Fane’s eyes had begun to glow. “A male’s sense of humor.”
“Y’all have senses of humor?” Jacque asked as she narrowed her eyes on her mate. “Do I want to know where you’ve been hiding them?”
“Jacquelyn.” Fane growled.
“Do you see any sort of sense of humor in that face, Sally?” Jacque asked, interrupting him.
“Not a lick,” Sally said.
“Thia is the first child to be born to our race since my birth,” Fane said, ignoring them. “How lightly do you think Decebel, who is already in an agitated state—”
“He was way past agitated,” Sally cut in.
Jacque nodded. “Agitated was like ten exits back.”
“Exactly,” Fane rumbled. “So how do you think he’s going to take it when he doesn’t find his pup in the bed where he left it?”
Jacque’s head turned slowly to look at Sally. She really wished, in that moment, they could communicate mentally like she could with Fane. She tried to convey with her eyes what her mouth wanted to say.Is he overexaggerating? You know they tend to do that. Decebel wouldn’t really hurt any of us once he realized Thia was safe with us, right?
“I’m obviously not making this clear.” Fane stepped toward her and held out his arms. “Give me Thia. I’ll return her.”
Jacque raised a brow at him and took a step back. “I’m perfectly capable of carrying her back to her parents.”
“And he’s less likely to attack her,” Sally added, suddenly helpful after being no help to Jacque’s wordless questions.
“She’s got a point,” Costin said. “He’s much more likely to attack a male holding his female pup.” Then he tilted his head, much like a curious wolf would, and asked, “Why did you two take her in the first place?”
When Sally opened her mouth to speak, Costin quickly added, “No more talk of P’s and B’s, Sally mine. You know how it turns me on when you use dirty language.”
Jacque laughed as Sally blushed and glared at her mate. “I was going to say, it was Jacque’s idea.”
The smile was gone as Jacque’s jaw dropped open. “You just threw me under the bus,” she whisper-yelled while at the same time trying to dodge Fane who was still attempting to remove Thia from her arms.
“Now, we’re even,” Sally chirped.
“What in all of tarnation are you talking about?” Jacque asked. “I’ve never thrown you under the bus. Fane, stop it,” she added quickly as she slapped at his hands.
Meanwhile, Costin was digging in the baby bag, pulling out a bottle. “Would it be weird for me to handle Jen’s breast milk? That’s not weird, right? It sort of feels like the equivalent of handling her boobs, and that would be weird. Right?”
Jacque and Sally stared at him silently for several seconds before Jacque rounded back on Sally. “When have I ever thrown you under the bus?”
“Bobby Shultz. Fifth grade,” Sally began, but Jacque sliced a hand through the air, interrupting her. It was in that moment that Fane took advantage of her distraction and snatched Thia from her grasp. Hopefully, he would help Costin feed the girl because Thia was starting to make squeaky noises. Jacque focused on Sally.
“You’ve forgotten the girlfriend code,” Jacque said. “Jen clearly established in freshman year that grudges could only be held for a maximum of three years. Fifth grade is well past three years, for crying out loud.”
“She also established that you could add one year to the grudge for every day you ended up crying over it. I cried every day for a week. I get to add seven years.” Sally said, though she didn’t sound particularly upset at the moment.
“Well, your math doesn’t add up, genius. We were eleven years old. Add seven years, the grudge should have been dropped when we turned eighteen.”
A frustrated scowl crossed Sally’s face. “Oh, yeah.”
“And even if the grudge was still active, it was a stupid grudge to begin with. You mean you really cried for a week because I told Brody Shultz that you wouldn’t play with him on the playground because you got your period?” Jacque asked.
“It wasn’t true!” Sally bit out. “And he told everyone and they teased me. Brody called me Raggedy Anne, which made everyone laugh more, and I didn’t even have a clue why it was so funny.”
“They only teased you for a day. Then Jen called Brody a pussy and punched him in the mouth and yelled, ‘He’s bleeding now too. Why don’t you bitches laugh at him for a while?”
“That was awesome. The ‘P’ word has always been a favorite of hers,” Sally said, grinning, her grudge seemingly forgotten for the moment.
