“Holy crap, Lucas,” I said. “Is this for real?”
“Of course it is,” he said, pushing a button on the fob he carried. His bright red Porsche beeped once.
Connor stood in front of the FJ Cruiser we’d driven here, craning his neck to take in the property in its entirety. “And he’s only asking nine-fifty?”
“You should’ve seen him salivating when I told him you could pay cash. Apparently the soon-to-be ex has him over a barrel, and he needs to liquidate as soon as he can. Avoiding a lengthy escrow is worth taking a mild hit on the price. The market is sort of stagnant right now anyhow, which doesn’t help. No one else has come to look at it.” Lucas shoved his car key in his pocket. “Anyway, let’s go inside, and see what you think.”
Inside? Well, if it was half as impressive as the outside, I was sold. Like Damon’s former home, the house was built of a combination of stone and wood, with several chimneys rising above the steeply pitched roof. On the drive over, Connor had told me the property was just a hair over three acres. I had a hard time computing that; lots in Jerome, even for the larger houses, weren’t very big. What I could see was that the rolling curves of the property were bounded in sturdy stone walls, and ponderosa pines and other evergreens dotted the landscape, clustering around the house, making it feel like something tucked away in an enchanted forest. And, in what seemed an utter extravagance to me, the four-car garage was detached and sat some distance away from the house, with a covered wooden walkway joining the two buildings.
Gawking at the place, I’d fallen a little behind the other two, so I hurried to catch up, even as Lucas was entering the code into the lockbox on the door. I wondered if he had the same talent with locks as Connor and I, and whether he was using the code to be polite.
But then I followed the two of them inside, and I stopped wondering about the locks.
“Holy crap.”
“You said that already,” Connor pointed out with a grin. “So good, so far?”
I could only nod dumbly. Now, Damon’s house had been very impressive, and this place shared some of the same architectural features — huge windows that let in a view of the forest and impossibly blue skies, a stone fireplace that stretched all the way to the ceiling, shining wood floors. But when I’d been at Damon’s, I couldn’t allow myself to like it, because it had been his. Whereas this house….
This house could be mine, if I wanted it.
Granite kitchen counters. Thermidor appliances. A separate refrigerator for wine. A second fireplace in the family room, and yet another in the master bedroom. Spotting it, Connor sent me a significant glance, and I grinned back at him. Never mind that we were heading into the time of year where you really didn’t need a fireplace — it was still something that was important to us.
And I couldn’t find fault with the furniture, either. Nothing stuffy or overdone, or too kitschily Southwest, or anything like that. Big and solid, the dining room table with a top of what looked like solid copper, the couches and chairs covered in warm brown leather, contrasting with the reds and beiges and soft, dusty turquoise blues of the Navajo rugs on the floor.
In a daze, I trailed after Connor and Lucas as we returned to the kitchen. There were flyers from the realtor sitting on the granite-topped island. Price reduced! Prime property in Forest Highlands! I barely glanced at them, since the two men were watching me expectantly.
“Well?” Lucas said at last.
“It’s — it’s incredible,” I replied, glad to see Connor nodding. We hadn’t spoken much as we followed Lucas from room to room, preferring to remain silent so we could let the other person form their own judgments.
As I spoke, I noticed that Connor relaxed slightly, as if he’d been waiting to hear what I had to say. “Yeah, it is pretty amazing. And tons of room.”
That was for sure. The place had five bedrooms and was more than four thousand square feet. Plenty of room for the twins, and whoever might come after that.
Assuming there would be any more after that, of course.
“I should’ve shown you the garage, too,” Lucas said. “It was built with two stories, and although Dave is using the upper level for storage right now, it has lots of windows. It would make a great studio for you, Connor.”
Who was silent, considering…although what he had to consider, I wasn’t sure. The house couldn’t have been much better, frankly. I felt a pang as I thought of the big Victorian back in Jerome, one wall knocked out, the counters and cabinets already demo’d. Buying this place felt like an abandonment, although I knew that wasn’t true. Connor had already made a comment about splitting time between the two locations. Summer here and winter in Jerome? It wasn’t quite living the bicoastal lifestyle, but it seemed like a reasonable compromise to me.
