Page 29 of Just a Friend for the Lion
Cue synchronized gagging from Dina and me.
“OOOH! How is my little niece or nephew today?” Dina squeals, dropping to her knees and baby-talking to Carina’s belly like the kid’s gonna answer back in Shifter Morse code.
“Dina, get up, you maniac,” Carina giggles, but she’s got that smug glowy mom-to-be thing going on, and it’s honestly the cutest.
I grin at the chaos, because how can I not?
This is my family. My loud, over-the-top, magical, pain-in-my-ass family.
And I love them.
Still, I’m too wrapped up in my own drama to be any real fun tonight. Then it hits me. What Carina just said.
“That’s right,” I say, narrowing my eyes at Horace. “You did help write some of the app, didn’t you?”
“Guilty.”
“Well then.” I lean forward, like I’m about to ask for a black market spell. “Can you fix it?”
“Fix what?”
“Make it so I’m not pinged as someone else’s possible mate?”
Horace frowns. “Um. Actually? I can’t. Not unless Carter unmatches you on his end. That’s the failsafe. Keeps creeps from gaming the system.”
I groan and flop onto the nearest cushion, muttering something about Lion Shifters and commitment issues.
“Okay, but,” Dina offers, nibbling on her crust, “we can always call Uncle Uzzi.”
Oh, boy.
That’s like saying we could always summon a mischievous hurricane with sparkly shoes and an attitude problem.
But hey, I’m desperate.
“Fine,” I mumble. “Let’s call the meddling matchmaker and see if he’s got a workaround.”
We call.
And as it turns out, he does.
Or something like a workaround.
“Liebling!” Uncle Uzzi cries from the other end of the magical mirror, which Carina props up between two bookshelves, one filled entirely with different kinds of honey—okay that’s weird.
“You are in distress, MJ! I felt it in my knees!”
“Ookay.”
“Um, hi, Uncle Uzzi,” we all mumble in unison.
He beams, white hair slicked, velvet robes trailing dramatically even in digital form.
“Don’t say another word. Now, I have just the thing to help MJ and her little mate problem! An East Coast mixer for Date to Mate subscribers located at a historic mansion overlooking the Hudson River. I’ve rented the entire place to celebrate theFall Equinox!” Uncle Uzzi’s blue eyes sparkle, and he claps his hands together like he just announced I won the lottery or something.
“Wait. You want me to go to a mixer?” I ask, blinking. “Like a magical meet and greet for people who believe in soulmates?”
“Yah! But more specifically, for supernaturals who want to meet their mates!”
