I turn my attention toward Pollux, offering those darned olive branches out like sweetened hard sugar. “Your child amuses me.”
“She amuses everyone,” Pollux grumbles. “Amuses them right into calling Child Protection Services.”
“Rightfully so,” I say, opting to joke back in this great big happy parry of wit and humor we’ve merrily entered. “She wasvery easy to kidnap, which is possibly a side effect of poor parenting.”
Silence.
Ah.
I…shouldn’t have said that.
I see now, yes. That was not a joke. That sounded more like a thinly-veiled insult. My mistake…
Before I can begin counting to five minutes again, though, my sweet soulmate giggles. “Poor parentingdoeslead to kidnapping, Pollux. Do better, lest she wind up kidnapped again by someone she falls in love with.” My angel sighs, forlorn, and lifts my hand to her lips for a kiss. “It’s a real risk these days.”
The state of the air in the room settles. Or perhaps it doesn’t. Perhaps I’ve been the tense one all along. PerhapsI’vesettled.
“Alana would besoproud to learn that you kidnapped your soulmate properly and got her to fall in love with you,” Brittny, Alana’s sister, notes in my direction before shifting the direction of her voice toward my mate. “What’s it like living in a dark romance?”
Willow cackles, sitting up to reach for a pastry on the table between the couches and the TV. “Yes. Details. Tell us everything.”
Bright as licking flames, my love says, “There’s a lot of sensory play.”
I release her hand in order to cover Andromeda’s ears. “Danielle, there’s achildhere.”
“Oh.” Surprise laces the exclamation.Genuinesurprise.
Girl.
“That’s a real child?” she asks.
“Yes, this is a real child,” I state. Does Andromeda notscreamreal child to her? This is the most real child I have ever encountered in my life. And she is, also, in some ways, myniece,so kindly don’t pollute her sweet little mind with our romantic escapades.
Willow, feral, says, “The real child can handle it. Elaborate.”
“Polly!” I snap.
Pollux offers no parental assistance whatsoever. “She’s at least four now. That’s probably old enough to hear about unhealthy romance.”
“Kassandra?” I ask, hopefully.
Voice lightened by the presence of a smile, Pollux’s mate says, “I’m sure Danielle won’t betoographic.”
All things considered, I don’t believe shecanbe unless she blatantly lies about what we’ve done with our time. Butstill.
I keep Andromeda’s ears covered as my angelelaborates, “He set me on fire this one time. That was fun. Scary. But then not scary anymore. And just…nice. He’s got major insecurity issues, too, so he’sverypossessive about me. Which is also always fun. I keep waiting for atouch her and diesituation to pop up again and mourn the fact I didn’t take full advantage of the one that occurred when we first met.”
“What a dreadful shame,” Willow says, humor dripping off her words.
“He kicked a guy off his chair, then later mentioned disemboweling him, I think.”
“Hot,” Willow notes.
I bristle.
My darling soulmate plows on, merry, “He is really big and bad dark romance, for absolute certain,butdoes anyone here know how cute he is?”
I bristle. Again.