Finally he said, “Are you sure you want to do this, Angela? I don’t want you to feel as if you’re being rushed or pressured.”
“I’m not,” I said at once. “I mean, yes, this is happening sort of fast, but I’ve always thought if the right opportunity comes up, you should go for it. And this place…it feels right. Quiet and sheltered. The trees are amazing. And I love that the one bedroom already has bunk beds in it. It’ll be perfect for the twins.”
The word just sort of popped out. I hadn’t really intended to say anything about it, as Connor and I were still keeping that piece of news under wraps.
Too late now.
Lucas’ eyes widened. “You’re having twins?”
Connor smiled and sort of ducked his head, as if not sure exactly how to handle this. Then his shoulders lifted slightly, and he said, “Yeah, that’s what the doctor told us. It’s too early to know much more than that.”
“Well — congratulations, you two!” Lucas’ expression of surprise might have been comical under other circumstances, but I knew now that part of it was him trying to figure out how twins fit in with the whole Wilcox heir conundrum. There can be only one, and all that.
“Thanks,” Connor and I said, nearly in unison. We both laughed a little, more to break the tension than anything else.
Then I said, “So…what now?”
“Now I call Dave and tell him the good news, and we’ll set up an appointment with the realtor. This will happen pretty quickly, since you won’t have to deal with getting a loan approval or anything, but I’d still recommend a house inspection, and then there’s a title search, deed transfer — ” He broke off and peered over at me. I must have been looking a little green, because he went on, “Yeah, I know, it sounds like a lot. But buying a house is a big deal. Even with all that, we might have everything ready to go in as little as a week. I’ll see what I can do to help…move things along.”
And I had no doubt that he would. After all, Connor had told me that Lucas’ particular gift was luck. All we needed was him to assist in overseeing the transaction, and I had no doubt everything would go as smooth as silk.
“Sounds perfect,” I told him.
“It sure does,” Connor chimed in. “And it means we’ll have a lot to do.”
“Not that much,” I pointed out. “I mean, the house is already furnished. And most of the clothes I can fit into are at your place anyway, since I just bought them here in town.”
“Okay, so it won’t exactly be a typical move. But….” He seemed to stop himself, and gave a quick glance at Lucas before returning his attention to me. “I guess we can figure out the logistics later.”
“That’s for sure,” Lucas said. “Let me get this call in to Dave so he can be in touch with his realtor, and then I’m taking you two out to lunch to celebrate.”
His tone was so firm that I knew I couldn’t really protest. I smiled, then went over to Connor and held hands with him as Lucas called his friend to let him know we wanted to buy the house. After that we had lunch at the country club nearby, and I was glad I’d put on a new pair of dark jeans and a pretty peasant top so I didn’t look too out of place. As it was, I couldn’t help shooting surreptitious glances at the other people dining in the restaurant during lunch. After all, these people would be our new neighbors. Compared to Jerome, they looked pretty buttoned up, and I couldn’t help wondering what they’d think if they ever discovered that the young couple who’d just bought the house on Bear Allen Way were a couple of witches.
“Did you like it?” Lucas asked as we headed out to the parking lot afterward.
“Lunch was great.”
“Good. I’m glad you enjoyed the food — once you’ve purchased the house, you’ll be members here, so you can come any time you want.”
Seriously? I looked over at Connor, whose mouth was twitching a bit. Probably trying to keep from bursting out laughing at the idea of Angela McAllister, prima of those bohemians from Jerome, being a member of a country club.
“Oh,” I said faintly. A thought struck me. “So how are you a member here? Your house isn’t in this neighborhood.”
