“Great! I’m great!” Desi says, grabbing Obie’s cheeks in her obligatory face smush. “We’re gonna have tacos and pavlova! Uncle Obie, do you like pavlova?”
“I love pavlova,” Obie assures her, and he grins at Chester. “And so does Uncle Kyle. Right, Kyle?”
“I do,” Chester confirms. His smile looks softer than usual as he watches Desi squirm around in Obie’s arms, and all at once, Obie’s chest tightens.
Right. Chester knows about Obie’s past now, knows that his earliest memories of humankind were of helping a teenage mother raise her newborn son, knows that he felt a special kind of pride and delight in watching over his tribe’s children.
Chester knows how much this means to him.
The thought makes Obie feel unexpectedly vulnerable. Clearing his throat, he dumps Desi into Chester’s waiting arms. “Here. Say hi to your Uncle Kyle, too.”
“Hi, Uncle Kyle!” she chirps, immediately climbing to her rightful spot on Chester’s shoulders. He stands as still as possible until she’s safely reached her perch, and the twinge in Obie’s chest sinks even deeper.
Chester is always so good with her. If circumstances were different, he would’ve been a hell of a big brother.
Maybe even a hell of a father, too.
Desi, bless her heart, doesn’t notice Obie’s inner turmoil. “Let’s go get pavlova, Uncle Kyle!”
“Lead the way,” Chester says, waiting for her to point enthusiastically towards the picnic table before walking over.
Gregorio, Micah, Sawyer, and Naomi are seated at the neighboring table, and Obie sees Chester stiffen when he notices them. Sawyer and Naomi clearly chose to use their human-magic glamour spells, making them easily recognizable to someone who knows them as well as Chester does, but even with Micah’s and Gregorio’s more effective demon-magic glamours, there’s no disguising Gregorio’s perpetual scowl.
As casually as possible, Obie puts a hand on the small of Chester’s back.Remember, Kyle doesn’t know them,he pushes through the telepathic connection.You can just ignore them for now.
Chester’s shoulders relax minutely.Thanks,he sends back, and his smile only looks a little forced as he approaches the table with his friends. “Hey, guys! Nice to?—”
“Oh, good, you’re here,” Ez says without preamble, tenting her fingers together and resting her chin on top of them. “We need a tiebreaker.”
Chester stares at her, nonplussed. “A… tiebreaker?”
“Yeah,” Ez says, pointing at a table across the Courtyard—a table where, Obie notes with some amusement, Mina from Bibimbap House is sitting with Javier from Gimme Tortilla and Viktor from Currywurst To Go flanking her on either side. “Are you Team Javier or Team Viktor? Choose your answer carefully.”
Obie snorts. Chester’s eyebrows pull together. “Um. What?”
“Viktor and Javier are both attempting to woo Mina from Bibimbap House,” Cass explains. “So, like the good sports we are, we decided to make her life easier and choose a suitable romantic partnerforher.”
“Cass and I agree that she should end up with Viktor,” Roma adds. “But Ez and JJ, barbarians that they are, think she should choose Javier. Thoughts?”
Chester looks bewildered. “Well, who does Mina like?”
“That’s the thing,” JJ says seriously. “No one knows. She’s playing her cardsveryclose to the vest.”
Obie snorts. “No, she’s not. She’s just hilariously oblivious. Apparently, she knows all the gossip in Redwaterexceptfor the love triangle that she’s literally involved in.”
“So?” Ez says, raising her eyebrows expectantly at Chester. “What’s your decision?”
“Well, uh…” Chester peers up at Desi. “Desi, what doyouthink?”
“I think that Mina makes great bibimbap!” Desi says brightly.
“You’re so right. Shedoesmake great bibimbap,” Chester says solemnly, taking the seat that Cass gestures him towards—a seat, Obie notices with a swell of gratitude, that leaves JJ and Roma as a buffer between Chester and the Conspiracy Fam. Looks like his friends are trying to protect Obie’s boyfriend from the inevitable tension with their fugitive hunters’ former mentors. “So I guess I agree with Desi, then.”
Obie’s heart melts a little. Ez sputters indignantly. “That’s not an answer!”
“It’sananswer toaquestion,” Chester argues. “It counts.”
“Speaking of answers to questions,” Cass says, holding up a piece of paper with ten neat food orders written on it, “we’re getting a bigger haul than usual from Tacos Near Me, so I wrote it all down for Lucia. I already know Obie’s usual order, but what would you like, Kyle? Obie’s paying, obviously.”
