A door shuts somewhere inside. A light switches on, casting a glow into the darkness on one side of the house. A woman screams.
“Summer.” Ivy is on her feet as quick as I am.
More voices, more lights, and heavy footsteps fill the silence as more than one Heart rouses to find out what the hell is going on.
“Fucking hell.” Rebel’s disbelieving voice joins the others.
Ivy’s hand clenched in mine, I yank open the screen door. And almost get bowled over by a black and white goat who shoots out horns first, with two of Summer’s brothers in pursuit, their arms wide until they have to fit through the door.
“Stains, you big dumb asshole,” Burke shouts as he rushes down the steps with Henry on his heels. They’re hooting and hollering while they try to catch the damn goat who bleats like it’s all a big joke.
Summer’s nephew appears in the doorway. He’s bright eyed and grinning from ear to ear. He holds up a finger, where a chunk of something light and crumbly is perched.
“Stains ate the cakes,” he says, and promptly sticks his finger in his mouth.
“Stains ate the cake,” I parrot to Ivy before it sinks in. He ate the damn wedding cake. “What…? How…?”
“He escapes a lot. Dad says some animals and women can’t ever stay still. Stains is one of them.” Ernie turns around and runs back into the thick of the confusion.
“That goat ate our wedding cake?” Ivy sounds as confused as I feel. “Wasn’t it in the fridge?”
We’d brought the cake in early. The actual rounds of cake had been sealed and put in the fridge to be set up and decorated when the wedding cake designer came to handle the desserts on our wedding day. It was another layer of preparation that was meant to help us keep the event secret.
Adira’s voice rises as we move toward the kitchen. “I’m going to turn that damn animal into gloves, no, pants, a…a whole ensemble. What am I supposed to tell Jean-Pierre?”
“Tell him you need another cake,” Owen suggests.
“Oh no you did not!” We enter the kitchen in time to catch Adira popping a hip and one haughty and defined brow.
The mess that greets us is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
Ivy gasps and puts a hand to her mouth. “It’s completely ruined.”
“It’s everywhere.” The fridge door is wide open, its contents spilling out all over the glossy wood floor. Both the round cakes that were for the cake cutting and the sheet cake are a mess of crumbs and hoof prints squashed onto every surface. Those prints are even on the counter and the microwave.
“I’m so sorry,” Summer says.
“I’ll clean up,” Jett says and grabs a broom.
“I’ll help,” Storm says, snatching up a washcloth.
“Gonna put Ernie back to bed.” Owen picks up his son and carries him out of the room.
“The rest of us should head back to bed and get some sleep while the moon is still up.” Adira gives Ivy’s shoulder a squeeze on his way past. “I’ll talk to Jean Pierre in the morning.”
“Come on, kitten.” Rebel takes Summer’s hand and leads her out of the room.
Ivy chews her lip as she watches the two men clean up. “What if it’s a sign?”
I twine our fingers. I get why she feels that way. After everything we’ve been through its hard to not see trouble everywhere. And with Alec still out there… “Baby, it’s not. It’s cake. Unfortunately, our wedding cake, but still just cake.”
I refuse to let it be anything else.
“Nothing and no one is going to stop our wedding this time.”
11
Riot
