“You’ve always preferred comfortable clothes,” my mom’s voice surprised me from the doorway. “I tried to dress you in frilly dresses as a child, and you’d have such a fit. I always had to change you.”
“You always said you wanted me to be happy. I’m not happy in frilly dresses.”
“You don’t even like those khakis and that sweater, do you?” she asked.
“The pants are pretty comfortable, but yeah, the sweater is itchy.” I tugged at it, more cognizant of the feel of the material as we spoke about it.
“Jenny bear, you don’t have to dress for me. I know I push my idea of how you should live on you, but all I want is for you to be happy.” She sighed and looked toward the closet where Alexander and Roan stood with wide eyes. “So how do you two play into this whole supernatural thing?”
She moved into the room and sat on my bed, scooting back to sit with her legs crossed in front of her.
“Roan is a lawyer of sorts, and helps all of the Un… uh, supernatural creatures if they get into any legal trouble.” I almost said Unseen, but she didn’t know what that was yet. “Alexander is the king of the Fae, and the elected leader of the entire supernatural world.”
Mom raised one eyebrow. “What are you doing here, if you’re so important?”
“Honestly, Ms. Johnson, I’m rather attached to your daughter, and I knew this would be a difficult day for her. I wanted to be here for her.”
Mom’s other eyebrow raised. “And how does my daughter feel about you?”
I rolled my eyes and threw my hands up. “Your daughter is right here if you’d like to ask her.”
Roan chuckled. “Actually, I’d like to know how she feels about us as well.”
“Us?” Mom asked.
“Yes, we’re attempting to convince her to date both of us, in a polyamorous relationship.”
Mom’s eyes softened when I expected them to harden. “Oh, Jen, you do take after me.”
“What?” I exclaimed. “How is a polyamorous relationship taking after you?”
“Dear girl, before I met your father, I was a different person. I don’t talk about it much, but your father and I didn’t meet until I was in my late twenties. I spent most of my early twenties living in New York with a man and a woman.”
She couldn’t have shocked me more if she’d told me she was a grasshopper-mongoose-alien-pod person. I thought I was the one there to do the shocking announcements, but I felt like passing out myself after her major revelation. “Mom, would you like to run that by me again?”
“I started college in New York on a scholarship. While I was there, I went to clubs, bars, and shows. I took full advantage of the nightlife. Eventually, during my freshman year, I met Harold. He was in a relationship with Susan, and they were looking to form a triad.” She closed her eyes and hugged herself. “We spent five blissful years together. Harold was in his early thirties and Susan was in her late twenties when we met. I finished school, they insisted on that. Susan was an agent for Broadway stars. We saw the most amazing shows up close, during dress rehearsals, you name it. Harold was a director—that’s how they met.”
“So what happened?” Roan asked. I looked back at him, and he was enraptured with Mom’s story. “Why aren’t you with them now?”
“An aneurysm.” She wiped at her eyes. Evenoverforty years later it was still emotional for her. “Harold dropped during a dress rehearsal. We were there with him, watching. There was no time, nothing could have been done. He was gone before anyone even dialed for an ambulance.”
She shuddered and squared her shoulders. “Susan and I made a go of it for a while, but the grief was too much. As it often happens with these things, we grew to resent each other. I moved back home with my parents, met your father, and fell in love again. The heart heals itself with time.”
“What happened to Susan?”
“She still lives in New York. She’s still an agent. I send her a Christmas card every year, and she sends one here, but it’s very impersonal.”
I plopped down beside my mom and put an arm around her. “What a day.”
She nodded and put her head against mine. “My baby is a dragon. Can you breathe fire?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t know how yet. But Mom, it’s not just me. It’s Riley, too. You know what that means?”
“Oh. Oh my, I’m a dragon too, aren’t I?” She buried her face in my shoulder.
“Most likely. And that brings a lot of complications to your life. For starters, you’re going to stop aging.”
“What am I going to tell your father?”
