“Sure! That doesn’t change anything with you and me.”
“Oh.” Sam looked cautiously relieved. But even at nine, it appeared that he’d been overlooked or just plain forgotten too many times to be convinced.
Alejo’s serpentreallywanted to roar out at Bill Champlain and scare him so much he wouldn’t stop running until he reached Tierra del Fuego.
Wendy said, “Which room do you think we should give Oriane, Sam?”
Sam gave the question his usual grave attention. “Maybe she ought to have the blue room? It’s bigger than mine is. If she’s thirteen, she might want a big room.”
“That’s excellent thinking, Sam,” Wendy said. “It even has its own bathroom, though only a shower. Maybe she won’t mind that. How about I go ahead and put fresh sheets and towels in there, and dust, while you and Alejo go down to the house? How much more is there to do?”
“We can finish the windows soon,” Alejo said. “Then it’s either the kitchen or the roof. When is it likely to rain in this region?”
“We don’t have much of a rainy season in Southern California, so either is fine.”
“I had another thought,” Alejo said, and turned to Sam, then to Wendy. “Tell me what you both think. Before the reroofing, that entire attic could be turned into useful space instead of waste.” As he explained his idea, both mother and son looked at him with twin expressions of anticipation, heightening their resemblance. He finished up with, “How would you like a bedroom up there, and an all-purpose den as well as a second bathroom? I can do everything except the plumbing and roofing, and I’d need to find out what’s code for the wiring, but I expect that Professor Hu would know some good people to contact for what I can’t do myself.”
Wendy said, “Alejo, that’s thousands of dollars’ worth of work! I can’t take advantage of you that way. It feels wrong.”
NEST, the serpent bugled.
Alejo clutched his heart, and Wendy and Sam stared, startled. “Oh,” Alejo groaned, greatly enjoying himself. “If you only knew how hurt my serpent is, hearing that! He wants a nest.”
Sam’s eyes widened even more. “He talks to you?” he whispered, as if the serpent could hear.
“In a manner of speaking. Right now he wants to pop out and fly down there to get started, but serpents are not inside beasts. I don’t want to risk blasting the windows out!”
Sam snickered, and Wendy huffed a laugh. “All right, you’ve convinced me. Hear that, serpent?” she said, fake-scowling at Alejo’s chest.
Alejo smacked his hand over his heart. “He says,yes, ma’am. Sam, want to come help me?”
In answer, Sam slid off his chair. “I’m ready,” he said. “I’ll go put on my play clothes.”
Sam pattered off, and Alejo turned to Wendy. “I think he’s okay with this change. Tough, to spring it so suddenly on him, with our own relationship so new. But I gotta hand it to Sam, he took it like a champ.”
“He sure did,” Wendy said, her smile tremulous.
Alejo said quickly, “But what about you? I’m sorry this happened so suddenly. I truly had no idea. Roxane isn’t even an ex. We were just two people coming off some bad relationships who found comfort in each other for one wild weekend. And we were responsible. Or, so we thought. Then we went our separate ways.”
“Of course I get it,” she said, and he felt her sincerity through the mate bond. Not just sincerity, but the unthinking generosity that was so much a part of her. “It makes sense to me that Roxane called you first,” Wendy said. “I suspect that every parent’s fear in such a situation would be of wild-eyed scientists in lab coats descending on one’s child to be carried away to secret government labs for sinister experiments.”
“I guess I can understand that,” Alejo said. “Though wouldn’t they think of protective services and the like first?”
“That’s too logical.” Wendy shook her head. “It seems more instinctive to immediately leap to the worst possible scenario.”
“Maybe you ought to come with me to the airport,” Alejo said. “Make it feel more like a family?”
“I don’t know,” Wendy said slowly. “Part of me wants to come. I’m curious, and eager to meet her, and the mom in me wants to make her happy. But another word for family is a crowd of people. Since she doesn’t know any of us, maybe it’s better to begin with father and daughter? Anyway, since Oriane doesn’t know about mates, or anything about shifters, and I’m just learning, I suspect I’d be no help with that part. And it’s a crucial part!”
Alejo sighed, dismissing the visions he’d begun to have of Wendy, in her magical way, saying some … girl things, and immediately winning over a thirteen-year-old with a death glare. He’d teach her some tricks about mythic shifter flight, and everything would be easy.
Yeah, he knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
* * *
All the rest of the day, Sam trotted happily behind Alejo, a little shadow. He did his best to copy whatever Alejo did as his furry friends popped in and out, trying in their haphazard way to help. With most of the small tasks, Alejo bit back the instinct to give directions, and let Sam figure out what to do, until his eyesight interfered or he got frustrated, then Alejo demonstrated and made himself back off.
It was slow going this way, but still, by the end of the day they had all the new windows installed, and Sam seemed to have swelled with pride.
