We passed through the kitchen, where Aki and Dimas were eating breakfast at the table, because those two never got full, then out the back door into the “yard,” only it looked a little more yard-like than usual today.
“Where did that come from?”I asked because I suddenly had a pool.It was one of those big, aboveground things, the kind that kills a large circle of grass, only I didn’t have any grass.Jen, Kimmie, and Jace were taking advantage, with Jen in a yellow bikini, relaxing on a float, while the others splashed each other in the water.
“Had to get the kiddoes something to play with,” Cyrus said, as Jason and Lee used Were springiness to leap over the tall side of the structure and cannonball into the water, not needing the ladder.Luis rolled his eyes at them and went to get a soft drink out of a cooler with Andy and Chayton in tow, while Cyrus settled me onto a chaise by the back wall of the house.There were two more there, along with a new table and four chairs, and a cheerful red umbrella with a fringe on top.
“You’ve been shopping,” I said.
“They’vebeen shopping,” he corrected.“Had to do something to keep ‘em busy or they would have been bugging the hell out of you.”
“I don’t mind,” I said, and he rolled his eyes.
“You would have when you didn’t get any sleep.By the way, hope you don’t mind that, either,” he added, nodding at the sleek new RV parked beside the house, which was bigger than I’d expected, with its butt protruding a good way into my back yard.“Don’t worry; I checked with the HOA, and it’s fine, as long as we keep it on the side of the house.”
That’s life, I thought cynically.Fighting to the death with prehistoric monsters one day, and wrangling with the HOA the next.And I wasn’t sure which was scarier.Mrs.González had recently been elected president, and she did not play.
But maybe she’d been swayed by the fact that it was a nice RV.Verynice.No longer being avargulfmade a difference, it seemed.
“Still not big enough,” he said, as if reading my mind.
“What would be?”I eyed him.“How many are we now?”
“About the same.Eight hundred, give or take—”
“Eight hundred?”I stared.That wasnotthe same.“How thehell—”
“We’ve had a few more arrivals,” he admitted.“I didn’t want to worry you—”
“And why would I be worried?”I asked tightly.
He sighed.“Most of them are… geriatric.Word got around that we were taking in oldvargulfs, and I think some of the clans took advantage to dump some of their unwanted elders on us.”
“Cyrus!”
“I know, but we’re in talks with the Guardians about expanding their facility.They already have a place out by their hospital, only it’s pretty small and mostly for those who need nursing home-type care.But if we add an assisted living building beside it, we should have room for…”
He trailed off, seeing my face.
“Who is paying for all this?”I demanded.
“That’s what I’m in talks about.”
“With who?”
“Lia—”
“Let me guess.And let me guess what Sebastian wants in return!”
Son of a bitch!
“I was going to wait to discuss this until you’re better,” he said, grabbing the beer that Luis tossed him from the ice chest, because I guessed he could tell he needed one.Or was about to.
But to my surprise, he popped the top for me.Maybe I looked like I could use it more, and he wasn’t wrong.I drank it resentfully.
“I haven’t agreed to anything,” Cyrus said seriously, sitting on the nearest chaise.“But we need to talk.”
“About what?”I looked at him over the bottle, my eyes squinting against the sun, although they would have been doing that anyway.Because there was nothing to talk about here!
He ran a hand through a mess of dark curls.“Too many things to list,” he admitted.