A devilish grin, one almost worthy of Damon Wilcox — except that I knew there was nothing more sinister than amusement behind Lucas’ current expression. “I might have called in a few favors.” His phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket, glanced at the display, and said, “Hey, Dave. Hmm…two o’clock at the realtor’s?” He paused, raising his eyebrows at us as if for confirmation that this would be okay. We both nodded, and he continued, “Sounds perfect. Down on Riordan Road? We’ll be there.” After ending the call and slipping his phone back into his pocket, he asked, “Are you ready to do this?”
As one, Connor and I nodded. It was crazy, and it was scary, but it also felt right. If the worst happened, I wanted to make sure my children would be someplace safe with their father. Yes, I was a McAllister, too, and they’d need to know that side of the family, but they needed to be with Connor more.
So we drove to the realtor’s office, and met the mythical Dave, who seemed to be a few years older than Lucas and far more high-strung — which, if he was going through a nasty divorce, made some sense. He did seem to relax visibly after Connor and I signed the offer paperwork, and even more so after Lydia, the realtor, said she was fast-tracking the whole process and could have a house inspector out to look at the property the next day, and the title search wrapped up by the end of the following week.
Feeling a bit punch-drunk, Connor and I made our goodbyes to Lucas a little after four, then drove back to his apartment, which did feel a little cramped and small after the splendor of the house in Forest Highlands. I couldn’t drink champagne, obviously, but Connor broke out a bottle of San Pellegrino, and we ended up toasting with that.
But after the high faded a bit, he asked, “So what are you going to tell your family?”
Crap. “The truth, obviously.” Much as I really didn’t want to do that, I knew it was only fair. “They’re going to have to come to terms with it eventually. You and I are together, and you can’t relocate to Jerome permanently, and I can’t live here in Flagstaff permanently. They’re just going to have to…share…us.”
“That sounds very reasonable,” Connor said. “Which means they’re probably going to bitch and moan.”
“Not probably,” I told him. “They will.” I paused, thinking. The wheels had been set in motion, so unless the house inspector found termites or wood rot or lead paint — none of which was very likely in a newer-construction luxury home — that meant in less than two weeks Connor and I would own a home together. The McAllisters and the Wilcoxes would just have to learn to work together, and I figured there was no time like the present. “Maybe if we sat down with everyone and told them how it was going to be….”
“‘Everyone’ who? The McAllister elders?”
“Well, yes, them, but also the Wilcox elders.”
“We’re not really set up the same way,” Connor pointed out. “I mean, Lucas and Marie served sort of the same function in some ways, but since she’s disappeared off the face of the planet — ”
“Yes, but we still have Lucas. Can you think of a better ambassador for the Wilcox clan than him?”
Connor didn’t reply right away, only rubbed a hand over his chin, apparently deep in thought. Then he asked, “Margot’s one of your elders, right?”
“Yes, so?”
“I can only imagine the scene if Lucas tries to buy her a drink.”
I couldn’t help grinning. “Well, if she has any brains, she’ll take him up on it. Anyway, they’re adults — I’ll let them sort it out.”
“I smell a disaster.”
As much as I wanted to call him out for his negativity, I had a feeling that Connor had a point. But we all needed to move forward, to understand that we were treading new ground here, and getting the clans to cooperate was part of that bigger picture. Yes, we still had to work on that damn curse, but I also wanted to make sure I left behind a more stable relationship between the two clans, should the worst happen and I not be around to raise my children. Connor and the two extended families would all have to do it together.
Who knows…maybe that would turn out to be my legacy.
Since she seemed the most sympathetic to my situation of the three elders, I called Allegra Moss to say Connor and I would be coming back to Jerome over the weekend, and we had some important matters to discuss.
“Yes, I imagine you do,” she said in her sweet voice, one that always sounded as if it had a hidden undercurrent of laughter in it.
“And — I want to bring Connor’s cousin Lucas with us.”
Silence for a second or two. Then she asked, “Whatever for?”
“Because what I have to say concerns both our families, and — well, Lucas is sort of the clan elder for the Wilcoxes. He’s been an enormous help to Connor and me. So I want him there when we all sit down to talk.”
“Margot and Bryce won’t like it,” she warned me.
