Page 5 of A Contemporary Mythos Thanksgiving
Blankly, I stared at her. My best friend’s a toddler. “Olivia—” I snapped my fingers at her. “—we’ve gotta go. Grab your bags.”
Olivia removed her palms from her head and glared at me. Once satisfied with my silence, she scooped two of the four bags and nodded. “These two should do it.”
“Lovely.” I offered a warm smile before wrapping a hand over her shoulder and porting us behind a vacant building on Pensacola Beach.
Olivia clapped a hand over her stomach, the other pressing to her mouth and she stared at me wide-eyed before dropping her bags and running to a nearby trash can—hurling her guts out.
“Shit. Should’ve warned you about that, Ollie. Some mortals react to it—” I approached her like she was a snarling lion, my palms raising to her shoulders, and snapping back when she waved me away.
After a solid five minutes with her head in a garbage can, the nausea finally subsided and I treated her to a Bushwhacker chocolatey alcoholic beverage, which she’d been gratefully sipping on the past half hour. I sat on a bench next to her at one of the many bars lined along the beach, watching her suck on the straw like a phallic object.
“Keira, this issobloody good. And I keep giggling at the thought of wandering through the bush with a flyswatter whackin’ things.” She snorted and then winced, pressing her fingers between her eyes.
Grinning, I rested my chin on my hand. “Brain freeze?”
Whimpering, she nodded, but continued to sip through the pain.
I laughed and turned my attention to the gorgeous crystal blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Despite being a god-queen, I hadn’t been to Florida since my college years when a friend reluctantly dragged me to spring break. I’d spent so long on the east coast, where the Atlantic Ocean remained frigid nearly all year round. But the water here was always so welcoming with its lack of muddiness and warming lull.
The sight of a familiar male emerging from the water, his long blonde hair sending a sea spray around him as he tossed it back, caught my attention. I nudged Olivia in the ribs.
“Ow. What?” She scrunched her nose at me, but once her eyes fell on the King of the Seas, the straw in her mouth flicked from her teeth and she gasped.
“That, my dear Olivia, is Poseidon,” I whispered before hopping from my stool.
Not tearing her eyes from the horizon, she rested her empty drink on the bar and fumbled her way to standing.
In the distance, Poseidon shoved his surf board in the sand, dragging a hand to squeegee water droplets from his face and beard. His bronzed skin glistened with liquid sheen and despite my own god-king husband it was impossible not to notice how fuckinghugePoseidon was—muscle-wise. Must be all that trident or “giant fork” twirling as Zeus labeled it.
“Keira?” Poseidon asked as we drew near, squinting and shielding his green eyes with a hand.
I tugged at the hem of the cover up I made myself appear in, shoving the sunglasses to the top of my head to greet fellow royalty face-to-face. “You sound surprised to see me, brother.”
We shook hands and Olivia stood near us, slack-jawed.
“Not going to lie. Figured my brother would be putting you to endless work once you made the offer.” He let out a hearty chuckle before shooting a side-long glance at Olivia then back to me. “You know this woman?”
Looping my arm with Ollie’s to snap her out of it, I patted her bicep. “Why, yes, I do. This is my best friend and paralegal, Olivia.”
A flash of white shone brightly through Poseidon’s beard as he smiled at her, extending his hand. “Pleasure to meet you.”
Olivia whimpered, still frozen, and I took her hand, placing it limply in Poseidon’s.
Poseidon chuckled and winked at me. “Gonna take it she hasn’t met many of us yet?”
“Only you and Z.” I preferred to refer to my now husband as Z versus his mortal name when in public but around familiar company.
“Damn. All you gotta do is meet Mr. Broody and you’ll have the kingly trifecta, Olivia.” He sparked another smile at her.
She gulped, nervous laughter fluttering from her belly. “I wouldn’t want to know what I’d need to do to get down there—” She pointed downward. “—however.”
“Did I hear an Aussie accent?” Another man’s voice sounded from behind Poseidon.
Poseidon raised a brow over his shoulder. “There you are, son. Thought the curl tossed you to open water.” Smirking, Poseidon wrapped an around the blonde man’s shoulders, pretending to give him a noogie.
The young man batted his hand away, his bright blue eyes sparkling from the sun overhead. “Not a chance, old man. I got—”
Olivia sucked in a breath as the two of them locked gazes. Her chest flushed pink and she stumbled forward.
