the boat.
Nana nodded solemnly. “We’ll have a chat about what to do after the baby is born.”
While Drew’s eyes almost bulged out of his head, and he snap-turned a questioning look at Hope, Marvin slapped his hand against his forehead with dramatic disbelief. “For the love of God, woman, stop meddling with the grown-ups!” he groaned.
“Would you prefer I meddle in your life?” Nana demanded.
Marvin snapped a scowl at her. “No!”
“Then I shall meddle where I see fit,” Nana declared. “I am the elder of the pack.”
“She got you there,” Heath said, nodding slowly. “She is the pack elder.”
“And whose brilliant idea was that?” True asked, pulling her head back as she turned to glare at him.
“My fault,” Heath said, nodding. “I did it; it was me.”
Lex leaned in toward Faith. “Wolf on a leash,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear.
Heath snapped a death glare at the vampire. “You wanna take it outside?”
Lex motioned around them. “We are outside.”
“Outside the outside,” Heath said with a sideways nod to the car park.
“Not really,” Lex said with a shrug. “I’m a responsible adult and know that fighting does not solve every conflict.” He offered Heath a mocking grin as he patted Jennifer, who was sitting on the other side of him, on the head.
Heath couldn’t contain the low warning growl that rumbled through his chest but snapped it off when he got an elbow in the ribs from his mate. “He’s not wrong,” True said. “And a good life lesson for Jennifer,” she said, her tone a warning.
“My fault, I did it, it was me,” Heath said between gritted teeth as he stared hard at Lex.
“Woof!” Lex snapped back, enjoying the moment.
“Isn’t it refreshing when men can admit their mistakes?” Nana said, elbowing Marvin in the upper arm and making him groan and roll his eyes.
“Congratulations, Hope,” Dani said, raising her glass of juice.
“Get back to me after graduation, and we’ll see how it went,” Hope said, shooting a glare at her mate. Drew chuckled.
Nana leaned forward and looked around the family at the table. “Now all we need is for Amy to find a mate…”
Amy spat a bite of a chicken wing across the table into Dani’s lap. “Thanks, I have some,” Dani said, grinning.
“I like to keep a low profile,” Amy said, eyeing those at the table individually. “And if anyone here, anyone, calls a mate to me, I will…”
“Oh, relax,” Faith said. “We all know you’re going to die a spinster in our basement…” Lex elbowed her. “In our guesthouse, surrounded by chains…” Lex elbowed her again, and that time, she bit on it, turning to him and eyeing him with a glare. “One more time, you’ll be in an unmarked concrete grave.”
Jennifer gasped with surprise. “That would take him forever to dig out with his claws,” she warned.
Faith turned a smile on the child. “Wouldn’t it?”
“That would be bad,” Jennifer said.
Faith leaned in as if to share a secret. “But imagine how much time we’d have to game.”
Jennifer took a moment to consider it.
“Faith!” Evie snapped.
Faith sat back in her chair and waved an absent hand in the air in front of her. “Just chatting.”
“Still bad,” Jennifer said, shrugging, but she lowered her chin and offered Faith a conspiratorial grin.
“Stop leading the child astray,” Lex said, cocking an eyebrow at Faith. “She’s a witch, and witches make mistakes.”
Faith cocked an eyebrow at him, and Lex knew what was coming before she opened her mouth. “I’m looking at mine,” she said, narrowing her eyes on him with a frosty stare.
“Hey!” Serendipity snapped. “Another bowl of ice cream here.”
Evie sighed. “You’re getting fat!”
“You made the deal, sister,” Serendipity said. “Toot sweet.”
“I got it,” Parker said, pushing to his feet.
“I can’t waddle to the ice cream cart?” Evie asked, frowning up at him.
“Why waddle when you can sit?” Parker said with a smirk.
Evie considered it. “You have a point.”
Heath perked up, interested. “How’d you do that?” he said, pointing to Evie.
“Hey!” True said, elbowing him once more. “No, no, nooo!” She wagged a warning finger at him.
Heath deflated. “My fault, I did it; it was me,” he grumbled.
“Here’s to next season,” Hope said, raising her glass. “And no pirate ships!”
“I’ll drink to that!” True said, raising her glass.
“My fault, it was me, I did it,” Heath grumbled before raising his beer and chugging it whole.
“Wow, you really need to watch that drinking problem you have,” Faith said, mocking him with a grin. “My sister deserves better.”
Heath narrowed his eyes on Lex. “You, me, later,” he warned.
“I would have thought double bubble wrapping your mate was more of a priority, Alpha,” Lex said, smirking.
“And we still have a guesthouse to finish off,” Hope said, cutting in before True could dig her mate with her elbow again.
“And I’m going to run it,” Nana said.
“What am I, chipped liver?” Marvin demanded.
“A lurker,” Nana replied.
“I do not lurk; I supervise,” Marvin said, lifting his chin and eyeing her intently.
“You’ll be making the beds and unblocking clogged sinks,” Nana warned him. “If you’re senile enough to want to stick around.”
“I’m getting a grandbaby,” Marvin said. “You couldn’t shoehorn me out of this place if you tried.”
“We’ll see,” Nana said, turning her nose up at him and looking around the table. “Who wants to start a book on how long it will take me to get him to move out?”
“Nana!” True said, shaking her head with disbelief.
“I’ll do it,” Faith said, raising her hand. “I’m betting on Grandpa for the win.”
The table erupted into excited chatters, and Hope shot a smile at True. “We did good, right?” she asked.
True slowly nodded. “We did real good,” she said, beaming a grin at her best friend.
The End.