Vanessa let out a long sigh. “I’ve got too much work to disappear in the mountains for a week.”
“Then it appears we’re at an impasse," he replied, flicking a lock of long blond hair out of his eyes.
“There’s really nothing I can say to get you to come?”
“Nope.”
His sister blew a raspberry into the phone. “Fine! Disappoint your sister.Again.”
“Keep an eye on your mail,” he reminded her.
“Yeah, yeah.” After a brief pause to really make sure he felt her disappointment in him, she added, “I’ll plan to visit you next month, okay?”
Soren’s fanged smile widened. “Looking forward to it, cub.”
“Love you, you big dumb bear.”
Snagging his beer again, he brought it up to his lips. “Love you. Don’t forget to call Mom.”
“She’d come to my party,” Vanessa grumbled.
Pulling the phone away from his ear, he called out, “No, she wouldn’t,” before he ended the call. Brotherly duties accomplished, he tossed his phone onto the side table, took a large swig of his beer, and closed his eyes — a bear content in his den, ready to take on whatever winter threw at him.
Sisters Celebrate
“I’m jus—justsaying,”Atria slurred, “I don’t think it would behard.”
Ruby blinked owlishly up at the cascade of bubbles that made up her chandelier. Every time her eyes opened, the lights changed color. That was what she wanted to happen. What shedidn’tunderstand was why the lights appeared to move on their own.
“I didn’t put my lights on servos, did I?” she muttered, squinting.
“Servos?” Atria’s head lifted from the satin pillow she’d commandeered from the couch. Snickering, she gave her butt a wiggle. “Servos thisass.”
Ruby blinked again, changing the lights from green to pink. The ever-present hum of electricity was comforting to her even in her horrifically inebriated state, but the pathways she normally so easily accessed to control the technology around her were a little harder to figure out. “I’m serious. Are the lights moving or is that the vodka?”
“S’definitely the vodka,” Atria answered.
Relieved that her lights weren’t actually spinning, Ruby turned on her side to hunt for the bag of cookies they’d pilferedfrom the department Moonset party. Broke college students couldn’t be expected tonotsteal from the buffet table, so she didn’t feel too bad about the theft.
“Maybe whatever was in the cider,” she muttered, fingers crawling across the carpet like a ring-clad spider. “Or the jello shots.”
“Think that’s also vodka,” her friend pointed out. Smacking her palm on the floor, she exclaimed, “But that’s not important!”
Atria’s long hair proved to be an obstacle to Ruby finding the bag of treats they’d stolen. Swiping the dark strands out her way, she spied the bag mostly crushed beneath the satin pillow. “Wus important?” she mumbled, intent on extracting the crinkly iridescent plastic bag without moving more than two fingers.
Atria flopped her arms and legs out across the living room floor. The hundreds of tiny silver moon sequins covering her short dress scattered the pink light across the room. Her slurred voice was made even less understandable by the fact that she had most of her face smushed into the pillow when she explained, “Adoption! I don’t think it’shard.”
Letting out a whoop of triumph when her fingers hooked on the shiny edge of the bag, it took Ruby’s alcohol-soaked brain a second to catch up to what she’d said.
Making a face, she replied, “Adoption? You wanna have a kid? Dude, you’ve never even had apet.Try a cat first or something.”
While Ruby dragged the bag across the carpet toward her greedy mouth, Atria moaned, “Nooo. I’m talking ‘bout asisteradoption.”
“Sis’er ‘doption?” The words didn’t come out quite right mostly because she’d finally succeeded in shoving a silver sprinkled, crescent moon-shaped cookie into her gob. Crumbs spraying, she mumbled, “Don’ thin’ thassa thing, ‘Tria.”
“It so is,” her friend argued, tattooed arms flailing.
“So isn’t.” Deciding she was tired of the pink light, Ruby glanced up at the slowly moving chandelier and blinked twice, changing its color to violet then teal.
