“Fine,” Gaia sputtered. “You’re all here because, as Karma hinted, I have something to say.”
Her words were followed by a long silence. Eventually, Aaron gave her a little hip check. She narrowed her eyes at him and said, “I’m getting to it.” Then she took a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. “I’m here to say I’m sor—I mean to say, I may have made a mis—” She cleared her throat and said, “I’m trying to apol—apol—I’m trying to say, I may have been—”
Everyone remained silent but glanced at each other, looking confused. They were clearly waiting for her to finish her sentence.
“Okay, let me try this again,” she said. “I apol—I mean to say apolo—”
A young, handsome god appeared out of nowhere with his arms crossed and his legs apart.
Oh shit. It’s Apollo.
“Did you call, Great-Grandma?”
“Apollo! I told you never to call me that.”
Apollo shrugged. “Well, I’m here now, Goddess. You called me. What do you need me for?”
Gaia shut her eyes and slapped her own forehead.
Fate leaned over to whisper in his ear but everyone heard her say, “She’s trying toapologize, but it’s not going well. She could only spit out ‘apolo’ and then stopped.”
Apollo laughed hard, then leaned back and watched as Gaia struggled again.
“I’m trying to say I’m sor—sor—”
Apollo jammed his hands on his hips. “What my beautiful great-grandmother—I mean, Goddess—is trying to say is she’s sorry. She wants to apologize.I don’t know what for, but I can’t wait to find out. This is a first!”
Gaia pointed to him. “Yeah, that.”
Aaron tipped his head and looked at her with narrowed eyes. “You’re going to let him do it for you? Are you sure you can’t say it yourself? I think everyone would rather hear it from you.”
Her posture deflated somewhat. Then she straightened her spine and announced, “I’msorry. I may have beenwrongabout not allowing paranormals and humans to mix. I can see how difficult it was to expect paranormals to only match up romantically with other paranormals. Some managed to do it, but it was rare.”
Aaron kissed her cheek. “You did it. I knew you could.”
She let out a sigh of relief. “Yes, I did. And now I can rest easier, knowing that I’m not going to be a hypocrite by dating you.”
There were surprised murmurs from the crowd.
Mother Nature faced the group and said, “Yes. I may have found a human mate. Just like many of you did. That’s why I called you all here. Bliss was kind enough to arrange for this lovely tea party and send out the invitations. She was once human, and after falling in love with a dragon, she’s now a modern muse. This is how I started getting around the whole paranormal/human thing. I had to make some humans supernatural.”
Bliss joined the god and goddesses at the front of the room. “It was my pleasure, Gaia. And I can honestly say it was worth it. But I wasn’t the first.”
“Oh! That’s right. Where is Brandee?”
“Here, Goddess!” A redhead hurried through the side door, wiping her hands on a towel. “I was doing all the prep. Is it time to take pictures?”
Bliss shook her head. “No. We were just talking about how Gaia solved the problem of humans mating with paras by making us muses.”
“Oh!” Brandee giggled. “Yeah. My werewolf marked me, so there was really no going back. And I wouldn’t want to. As a reward for taking the position, Gaia made one of my fondest dreams come true.”
“She did that for all of us,” Bliss said. “Even though my modern muse job can be difficult at times, it’s worth it.” She looked at the crowd. “I’m the modern muse of email. I lean over people’s shoulders and whisper, ‘Don’t send that boneheaded reply.’”
Many chuckles and laughs erupted.
Gaia smiled. “I didn’t catch everyone. Brandee’s mate, Nick, has a twin brother, Konrad, who flew under my radar when he met his mate, Rosalyn. They were very quiet about it, so I never confronted them for doing what came naturally. Falling in love and taking it to the next level. There may have been a few others I missed. However, those of you that I did challenge a tiny bit…”
Karma interjected, “She means threatened, punished, or otherwise intimidated.”
