"Neither do I," I grinned.
Behind us, Spencer shouted, "Wait, you can take offbeforethe green light?"
Knox laughed mercilessly. "Rookie."
I rolled my eyes. "I got Knox hooked on a go-kart game."
We walked over to the couch where Knox and Spencer were racing each other, and Emma grimaced. "I mean, I think I was hooked on that when I was eleven."
"He's a baby gamer." I patted him on the head from behind the couch. "He'll get there."
Emma sighed. "I guess I need to beat his ass at this thing, now. Sounds like he's getting cocky."
As I laughed, a knock sounded on our stairwell entrance, and I went to answer it. Azura, our lawyer, and her husband, Tristan, stood on the other side. Azura looked absolutelysnatchedwith her petite body in a structured, black dress and her thick, black hair curled down her shoulders. At her side, Tristan wore a brown wool sweater with an odd rubber band around the neck that made me wonder if that was some kind of millionaire-only fashion statement. He smiled handsomely and held out his hand. "Gemma! I've heard all about you from Az. I'm Tristan."
I stared and shook his hand. This wastheTristan Valehart. I recognized his heterochromatic eyes, one green, and other hazel,and I'd seen his suave features all over the news and on the covers of tech magazines. "Hi," I breathed out.
Azura tsked. "Don't look at him like that. His ego is bad enough."
Tristan turned and winked at his wife. "You like my ego."
Azura's features softened as she looked back at him, clearly completely smitten, and then she turned back to me, shaking her head and holding out her hand. "Sorry. I try not to take him in public if I can help it. Thank you for having us."
Tristan held up a bottle of wine. "Our best contribution, I'm afraid. We just got back from business."
"On Thanksgiving?" I clarified, showing them in.
"Eh, well," Tristan hedged.
It was at that moment that another couple came up the stairs, and we all stood aside to let them in. It was Kael, the slightly unsettling "errand runner" who had taken care of things after Dain, and a blond bombshell I had to assume was the wife he'd mentioned. Kael looked very much like he had when I'd first met him—mildly irritated and possibly thinking about killing someone. His wife, on the other hand, immediately held out her hand with a friendly smile. "Hi, you must be Gemma. I'm Mattie."
Mattie had short, blond hair and trendy bangs, and she had on a wispy, dark green blouse that did nothing to hide her clearly pregnant belly. I shook her hand. "Hi, Mattie. Thank you for coming. I know it wasn't exactly an orthodox invitation." I glanced at the intimidating man at her side, and he stared back, deadpan. "But I wanted to thank Kael for helping."
"Oh, he'd die of boredom otherwise," Mattie said, waving away my concerns as she entered the foyer area. "We were grateful to come. Right, Kael?"
I could have sworn he sighed, but it was almost indetectable. With his eyes on his wife, he said, "Yes, we are."
Mattie grinned like she hadn't just strong-armed a man who looked like he could unalive a whole platoon of highly trained combatants, and I showed them into the house. As Kael walked over to where Tristan and Azura were standing at the kitchen island, Mattie leaned over and whispered, "No, really. Thank you. His mother passed away in May, and he would never say it, but I think this would have been a hard holiday for him."
My eyebrows tilted up with concern. "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. Were they close?"
Mattie had enormous, doe-brown eyes that I could tell were already on the verge of tears. "She lived with us for a little while. Alzheimer's. It was good to have her while we could."
I nodded. "Well, you're both welcome to celebrate with us anytime." I glanced at her belly and then back up. "I… hope your trip from Montana wasn't difficult for you, though."
"Are you kidding?" Mattie asked, her tone already entering best-friend territory as we joined everyone in the kitchen. "I needed toget outof that house. I just finished my residency last year, and then Captain Super Sperm over there got me pregnant. I'm on maternity leave, and it's so boring, I'm going to die."
I laughed. "So, it was a surprise then."
"Well," Mattie shrugged one shoulder, her eyes mischievous. "Is it ever, really?"
"I guess not," I grinned.
Kael and Tristan were standing next to each other, and then Kael's face split into a troublemaking grin. "Hey, Bruce Wayne. You got a little—" Kael smoothed his hand around his neck.
Tristan frowned, putting a hand to his neck, and then his eyes widened. "Oh." He ripped off the band of rubber that had been above his sweater neckline. "My bad."
Kael popped open a can of beer with a sly glint in his pale eyes. "Working on Thanksgiving, Batman?"
