Chapter 24
“Do penguins have knees?”
-Celia’s brain at 2 a.m.
I spent a long night tossing and turning. You ever have one of those nights where you’re sure you’ll fall face-first onto your bed and sleep until the first light of morning, but then your brain takes that as a signal to wake up and keep you awake all night.
Yeah. One of those nights.
It’s like my brain couldn’t process the clues we found during daylight hours, so it was burning the midnight oil instead.
And the one, two, and three a.m. oil too.
Flint texted me the update about Echo and husband #1 somewhere during that time, and I couldn’t go back to bed.
I did what any red-blooded exhausted woman would do. I made coffee. I was brewing another pot when the doorbell rang.
My snarky sister-in-law stood on the other side of the door, a little too wide-awake for seven a.m.
“What are you doing here?”
Wysdom Ward breezed into the house. “Good morning to you, too!”
I shut the door and frowned. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually such a Grumpy Gus. It’s been a long couple of days.”
“That’s why I’m here,” Wysdom smiled at me. She sniffed the air like a bloodhound. “Coffee?”
A coffee bloodhound.
I motioned for her to follow me into the kitchen. “I’m on my second pot.”
“Second cup?”
“No,pot,” I poured another cup. “You heard me right the first time.”
Her eyebrows shot to her hairline. “I thought you Sabers were morning people.”
I chuckled. If she only knew. “Just Luke and me. And usually, I get a good night’s sleep, no coffee needed.”
“Blasphemy!” Wysdom hissed and made the sign of the cross at me. “That’s not natural!”
I chuckled and sat down at the island. “Aren’t you off the coffee too?”
Wysdom rolled her eyes, sighed, and dramatically slid into another barstool. “Alas, I am. We’re about to leave for our honeymoon…”
I jumped up and nearly spilled coffee on the floor. “Oh my God! I forgot that was this weekend!”
Wysdom pushed me back onto the barstool. “Don’t you worry about it, Celia. Your parents and my parents are staying at Ward-Saberville to take care of the kids, so Luke and I can get away for Sexy Time.”
I grimaced. “I don’t need any more details than that, thank you very much.”
She grinned like the lovesick fool she was. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep thedirty detailsto myself.”
“Seriously,” I leveled a glare at her. “I am warning you. If you keep talking, I’ll never bring you coffee again.”
“Evil witch!” Wysdom hissed at me again before cracking up with laughter. “Sorry. I’m still riding the honeymoon high. I didn’t think it would be this wonderful, but it is. Even with piles of dirty diapers, vomit, spit-up… and that’s just The God Among Men!”
I groaned at Wysdom’s nickname for my brother and tried not to wrinkle my nose. I knew he was handsome. I just didn’t want to think about him like that.
