Page 53 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

Jeffrey groaned. “Mom, please.”

Faye shrugged. “Peggy, my son will take asmallregular coffee.”

“Large,” corrected Jeffrey.

Faye lifted a brow. “Small, since that’s what you’re pushing your wife to have. What’s good for the goose is…”

Dana laughed. “Thanks, Faye.”

Faye beamed at the sight of Dana. “How are you this morning? How is baby Farkas?”

Star Child kept glancing at Stratton, and he found it difficult to pull his gaze from her. He also couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew her. That their paths had crossed before in some manner. He’d been alive a long time and had encountered more people than he’d ever be able to count or recall, so it was possible he’d seen her before.

“I’m good and baby is fine,” said Dana as she offered a pleasant smile to Faye. “Thank you for the tip about keeping crackers and juice near the bed so I can nibble on them before I stand. It’s helped so much with the morning sickness issues that came out of nowhere.”

Faye nodded. “Jeffrey did the same thing to me when I was pregnant with him. Started making me sick to my stomach around the second month. I didn’t get wise to the cracker trick until close to the end of my third month.”

Jeffrey watched his wife with nothing but love in his eyes. He then kissed her cheek.

She turned her head, kissing his lips chastely.

“This is so much fun,” said Marcy in Stratton’s ear. “Turn on the video thing on your phone. I want to see this happen in real time. I’d be there now but Bram has respectfully requested—his words, not mine—that I not drive myself anywhere. He’d rather drive me or have one of the boys do it. Austin is out on a slayer call. Elis is out visiting Kellan. Brian is with Austin so pretty much I’ve been left unsupervised unless one of the other boys show up.”

Stratton tried to speak but Marcy didn’t let him.

She continued, “I don’t know why Bram is so worried about me driving. Sure, I get lost a lot, but sometimes I get where I started out wanting to go. And I always end up where I’m supposed to be. The two aren’t always the same. My honey-bear doesn’t see that though. He worries about me behind the wheel of a car. I mean, yes, dead people pop in and out of the car while I drive and they sometimes distract me, but I only hit one fence post and three mailboxes in the last week. I’m not that bad of a driver.”

Stratton glanced at the phone. “Wait,you’rethe person who is hitting mailboxes? We keep getting calls at the station telling us someone is doing it and leaving flowers in the damaged boxes. I’ve had to go out on two calls already concerning it.”

“I didn’t have pen and paper,” said Marcy. “I figured they’d just guess it was me by way of the flowers. In my defense, I laid the flowers out in an IOU shape. But no worries, Bram said he’s taking care of getting them replaced. He’s so organized. It’s kind of sad. I’m hoping to change that. He needs to learn to live a little. He should be more spontaneous.”

Stratton didn’t want to tell her, but it was for the best Bram didn’t let her drive. He went back to staring at the woman behind the counter who had caught his attention.

She was stealing glimpses of him as well, making Stratton wonder if she felt the same pull he did.

“Burgess, no!” Marcy shouted. “Don’t jump on Daddy while he’s sleeping, he gets grumpy. Good boy. Go sleep in one of his shoes instead. I think Buffy is in one of his Italian loafers already so you might want to start in the boot section of his closet. Austin will be home before long and you can play with him.”

“Buffy?” asked Stratton.

“She’s a raccoon who is staying with us for a bit. You’re going to love her,” said Marcy. “Can you believe she’d gone without a name of her own? Austin helped her pick one. Something about a vampire slayer, but I wasn’t paying attention.”

Stratton barely heard Marcy as the feeling of being pulled forward returned.

Star Child thumbed through a binder on the counter and spoke softly to herself. “Okay, you can do this. Three pumps of caramel syrup, wait, four, she wanted extra, and then—” She stopped and glanced to the left of Dana. “Five? Really? She likes that much caramel? No. We can’t keep her either, any more than we can keepHonda, I mean Yolanda.”

Dana looked to her left, where the woman was staring. No one was there. She then glanced at Stratton as her husband made his way to Peggy and his small cup of coffee. “Uh, am I missing something? Who is she talking to?”

The woman behind the counter swallowed hard. “Sorry. No. I was just, um, how many pumps of syrup would you like?”

“Five,” said Dana.

The woman grabbed for a small to-go cup and then lifted a medium one instead. She glanced at Dana. “The drink is mostly milk so, really, you’ll be having less coffee than Faye’s son.”

“Star Child, I really like you,” said Dana. “And I don’t generally like people. And Faye’s son’s name is Jeffrey. He’s my husband and the baby’s daddy.”

“Oh, she’s claiming me now,” said Jeffrey. “I feel loved. Say, Star Child, that’s a unique name.”

“Astria,” said the woman. “My name is, um, Astria. Not Star Child.”

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