“He’s probably been through more of teething than he has birthing, right?”
“Are you kidding? He has two of his own. Plus that little girl who came with them and is so amazing. He went through her teething. You’re right.”
He chuckled as they made their way into the dining hall. “Yeah, Triton’s very busy right now. They made up with Cerran a lot over this whole working with Jack thing, and Cerran is working to make it more equitable. The time he spends between the two, I mean.”
“Ah, so there may be another baby soon, huh?”
“I do wonder. Hey, Jonathan, how are you doing today?” he asked the kid behind the counter.
Jonathan cracked his knuckles. “I’m great. What kind of milkshakes do we want today?”
“Pineapple, apparently for one.”
The kid’s eyebrows went up. “Oh, he must be getting close. Pineapple is usually not something they do until right up at the end because of the heartburn.”
Talon chuckled. “How does everybody know this stuff before I do?”
Jonathan shrugged one shoulder. “Look, I have six sisters. We’re coyote shifters. They all have kids. I’m the only one whohasn’t given my mom grandkids, and the only reason is because I’m pretty young.”
He and Reno shook their heads laughing because this poor guy really did seem to know what he was talking about. Heck, if he was the youngest of seven or maybe even more, if he had brothers as well as sisters, he probably did have a pretty good idea of what happened with pregnancies and things like that.
“Thanks for the info, man. I think I would like a chocolate raspberry shake.”
Reno raised an eyebrow at him. “Gods, are you pregnant?”
He whacked Reno’s shoulder. “No, it just sounds really good somehow. I’m also going to go get some actual food. Once you get your milkshake order in, we’ll go wander, and then we’ll come back. Is that okay, Jonathan?”
“Sounds perfect. I’ve got this, don’t worry about it.”
“Cool, then I’ll take one chocolate vanilla swirl milkshake and one banana,” Reno murmured.
“Banana is that for you? Do I need to worry about you being in a family way?” Talon loved that he could tease his best friend’s mate just as much as he teased his best friend.
“Not that I know of. Although, I guess one never knows. I could be the first braaken in history to do it.”
“You could. Why not?” Mentally, Talon checked in with his mate, who he could tell was humming and cleaning now in the front room since he had vacated. Mercury seemed much happier with him not in the room.
“Because I would never put myself through that.” Reno clapped right back.
“Hey, speaking of braaken, how’s that Dannol guy?” He knew Mercury had checked in on a new dragon, but he hadn’t had a chance to get down to the med bay.
“He’s good from what I understand. Working a lot with Cain. I think he’s going to make it. They’re already talking aboutmoving him up into an apartment soon.” Reno grinned at him, waggled his eyebrows. “He’s just got to remember how to turn back into a human, so that he fits through the hallways.”
“That’s a problem, and it’s been a while, I guess.” Talon imagined it was like flexing a rarely used muscle. It was hard at first, but it would get easier as he got stronger. “I still couldn’t believe that Kami and Mercury did that. Slid. Gods.”
Reno nodded, totally empathetic with him. “But I hear Anemone is there helping, right?”
“She is. She comes every day, and I think Mercury is getting it, like he’s learning to make it where he has to agree, which I think is really handy.”
Reno snorted. “It’s more than handy right? I mean I love Kami to death, and he wouldn’t mean to make Mercury slide, but he would so do it.” Reno’s laughter filled the cafe. “So what are you thinking about food-wise?”
“Probably something like a turkey sandwich, something that doesn’t smell, just in case. I don’t want to upset the apple cart.”
“I might get a Philly cheese steak. It sounds really good.”
“Butthead.”
“Hey, you can brush your teeth and all.” Reno elbowed him, and they jostled each other hard.
