Oriane gave a little shrug. “You say nothing at all, but it is how you, mmm, how you are together. You are so very like this.” She twined her fingers together and wiggled them. “I think, you are married for ever and ever. Felicitations! Do I get to have a new dress?”
“Of course,” Alejo said. “If you want one. But this is going to be a very small wedding. Just for us.”
Wendy’s gaze remained on Sam, whose eyes rounded. He blinked a couple times, then said, “Then I don’t have to go to Pater’s anymore, if I get to have a new dad for real? I want Alejo to be my dad, forever and ever!”
Alejo shot Wendy a rueful look. She didn’t need the mate bond to sense him wondering how to answer that.
Wendy slid over and took Sam’s hands in hers. He was so small, so innocent. She had done her best to shield him from the worst of Bill’s caustic view of the world, but someday these hands would be larger than hers, and Sam would have his own view. Until then, she still had to try to be as fair as she could.
She said, “Pater is still your father, and that will never change. When you get older, you can decide on how to have a relationship with him. Right now, we still have to do what the court says, when your father isn’t busy.”
Sam slumped a little, then peered up at Alejo. “But I can call Alejo Dad, can’t I?”
“Of course you can.” Alejo rubbed his shoulder. “You’ll have a Pater and a Dad. Plenty of kids call their step-dads Dad, right?”
Sam thought that over, scrupulously honest as always, then gave a cautious nod. Then he smiled. “Okay,” he said.
“Good.” Alejo patted his shoulder again. “Then, as I’m to be your new dad, I have to get some practice in. How about tomorrow morning, you and I go to your eye doctor, and we’ll get those glasses replaced. With the best lenses we can find.”
“Okay!” Then Sam turned toward Wendy. “It’s okay, right?”
Wendy smothered a laugh deep inside. Sam had apparently had no second thoughts about expecting Alejo’s serpent to zoom to his rescue, but something as mundane as getting new glasses apparently registered differently in his nine-year-old thinking.
“It’s okay! You can miss one day of school, because I know you’ll catch up.”
For the rest of Sunday, Wendy suspended the rules. Sam got to divide his time between the garden, his drawing, and later, new episodes of an anime. Oriane spent a good part of the day with Lisi and friends, biking to the beach for a picnic—watched by alert adults. When she returned, her hair full of sand, her chatter more often than not beginning withLisi says. Luckily Lisi, as smart as she was generous-hearted, was actually worth being quoted constantly. But one thing Oriane was learning: there were very few mythic shifters. Even when they turned up in shifter families, they often had to have special lessons. She was content to wait, she said, yawning, as she shuffled off to sleep.
Monday morning, Oriane went to school with Lisi and two other girls. Alejo and Sam drove off together, Sam skipping happily to Alejo’s truck. Wendy drove to the bakery, mentally preparing words for requesting Wednesday off.
Linette greeted her, then did an actual double-take.
Wendy looked down at herself. “I thought this outfit was clean—or is a button missing?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Linette laughed. “You look like someone lit a bonfire inside you. If you’ve been hitting some super-fancy spa, I want the address!”
Heat flooded Wendy’s skin. “Um,” she said, her carefully thought-out speech flying out the window.
Linette said quickly. “I don’t mean to pry. After all, I know who your ex is. I’m just happy that you seem to be happy.”
The words escaped Wendy before her brain could catch up, “I’m getting married.”
Then she thought, even when Bill hears, he won’t be able to do anything about it. She had lived small and private, with zero social life, for so long, just to protect herself against Bill. But she didn’t have to do that anymore. So she said it again, this time relishing the sound of the words, “I’m getting married.”
Linette stared back, her eyes wide, gleaming—and then the gleam became liquid, and a tear slipped down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away, and she said breathlessly, “So this is what happiness looks like on you! Let me guess. Alejo, right?”
“How did you—oh, Sam. Talks in the carpool?”
“For the first time in his life,” Linette said. “He’s been as quiet as a ghost until lately. He started mentioning small things. Not a lot. He’s still Sam. But he’s been full of ‘Alejo’ and he says it with such a happy note in his voice, that even my kids noticed, and they are not the most observant people in the world, outside of stats in their video games.” Linette clapped, her smile wide. “And good for you, I say. If there’s anyone who deserves agoodbreak, that person is you.”
Wendy held up a hand. “There’s more. Maybe. Hold it till you hear my request—I’m afraid you’ll be cursing my name. Wednesday, I may need to drive up to town.”
Linette’s eyes narrowed. “I hope this not bad news?”
“No. Good. Well, maybe. Maybe nothing.” Wendy realized she was babbling, and she said in a rush, “My agent pitched my series pilot, and there’s interest. I have to go to town to a meeting.”
Linette clapped her hands together again, and then she spun around so fast her apron flapped against the prep table, dislodging a gust of flour. The two of them coughed and waved it away, then Linette said, “Tell you what. Let’s make a deal.”
“A deal?” Wendy repeated.