“They don’t have to like it,” I said, my tone curt. “They just have to be there. Let’s tentatively plan for meeting at my house at one-thirty on Saturday.”
Whether it was because she heard a note of command in my voice, or whether she didn’t want to argue with someone she thought might be experiencing some early-pregnancy mood swings, she replied quickly, “Of course, Angela. I’ll let them know. You take care.”
“You, too,” I said, and hung up.
Although I’d gotten permission to bring Lucas with me to the house on Saturday, I thought it would be pushing things to have him stay anywhere in Jerome. Cottonwood was still technically McAllister territory, but having him put up for a night or two there wasn’t quite the same thing as impinging on Jerome’s hallowed ground, so I suggested he see if he could find a place down the hill where he could stay. If not, I’d have him crash in the guest bedroom, and we’d all just have to deal with the consequences.
But, being Lucas, of course he found a last-minute cancellation at a highly rated local B&B, and reserved two nights. “Just in case,” he said cheerfully. “If nothing else, I’ll hit a couple of the wine-tasting rooms down on Main Street before I head back to Flagstaff.”
I had no doubt he would. If this meeting went anything like I feared it might, I’d ask him to have a couple of pours in my name as well, since I wouldn’t be drinking any wine for a long time. If ever.
Those thoughts kept skittering through my mind, refusing to be still. Yes, I could tell myself that I wasn’t due until December, and that gave us plenty of time to work on the curse, even with Marie taking a powder…but I was still worried, and scared…and trying desperately to conceal those emotions from Connor. It wasn’t good for him, me, or the babies for me to be in a state of perpetual anxiety. I knew that intellectually, but my emotions weren’t being good biddable things, unfortunately.
At least the wreckage in the kitchen wasn’t visible from the dining room. I whispered a thank-you under my breath to the formal Victorian architecture, so unlike houses being built now, with their “great room” concepts and everything open to everything else. To be fair, the contractors were very good about cleaning up after themselves, and they’d made great progress over the past few days — the extension of the one side of the kitchen was already framed and wired, and they’d also extended the roofline and laid down tar paper in preparation for installing composite shingles. It could have been a lot worse.
We did have Lucas come up early, though, and took him out to lunch at Grapes, where he charmed Tina, our server, so much that she was blushing like a schoolgirl and giggling at almost everything he said.
“You really ought to behave yourself,” Connor said, trying to sound stern, but I could tell he was more amused by Lucas’ antics than anything else.
“I thought I was,” Lucas replied.
Even I laughed at that remark, although I sobered up pretty quickly as we climbed the hill back to the house. Although I’d called this meeting, now I was sort of regretting setting it up in the first place. Well, there wasn’t much I could about it at this point, although I couldn’t help wishing that I’d inherited some of my Great-Aunt Ruby’s commanding air along with her prima powers. It would’ve really helped to keep the clan elders in line.
Since the kitchen was so torn up, I couldn’t offer much in the way of refreshments, although that was partly why I decided to have the meeting at one-thirty. If the elders hadn’t eaten lunch by then, it really wasn’t my problem. In the garage there was a Frigidaire even more ancient than the one I was replacing in the kitchen, and I sent Connor to fetch some bottled water I’d been storing out there, since the other refrigerator had already been hauled away — to the junkyard, or possibly a museum for antique appliances. Lucas helped me pull some glasses out of boxes, and I hurriedly cut some roses from the bushes in the backyard to set in a low vase in the center of the dining room table. By the time we were all done, the room looked downright respectable. You’d never know what chaos lurked on the other side of the door that led to the kitchen.
Not a moment too soon, though, since a knock came from the entryway just as I was shifting the vase of roses a fraction of an inch to the right. I straightened, as Connor and Lucas looked at me quizzically.
“I’ll get it,” I said. “It’s probably better that way.” I didn’t add that I thought this meeting was going to be tense enough without my answering the door flanked by a couple of Wilcoxes.
