“And I’m a Gargoyle. I don’t really care what he is.”
“You’ll have to play nice. Antagonizing him won’t work,” Carrik said.
“I tried.”
“Try again,” Carrik said.
Boon shrugged, but he knew if he ever wanted a smooth relationship with Angelle, he’d have to make peace with Daniel.
“Oh, I know! We’ll have a party. Everyone will come!” Lily said. “They’ll all want to meet Angelle and her family.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Tempest said.
“Why not? It’ll be fine,” Carrik said. “They’ll all want to meet Eli, so the focus won’t be fully on Boon’s mate and her family.”
“He’s right,” Lily said, confirming what her mate had already said.
“I guess we could go home and get them,” Boon said.
Tempest shook her head. “I just got here. Can I at least eat first? Besides, I’m still not sure about this. All of Whispers, in one place? This is sure to blow up. And you and Angelle will not even know because you’ll be hiding from all the people.”
“I’ve got this. It’ll be fine,” Lily repeated.
“One can hope,” Boon said, shaking his head.
Chapter 8
It was almost noon by the time Tempest and Boon returned home. Their first stop was Maverik’s house.
Maverik was on his riding mower making more of a mess than actually cutting anything. He hated the sparse grass that grew up as fall started and spent more than a few days during that time of year riding around in circles to cut it as short as it could possibly be. What that meant was that dust was flying, pieces of debris along with it, and Maverik making regular passes through the dirt as he wore his headphones and sang at the top of his lungs as he attacked the ‘messy-ass grass’ as he called it.
Tempest and Boon materialized on Maverik’s front deck and couldn’t help laughing as Maverik’s version of ‘Roxanne’ buffeted their ears.
“Is that a real song?” Boon asked, his face all skewed up as he winced at the high notes Maverik was trying to hit — and clearly wasn’t successful at.
“Yes, it is. And no, it does not normally sound like that,” Tempest said.
“Rooooxxxxxxannnne!” Maverik wailed into the air, his face angled up at the sky, his eyes shut tight with the effort he was making to do the song justice, as he made another turn to come back toward his house. He opened his eyes and stopped short when he saw Tempest and Boon standing there watching him. “Hey! Where the hell y’all been?” he asked, turning off the engine with one hand while reaching up with the other to pull the headphones off his head.
“We went home,” Tempest said.
“And neither one of y’all could bother to let me know?” Maverik asked.
“You didn’t tell him?” Tempest asked, looking at Boon.
“He ain’t told no damn body!” Maverik said.
“It was the middle of the night,” Boon said to Tempest. Then he looked at Maverik. “It was the middle of the night.”
“What if you took your ass off somewhere and got in trouble? How the hell am I supposed to know to come save you? I won’t! That’s why you gotta communicate, boy! And you gotta communicate long before you haul off and do something unexpected. I mean, what if I was the panicky kind and I told Angelle that you were missing when she came looking for you? Lucky for you I assumed you were with Tempest and said that. But give a male a heads up next time.”
“I will. You’re absolutely right. And did you say that Angelle came looking for me?” Boon asked.
“Sure did. She was making breakfast for you and her parents. I think it was a get to know you kind of thing.”
Boon shared an ‘oh shit’ look with Tempest.
“Was she upset?” Tempest asked.
