Page 92 of Red Boar's Baby

Mavis nodded, scowling. “And then cover up their mess later with you, Diana.”

“Lucky me,” Diana said. But right now, leaning on Costa’s shoulder with his hand over hers, she did feel lucky.

“I’m going to guess that somewhere among the lab security guards, we’ll find a doped shifter or two, as well as someone who matches the description of whoever was asking your paramedic friend about you, Diana.” Caine stretched and stood up. “On that note, I’m going home before the sun comes up.”

“Night,” Costa said cheerfully. “Say hi to Gilly for us.”

Caine wandered into the house, presumably to find a dark place. Mavis consulted her notes.

“To answer a question you’ve probably forgotten you asked,” she said to Diana, “yes, it’s possible Emmeline, or Madison, might keep the wings. Or perhaps they will fade over time. She may even develop other abilities we don’t know about yet.”

“What’s going to happen to her?” Diana asked.

Mavis looked at Costa, who shrugged and said, “I think that’s up to us. She could go back into the foster system, but I don’t recommend it unless we can find a shifter household as a placement for her.”

“Or,” Diana said quietly, “someone could adopt her.”

“Yes,” Mavis said. She smiled. “Someone could adopt her.”

* * *

After the agents had left and the ranch was once more calm, Diana and Costa went up to the saguaro cabin, where they made slow, lingering love in the rumpled bed. As if their entire lives had been foreplay, it was long and gentle, with care and attention to every part of each other’s bodies.

Afterwards, they slept curled up against each other, and woke in the drowsing heat of afternoon. Outside, life on the ranch seemed to be going on as usual. There were voices calling to each other, the snorts of the horses, the bleating cry of a goat, the sound of an engine running somewhere.

“So, just to make sure we’re on the same page,” Diana said as they dressed after a lazy, shared shower that they stepped out of only when the cabin’s small hot water tank ran empty and the rust-smelling water turned lukewarm. “We are together now, right? I mean, officially together.”

Costa laughed. “We were always officially together.” He hesitated. “You do—want it, don’t you?”

Diana rolled her eyes in tolerant annoyance. “Quinn, I just had you in every possible way. Of course I want it.”

“Oh, good.” He breathed out on a sigh of relief, and then swept her into his arms, making her squeal and laugh. He loved that laugh. He could listen to it forever. “Kiss me, woman.”

“We’re an actual couple for five minutes and you’re already referring to me as ‘woman’? This bodes ill.” But she kissed him with enthusiastic willingness. Pulling away, she started to laugh.

“If you’re talking ill omens, I think the fact that you’re laughing at my kissing technique is another one.”

“No, no.” Diana shoved him playfully, still laughing so hard she could barely speak. When she sobered enough to be more coherent, she explained, “I was just wondering if we’re going to tell everyone—you know? How on earth are we going to explain the anniversaries?”

“They already thought it was the world’s longest courtship. I mean, in some sense it was.”

“True.” Diana’s urge to laugh seemed to die as she considered this. Reaching out, she squeezed his hand. “Thank you for waiting for me to come to my senses.”

“Really? I should be thanking you. World’s most patient woman, right here.”

They walked out into the late afternoon heat, hand in hand. It was clear from the rising temperatures that the end of spring was near, and summer’s oven would soon be upon them, stealing the flowers and the mild weather for another year. But you appreciated things more, sometimes, when you didn’t have them every day, Costa felt. If the desert bloomed year round, the flowers wouldn’t be so special.

“What do you think about Em?” Diana asked quietly.

“Adopting her, you mean?” He paused, thinking around the reality of it before giving an answer. “You know, I think for a long time I’ve been afraid something would happen to me like happened to Marco—I mean, I’m not afraid for me, but for anyone I might leave behind.”

“Is that why you never got married? Had kids?”

“I was also waiting for the right woman to come along.” He squeezed her hand. “Not quite realizing that she already had. But yeah, I think I was, and now—I keep waiting for that fear to materialize, and it doesn’t. Does that make sense?”

“It does, yeah. I feel like there’s something about the way Em just fell into our lives that made it feel as if it’s meant to be. Do you feel that way?”

“I don’t know about meant to be. I do know that I think I’m ready to open a new chapter in my life.”

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