Leaving the two of them behind, I went to the entry and opened the door. As expected, there stood Allegra and Bryce and Margot, none of them looking all that happy to be here.
“Come on in,” I said, stepping aside so they could enter.
Bryce came in first, walking warily, as if he expected Connor and Lucas to be lurking somewhere in the foyer, ready to pounce, and he would be forced to protect the two women who accompanied him from bodily harm. I didn’t quite heave a sigh, but there might have been some eye-rolling involved.
Margot and Allegra followed, Margot looking cool and summery in a pale coral dress, dark hair as always pulled back in a low ponytail on her neck. Allegra tended to subscribe to my Aunt Rachel’s school of boho fashion, and wore a long embroidered black skirt and black T-shirt, her mousy graying hair piled haphazardly on her head in a bun.
Of all of them, she was the only one to smile at me, and even murmured, “How are you feeling?” as she entered the house. I nodded and sent her an answering smile, but didn’t want to go into any detail then. They’d all find out soon enough.
“This way,” I said, pointing toward the dining room, even though of course they’d been in there many times before and knew the way just as well as I did.
The briefest incline of her head from Margot and a furrowed brow from Bryce were all I got in reply. Great. If they were going to be this difficult now, when I’d barely said hello, how were they going to react to the rest of what I had to say?
Chin up, I led them to where Connor and Lucas were already waiting. They sat on the side of the table opposite the doorway, with Connor closest to where I would take my seat at the head of the table. As soon as the elders spied the two Wilcoxes, it was like watching the fur on a cat’s back bristle. Bryce went ramrod straight, Allegra’s eyes widened, and Margot’s mouth tightened.
Speaking quickly, I said, “You’ve already met Connor, but this is his cousin, Lucas Wilcox. Lucas, this is Bryce McAllister, Allegra Moss, and Margot Emory.”
As I said Margot’s name, I could see Lucas’ gaze linger on her, and I held my breath, praying he wouldn’t do or say anything inappropriate. Flirting with the waitress was one thing, but Margot? She’d rip his head off.
However, he only smiled, the slow, lazy smile that most of the Wilcox men seemed to share, and said, “Very pleased to meet you.”
For one long, horrible second, none of the elders replied. Then Allegra, bless her, said, “Very nice to meet you, Mr. Wilcox.”
“Lucas, please.”
“Lucas,” she responded, a fluttery little smile playing around her lips.
Margot only tilted her head and then sat down, while Bryce said nothing at all, gruffly pulling out a chair with a brusque movement that surely would’ve scratched the wooden floor if it hadn’t been protected by a rug.
“Well, then,” I began, after everyone was watching me with expectant eyes. Well, except Connor; he knew most of what I wanted to discuss, and although he hadn’t completely agreed with all of it, saying he thought the elders weren’t going to react well to what I had to say, he’d told me he would support me in whatever I decided to do. Pulling in a breath, I continued, “There’s been a lot going on lately, and since it affects both our families, I thought it was high time we sat down and talked about it like rational adults.”
A sniff that might have come from Margot greeted this statement, but since she didn’t actually say anything, I decided to just plow ahead.
“Our two families have been in — well, maybe not an all-out war, but definitely a cold war, for far too long. Maybe there was a reason for it once — ”
“You damn well know there was a reason,” Bryce cut in.
“—But now that Connor and I are together,” I went on doggedly, “it’s silly for us to keep acting like the Hatfields and McCoys or something. You all know that Connor and I are having a baby. Well, we recently found out that it’s not just one baby. We’re having twins.”
Since Lucas already knew that, he didn’t react, but only watched the other three. Both Allegra’s and Bryce’s eyes widened, while Margot’s narrowed, as if she were trying to determine what such an unprecedented occurrence might actually mean.
None of them said anything, though, and I glanced over at Connor, unsure what to do. I hadn’t exactly been expecting congratulations, not from this group, but I also hadn’t expected to get quite so completely stonewalled.
