Page 14 of Legally Mated
“Please do, but after supper. I have a lovely cactus you can borrow forthejob.”
“Excellent,” he said, and followed her through the house to the kitchen, where the smell of rosemary and thyme and pork rose into the air, sweetened by the scent of cooking apples and the green smell of beans steaming away in themicrowave.
“You can help April set the table,” she said. The microwave dinged and she picked up a fork to poke at the beans. “I think everything’s prettymuchdone.”
“Sure.” He raised his voice. “April, come help me set thetable?”
She came racing around the corner, and for a moment, he saw Bax’s pups and the sheer abandon that they seemed to live their lives with. “You get the plates and I’ll get the silverware,” she saidimportantly.
Brenna had rearranged the kitchen since the last time he’d eaten there, which compounded the weird sensation of home, but not home. He found them quickly enough, and soon they were sitting down at the table, talking about their days and planning for the weekend, almost as if he and Brenna were still married. He wondered what it felt like to April, who had been barely two the night he and Brenna had packed up his things and he’d moved out to the little apartment he’d rented for that first year. God, they’d been young, just barely out of law school, but they’d made the whole co-parenting thing work. He still remembered Brenna walking across the stage at Georgetown to accept her diploma, ponderous as an elephant with her ‘due in four days’ belly getting everywhere a good five minutes before she did. The memory made him smile, and Brenna raised her eyebrows at him, but he shook his head. Knowing Brenna, she’d understand the fond melancholy, but it wasn’t anything he needed toshare.
After supper, he discovered the unjoy of coaxing a reluctant nine-year-old through her times tables, then listened to her read a chapter from her book from school. They played video games for a bit, and then he took her upstairs to put her to bed, with pajamas and hugs and a story or three, because he didn’t often get this time with her. And after the stories were over, he sat on the edge of the bed and watched her sleep for a few moments, and wondered if he’d been wrong to pursue the criminal law, when it had meant givingthisup.
Chapter10
Edmond pickedme up like usual the next morning. I tossed my bag and my still uncleaned suits into the back seat and slipped into the front with him. "Morning."
"Morning. How diditgo?"
I made a face. "About what we expected. I think Laine’s in trouble with the firm. He had me working from home the entire time." And that was troubling, in more ways than one. We would miss the money coming in, but mostly, I would miss Laine and I knew, logically, that it would be better for him if he severed any connection between us. Whether he would do that was more up in the air, to give Laine the credit he was due. He wanted what he wanted, kind of like any alpha, and hated being told he couldn’t have it. It made him…stubborn.
"You excited about the trip?" Edmond asked as he turned out onto thestreet.
"Yeah, a bit," I said wryly. "Have any of us ever even seen the White House, let alone beeninsideit?"
"Wish Quin would let me go too," Edmond said, with an odd sort of wistfulness in hisvoice.
"Some day," I told him. "Just clearing it with his security for the six of us was enough." Laine had laughed about that interview, when they'd come to ask if he had noticed any risky or threatening behaviors from me. He'd told them no, unless they asked me to define what exactly a chicken is, and then had started laughing at their expressions. Until the one fellow who had actually gone to law school explained it to the other two, at which point one of the agents had looked at the other and said, "You lawyers are all weird." And then they'd packed up their stuff and left, but I'd received my clearance to make the trip, so I guessed I'd passed, despite Laine's bizarre sense ofhumor.
“Yeah, well, you shouldn't be going without your ownsecurity."
"I think the Secret Service is enough for us. They're professionals--no matter what they think, they're not going to do anything to us unless someone literally jumps on the President. And even then, I'd bet they'd let Dorian or Agatha get awaywithit."
"Hmm," was all Edmond said in reply to that, but he turned his attention back to the road, and I was finally able to have some quiet time to think about everything that had gone on between myself and Lainethisweek.
Mac was working the gate when we drove through, and I waited to find out if I was in trouble or not, because I was certain Duke would have called and said something, but Mac just asked Edmond how the roads had been and then looked across the front of the car to me and said, "Holland said you guys should get together in the little boardroom around ten, or nine if his sanitysnaps."
I grinned--looked like Duke had kept his word and I was, for the time being, going to escape the censure of my Alpha's Mate'swrath.
Edmond dropped me off outside the law office and I dragged my bag and my suits inside and dumped them on the legless couch that served as seating for any clients of the pack we had. Cas had glanced up at the door, his face contorted in visible panic, but when he realized it was me, his entire body relaxed and he sagged limply back in the chair and closed his eyes. "You scared the shit out of me," hecomplained.
"Not expectinganyone?"
"No, just the opposite. Mom’s on a rampage. She's pissed that Quin and Holland plan to take the pupswiththem."
"Oh." I'd still never really met Quin's mother, though I thought it was telling that every single one of her boys had either moved back to Mercy Hills or joined some branch of the armed forces the minute they turned eighteen. "Shebuggingyou?"
"Not as much as she's bugging Holland," he said with a snort that might have been irritation, or laughter. "I keep telling Quin that he needs to put his foot down with her and he keeps saying Holland's a big boy and when he gets tired of her shit, he'll let her know. I'm not sure Holland isn't building up for a big explosion. Kind of like a volcano, and probably with a lot of the sameeffect."
I started to laugh, then choked it off when the door opened again and Cas bent quickly over his book, frantically flipping papers as if to compare the numbers writtenonthem.
A tall, dark-haired woman with deep brown eyes stepped through the door with all the grace of Lysoonka herself. The same woman as from the wine-colored station wagon. "Hello. You must beGarrick."
"I am," I said, and stepped forward to offer her greeting. She was an alpha, so I tipped my head and nosed along her jawline and heard the tiny intake of her breath as shescentedme.
"You must be just back from your work with the human. I can smell them alloveryou."
I flushed, but it was anger, not shame. "I have some contracts to look over," I said and slipped out of hergrasp.
