Page 75 of Grave Curse

“Who’s going to be the father? Don’t tell me you’re trying one of those sketchy places that does artificial insemination,” Mabel said reproachfully, going all-in on a pearl clutch. I almostlaughed out loud. Of all the things she’d seen and heard as a Gravedigger woman, this was the one thing that scandalized her. Amazing. “Honey, you have to listen to me now, because this is important. You don’t know whose baby batter you’re shooting up there between your legs. Those clinics pay good money to bums off the street to blow their wad into a Dixie cup, for God’s sake. You have to be more selective.”

Someone please kill me. “Mabel, I think their process is a little more selective than that.”

“I trust Ginger and the choices she’s making in her life, so I’m not going to worry about it because she’s got this.” Roxie’s voice was a little too loud before she again gestured at the journal. “So, Ginger, what’s next on the party prep agenda?”

“Oh my God, you know who Ginger’s seeing, don’t you?” Shiloh, always so damn sharp and on-point, narrowed her green eyes at Roxie. “I’ll bet you’ve even seen Ginger and her mystery man together, haven’t you? And you too, right, Misty?”

“We-ll,” Misty drawled, shimmying her shoulders playfully while frosting a cupcake. “I haven’tseenthem together. I’ve just heard them. It was like listening to a porno flick.”

“Death is too good for you,” I decided, glaring at her while she laughed. “I will torture you for this, Misty. Slowly, over an open fire.”

“It’s okay, Roxie, you can tell us,” Shiloh went on relentlessly. She was such a badass chick, I adored her when she wasn’t trying to upend all my secrets. “It’s someone we know, right? A Gravedigger? That’s why Ginger’s being so secretive, yeah? We’d recognize the guy if we saw him, wouldn’t we?”

“Um. Um.” Panic-stricken, Roxie’s gaze shot to me. “A little help?”

Oy. “Okay, here’s the deal, girlies. I am currently seeing someone, and we’re about as serious as it gets. We’re both very much in love, we’re the happiest we’ve ever been, and yes, we areactively trying to get pregnant, to the point where he probably knows more about my fertility cycle than I do. He wants a big family, and since we’re starting kind of later in life we’ve decided to go full-steam ahead with the whole baby-making business.”

By degrees, Mabel unclutched her pearls. “So, no artificial insemination?”

“No. Just regular insemination.” Then I grinned. “Lots and lots of regular insemination.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Mabel let loose a huge breath. “You had me worried.”

“Why the secrecy, though?” Shiloh said, frowning. “I love that you’re in love, Ginger. I want you to be happy. Don’t you know that we’re your friends and we would love to celebrate this huge life event with you?”

“Oh, Shy.” Touched beyond words, I reached over and wrapped her up in a big hug. “There are reasons for us keeping everything under wraps, but I promise it has nothing to do with you guys.” I still wasn’t sure how Tyr felt about going public with our relationship, despite what he said about Red Flag. For now, since I didn’t even know if the Gravediggers were still at war with Hades and his crew, I was content to follow Tyr’s lead. “I promise, as soon as life settles down for a bit and we can all catch our breath, I’ll fill you in on absolutely everything. Like how he made me faint last night, just for a couple seconds, but I swear the sex was so good I legitimately lost consciousness.”

That got a lot of “oohs” just as I heard the unmistakable sound of the heavy metal front door sliding open. A spurt of alarm zipped through me before I saw Tyr walk in, closely followed by Ashtray and Romeo.

“How did you guys get in?” Mabel demanded as the men approached, before shooting me a quick look. “Did you forget to lock the door?”

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. “Um…”

“Tyr has himself a key to this place, woman, and why wouldn’t he? He owns the whole damn building.” Ashtray rolled over to where his wife was, and straight-up grabbed her ass. “Gimme some sugar, babe.”

“Wait. Tyr owns this building?” Shiloh looked from Ashtray to Tyr while her husband joined her at the counter for a quick kiss and cuddle moment. “Is that true?”

“Yeah, it’s true,” Romeo answered for Tyr, letting his wife go to rip open a bag of nearby tortilla chips. He then zeroed in on what she was making and took the lid off of the slow cooker. “Shy, is this done enough to eat? Smells great, but it looks lumpy.”

“That’s because the cheese is still melting, and those chips are for the party. Romeo, baby, it’s not ready—”

He dipped a chip into the slow cooker and munched out. “Mm, still tastes awesome, baby, because you’re a genius in the kitchen. Guys, you should try this, my Shy Girl knows how to cook.”

“Is that lasagna?” Peeling off his shades, Tyr made goo-goo eyes at the pan of lasagna on the counter. “That looks done.”

“It’s for the party.” I practically leaped into his path before he could demolish all of our hard work. “In fact, everything you see is party food. I’ll fight you to the death to protect the party food. Can I interest you in a bologna sandwich?”

He stared at me. “A bologna sandwich? Have you lost your damn mind, woman? There’s lasagna sitting right there.”

“Here we go,” Mabel sighed. “Another cage match between Ginger and Tyr. Any bets on who’ll win this time around?”

“Yeah. Me.” Tyr grinned at Mabel before twining his arms around me and sweeping me into a surprisingly graceful dip, half a second before his lips landed on mine. Vaguely I heard someone gasp before everything went silent, and suddenly the only thing that mattered was the warmth of his mouth on mine.When he finally let me up, breaking our kiss with a sweet nuzzle of his face against mine, I discovered that my arms had wrapped themselves around his shoulders as if he was the only thing keeping me afloat. “Now can I have some lasagna?”

“You drive a hard bargain, mister.” I laughed, then realized it was still unnaturally quiet in the room. I blinked and looked around the room to find everyone but Romeo gaping at us. “Oh. Right.” I cleared my throat and smiled brilliantly. “Surprise!”

“What the fuck?”Mabel and Ashtray said together. It was kind of sweet, how in sync they were after all these years.

“I can’t believe it.” Shiloh stared first at us, then at her husband, who was busy scrounging up a package of party plates. “You knew, didn’t you, you jerk! Why didn’t you tell me?”

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