Goddess help me, I could really use a drink right now. Since that was out of the question, I took a sip of ice water, then said, “Because these babies — these children — will belong to both clans, Connor and I think the best way to manage things is to have homes in both territories. We just made an offer on a house in Flagstaff yesterday.”
That got their attention. Margot let out a shocked “what?” before she could stop herself, Allegra gasped, and Bryce spluttered, “You should have consulted with us before taking a step like that!”
“Why?” I said coolly, somehow relieved that they’d reacted in such a way. Now I could act like a calm and collected adult, rather than a transgressing child. “So you could have said no and given me a bunch of silly reasons why it would never work?”
“It’s a very big step, Angela,” Allegra began tentatively, only to have Margot override her, saying,
“I doubt any of our reasons would have been silly.” She shifted in her chair, seeming to pin Lucas down with a sudden flash of her dark eyes. “Was this your idea?”
If it had been anyone else, I would’ve questioned how she could have possibly known that. Margot had said numerous times that she was not psychic, but I was beginning to have my doubts.
But, being Lucas, instead of appearing discomfited, he merely replied, “Well, I’d actually been telling Connor for some time that he needed to live someplace a little more suited to the Wilcox primus. And then when it came out that he and Angela were going to have a baby, it got more urgent. A house became available, they looked at it and loved it, and the rest, as they say, is history.” He shrugged and reached for his own ice water, taking a sip before adding, “I really don’t see anything that strange about any of it.”
“You wouldn’t,” she said in cutting tones. “It’s fairly obvious you Wilcoxes do things very differently from us McAllisters. But Angela should’ve consulted with us — ”
“She’s consulting with you now,” Lucas responded breezily. “She could’ve just shown up here with her moving boxes and not told you anything. She is an adult, you know, and capable of making her own decisions.”
For the first time in my life, I saw Margot Emory at a loss for words. Her mouth opened, then shut again, and I saw her knuckles whiten as she gripped the edge of the table. Whether this unprecedented response was due to what Lucas had said or the completely unconcerned way in which he’d said it, I wasn’t sure, but in that moment I had to choke back the impulse to break into incongruous laughter. And that, I knew, would go over even worse than Lucas’ reply to Margot.
Connor spoke for the first time, saying, “We’re only trying to do what’s fair — ”
“Fair?” Bryce exclaimed. “How is any of this fair?”
“Is it fair to expect the primus of the Wilcoxes to live here full-time in Jerome?” I asked.
“No, we would prefer it if he stayed where he was supposed to be — in Flagstaff,” Margot snapped.
“You know that wasn’t going to happen,” I replied. “Besides, if we were going to be completely fair” — I put an unnatural emphasis on the word, staring straight at Bryce as I said it — “then technically I should be spending three-quarters of my time with Connor in Flagstaff, considering I’m half Wilcox myself.”
I might as well have thrown a live grenade into the center of the table. “What?” Bryce burst out, while Allegra shook her head, saying, “That’s impossible!”, and Margot stared at me as if she’d never seen me before.
“It’s true,” I said. “That’s what we found out when we went to California. My mother was shacked up with a Wilcox out there. End result: me.”
The words came out sharper-edged, more flippant than I had intended. Probably because the mystery of why my father had gone there at all, and had sought out Sonya McAllister, still hadn’t been explained. It chafed at me, stirred up emotions I wasn’t sure I wanted to analyze. All my life I’d wanted to know who my father was, but finding the truth had only caused more problems.
Finally, Margot spoke. “This — you must be mistaken.”
“No mistake,” Lucas said quietly, this time sounding quite sober, unlike his usual ebullient self. “Andre Wilcox left Flagstaff a little more than twenty-two years ago, and no one’s seen him since. The timeline fits. Not that Angela’s mother would have known. She thought his name was Andre Williams.”
“So he lied to her. Typical,” Bryce said.
“Enough,” I told him, sending him what I hoped was my best prima stare. It seemed to work; he subsided and pushed up against the back of his chair, as if to create a little more distance between us. “Yes, it turns out I’m half Wilcox. Ironic, isn’t it? Here you’ve been doing your damnedest to keep me here in Jerome, away from the Wilcox clans, and it turns out you both have an equal claim.”
