Chapter 24
ORACLES AND PLAYING POOL
LEVI
As soon as Finley’s van carried Kyle and Tammy out of Willow Lake, damn near every supe in town descended upon the Willow Lake Pub. There were even a few human faces in the crowd, like Parker and Edith.
Everyone was ready to relax and rejoice that we’d come through okay.
“You should have left with Fin,” Parker was telling his grandmother.
She waved her hand in the air, dismissing him. “I haven’t had this much fun since the Berlin Wall came down. Go, have fun with your guy. Don’t worry about me.”
Parker frowned and returned to the pool table.
“I don’t know why she is still here,” he muttered as he scooped up his pool cue and chalked the tip. “Her questions have been answered. She should be on her way home. ”
Seeing the way Davina was licking the salted rim on her margarita glass while batting her eyes at Edith, I didn’t think those two were ready to part ways yet. But I wasn’t going to say that to Parker. Talking about his grandmother’s burgeoning relationship with our local medium made him squirm.
Paws jumped onto the pool table in front of us. He pushed his tri-colored face right in Parker’s. The cat narrowed his eyes at him.
“So, you know about supes now, hey?” Paws said. “You gonna screw us over?”
Parker gaped for a minute before snapping his mouth shut and flicking his gaze to me. “Okay. That’s bizarre. Van said he was a supernatural cat, but I hadn’t really thought about it since. Jesus, how many magical cats are there in town?”
“Don’t talk to Levi about me like I’m not sitting right in front of you.” Paws lifted his head at an imperious tilt. “Now answer my question.”
Parker crossed his arms. “No. I’m not going to do anything to endanger anyone.”
Paws stared at him without blinking for a long beat, then he nodded. The tip of his tail flicked back and forth. “Good.”
“You shouldn’t sit on the pool table,” Parker said. “You’ll get kitty litter on it and that’s gross.”
Paws’ tail ticked back and forth at a faster tempo. “Do I look like I use a damn kitty litter box? For fuck’s sake.” Paws glared at me and plopped his furry ass on the green felt as if to defy Parker’s suggestion. “What the fuck does he think I am? ”
I didn’t point out that none of us knew what he was. That wasn’t the point Paws was trying to make. Instead, I opted to make introductions.
“Parker, this is Pawington the Third. He goes by Paws.”
“Are you a cat shifter?”
“I’m none of your business, that’s what I am,” Paws said. “And my pronouns are he and him. I might not wear pants, but that doesn’t mean you should ogle my junk.”
Parker’s eyebrows rose on his forehead, and he glanced at me. “Is this for real?”
“Just go with it.” I nodded. That was the best advice I could offer on how to deal with the cantankerous cat.
Paws licked his paw and swiped it over his face. “So, Parker, when exactly did you find out about supernatural beings? And when exactly did you kiss Levi?”
I rolled my eyes. “This is about the bet, isn’t it?”
Paws lowered his paw. “Of course it is. We couldn’t settle things while the hunters were poking their round little noses into our business, could we? Now we’re overdue. And it’s time to settle up.”
Across the room, Clive groaned. “Don’t tell me Paws won again.”
Paws lifted his nose and shook out his fur. “Of course I did. But just to confirm, I’ve asked Parker for the details to satisfy the primary bet as well as the sub-bet.”
“There was a sub-bet?” someone muttered.
“Is this what Van was talking about yesterday?” Parker asked me.
I nodded.
Parker shook his head, but he was grinning. He glanced around the room at the people who were eagerly awaiting his answer. “Yesterday. That all happened yesterday.”
“Exactly.” Paws nodded. “Dillon, get your ass over to the board and check the entries.”
Dillon was sitting with his mate, Ash, on his lap. He glanced over at the sound of his name. “What?”
“Check the bet. I would ask Ash, but last time his puny ass almost broke something trying to get the board off the wall.
“Hey!” Ash shouted. “Be nice or I won’t keep the tuna juice from the café every day.”
“Tuna juice?” Parker frowned at Ash, the chief cook at his business.
Ash froze.
“Shit, right. Forgot he was in the know now,” Ash said to his table.
He’d spoken softly, but I could still hear him.
He waved his hand at Parker. “Hey, Parks. So, yeah when we make the tuna sandwiches, I keep the juice from the can and give it to Paws. I’d like to say it makes him less of an ass, but really all it does is make his breath stink like fish. ”
Parker squished up his face like he was trying to figure out if that could be a health code issue.
I knew Parker liked thinking things through.
He liked having plans. He was probably wondering if Ash was keeping it refrigerated after he poured it into a container.
Was the container sanitized daily? Could the cat sue him if something went wrong?
Paws narrowed his eyes at Parker. “Don’t even think about cutting off my tuna juice supply. ”
Parker raised my hands, like he was surrendering. “Fine, fine.”
“Dillon,” Paws shouted at the hellhound. “Why are you still sitting over there?”
Dillon sighed and lifted his mate off his lap before crossing the room to do Paws’ bidding. He retrieved the calendar where everyone’s bets were recorded and spread it on a table. As he trailed his finger over the entries, he scowled. “Paws. For both.”
A chorus of disgruntled murmurs rose up around the room.
“He’s got to be cheating,” someone said.
“Hey, I bet—get it? I bet ?—Anyway, I bet that’s it,” Isaac said. “Paws, are you looking at Jake’s paintings?”
Paws’ tail froze mid-flick. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Isaac slapped his hand on his leg and whooped. “That’s it. You’re looking at the oracle’s paintings and somehow figuring out when they’ll happen.”
Behind the bar, Jake’s forehead crinkled as he thought about that. Then he gaped and pointed at the glittering orange Halloween banner over the pool table. “The decorations. Holy Michelangelo! There were Halloween decorations in…” He snapped his mouth shut.
I gaped. “You drew a picture of Parker and me? Like one of those messages from the Eternal Magic?”
“Oops.” Jake’s cheeks darkened. “I probably shouldn’t have said that. We’d decided not to tell people when that happened anymore. Not since Nelson saw the one about him and Morgan…” He shrugged. “So, yeah. Now that it’s ha ppened, would you like to have it? It’s super cute of the two of you.”
I sucked in a raspy breath. Having the oracle paint us seemed significant.
Parker’s gaze ping-ponged from Jake, to Paws, to me. “I think I need more information.”
“Jake’s an oracle,” I explained. “He paints things before they happen.”
“And he painted us together?” Parker smiled and stepped closer to me.
I offered him a shaky smile. “I don’t know what it means, but, yeah, it sounds like it…”
Parker reached up and cupped my cheek. Someone hooted. Probably Isaac.
Before I could answer, Jake shouted and pointed at us. “Yes, like that.”
Everyone laughed. Parker looked like he wanted to press his lips to mine, but he didn’t. He stepped away from me instead. Maybe he thought he’d already pressed his luck by touching my cheek.
I almost told him it was okay. That he could touch me all he wanted.
I didn’t.
Yes, I was still apprehensive about him being a human, but I wanted to give him anything.
And that was so wildly dangerous I didn’t know what to think.
Knowing that the Eternal Magic had shown us together should have eased some of my concerns, but it didn’t.
If we’d already lived through the moment the oracle’s muse decided to show, then it didn’t really mean much of anything, did it?
Because we weren’t a couple. Not really.
It was a lie. So maybe the vision had more to do with the hunters being in town than my arrangement with Parker.
Maybe I’d never know.
Right now, though, I needed to think about something else.
“Okay, let’s play pool, shall we?”