“Not entirely equal,” Allegra said in her sweet voice.
Everyone turned toward her.
As if unsettled by being the center of attention, she reached up to smooth a wisp of flyaway hair from her forehead. “It may be true that you are half Wilcox, but you are also the prima of the McAllisters. That means our claim is the stronger one. You can’t just…abandon us.”
“Did I say anything about abandoning you?” I replied, irritated. “All I’m saying is that you have to accept that I’ll be here part of the time and in Flagstaff part of the time. Even if there’s some crisis, it’s only a little more than an hour to get here. It’s not like I’m buying a flat in Paris or something.”
“And what happens afterward?” Bryce asked.
“Afterward?” I repeated.
“After you have the baby — I mean, the babies.” His steely eyes seemed to bore into Connor, as if he held him directly responsible for my current condition. Never mind that I’d been a willing participant in those activities.
“You mean after the curse kills me?” I asked harshly. “No point in mincing words.”
“Angela!” Connor and Bryce both burst out, even as Allegra recoiled and Margot watched all of us in silence, her expression grim. Lucas said nothing, only sat still in his chair, his dark eyes troubled.
“Why avoid talking about it? It’s not that we aren’t trying to do what we can about the curse, but seeing as we’ve hit sort of a dead end — ”
“I’m working on that,” Lucas cut in, his voice strained. “My own contacts didn’t give me any leads on finding Andre’s mother, so I hired a private investigator.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask why there wasn’t a magical solution to tracking down my missing grandmother, but maybe no one in his clan had that kind of talent. None of the McAllisters did, either; my cousin Becca was great at finding lost keys, earrings, and items like that, but people? Not so much.
“Well, then,” I said. “We’re doing what we can, but we always need to plan for contingencies, right? And if something happens to me” — pausing, I swallowed before pushing on — “then it’s important that Connor and I have a proper home together in his own territory. You can fight about which clan has which rights, but in the end the children should be with their father. Now they’ll have a good place to live, and if the curse decides to take me out, well, I won’t be happy about it, but at least I know I won’t have to worry about them being safe.”
An uneasy silence fell. I supposed none of them really wanted to argue with what was, in effect, a spoken last will. Finally, Connor spoke.
“But we’re not going to let that happen. We have months and months to figure this out, and we will. Angela — that is, we — just wanted to let you know where things stood with us. Her ob-gyn is in Flag, so as time goes on and her appointments come closer together, then we may be spending more time there than here. I hope you’ll understand the reason why.”
He said this last with a challenging note in his voice, as if daring one of them to protest. But although the three elders exchanged uneasy glances, none of them said anything for a few seconds. At last Allegra replied, “That does make sense, Connor. Thank you.”
The tense line of his jaw relaxed slightly. I could tell he’d been expecting them to put up more of a fight on that point. Maybe they were just tired. I knew I was.
Since that seemed as good a point in the conversation as any to wrap things up, I told everyone, “The inspector went over the house yesterday and didn’t find any issues, although we’re waiting on the final report. That means we may be ready to move in as early as the end of next week, depending on how the title search goes. I’m going to talk to Rachel, of course, but I’d appreciate it if the rest of you could spread the word and let everyone else know that I plan to divide my time between here and Flagstaff.” Exactly how, I wasn’t sure. Spending the summer up amongst the cool pines at seven thousand feet seemed infinitely preferable to the heat of the Verde Valley, but I knew I couldn’t disappear for that long a stretch. Oh, well, we’d work it out somehow.
“We’ll do that, prima,” Margot said formally.
They left after that, giving only a token goodbye to Connor and Lucas, whose gaze seemed to follow Margot as she went out to the foyer. I couldn’t help giving a rueful shake of my head. Yes, he’d been on his best behavior, but that hadn’t seemed to earn many points with her.
Not that I had time to worry about that now. I had enough problems of my own to deal with.