Page 6 of Kiss Across the Universe
“Takes one to know one,” Jesse replied lightly. “That was a while ago now. US Army Rangers.”
Kit hesitated. “Canadian Army. Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry,” he declared. It was close enough to the truth, and the full truth he would never reveal. “I can’t believe you’re old enough to have a daughter-in-law, Taylor. You both look the same age.”
Both women laughed. Veris shook his head. “Careful, Kit. Conversations about the age of a woman never end well. Not even in this house.”
Kit smiled. “I’ll stop while I’m still in one piece, then.”
“Is Aran around, Jesse?” Veris asked. “We should group everyone together as we introduce Kit, to make it easier for him.”
“He was in the kitchen, trying to horn in on the gravy-making,” Jesse said. “You know how he likes it thick and stodgy. Marit probably kicked him out, though.”
Distantly, from upstairs, a baby’s wail could be heard. Everyone cocked their heads. Then, barely a second later, a second cry.
“They’re awake already,” Jesse said with a sigh. “I should find Aran. They’ll all need changing…”
“I can help, if you need it,” Kit said.
Everyone looked at him, their eyes wide. But their expressions were still polite.
Veris raised a brow. “You can change diapers?”
“It’s been a few years, but yeah,” Kit admitted. “Big family…lots of cousins.” Then he made himself shut up. He liked Veris and his family, what he’d met of them so far, but he wasn’t going to admit to anyone that caring for babies had been his way of decompressing when he’d come home from missions and tours of duty. It was the complete polar opposite to hunting down terror operatives. A sunny, toothless smile from an innocent baby would ground him, and remind him of why he was doing what he was doing. And there had always been at least one infant in the house, whenever he’d gone home for a visit.
The duo of baby cries was taken up by a third voice. Then a fourth.
Kit glanced up at the ceiling, startled.
“Twins, then triplets,” Jesse confirmed, with a grimace. “Well, if you’re offering, I’m not going to say no, Kit McDonald. I simply don’t have enough hands to deal with five of them at once, and we left their nanny back home.” She beckoned with her finger and headed for the archway.
Kit could see that Taylor was hiding a laugh. Veris grinned openly. He shrugged and followed Jesse toward the stairs. He was mildly pleased. As he’d passed the kitchen door, he’d not spotted Alannah among the people working in the kitchen, which meant she was upstairs somewhere. And now he had a legitimate excuse to go up there himself.
Chapter Three
Just as Alannah was readyto jump to Canada, she got a text fromFar.
Non-family in the house. Jump to the woodpile.
There was a load of assumptions in that simple text which she understood without further explanation. She didn’t know who the non-family person or people were yet, but “non-family” was code. It meant whoever it was wasn’t privy to the fact that her family was made up of vampires and time-travelers, among a few humans.
More than one adult in the family was not actually related to anyone, including some of their kids, and would be technically “non-family”, except they were family in all the ways that counted.
Alannah had known Alexander, Raphael and Sydney since she was very small, and Neven, Remi and London for a decade. All of them were honorary aunts and uncles and their kids were Alannah’s cousins, yet none of them shared a drop of blood in common with Alannah.
The directive to jump to the woodpile was also another form of shorthand. It meant “pretend you arrived here by normal human means”. That meant the fiction of a plane flight from L.A. to Calgary, which was the nearest international airport, then a bus from Calgary to Canmore and a Canmore taxi to the house, where she would knock on the front door like she’d just arrived.
She would need luggage.
Alannah packed a light backpack, one small enough to qualify as cabin baggage, with a couple of changes of clothes and other essentials, even though she planned on coming back to her apartment tonight. It was always possible that the guest was sleeping over, which meant she would have to, too, in order to keep up the pretense that she had flown to Canada via commercial airflights. The backpack might not be wasted.
It also meant leaving the blueberry pie behind, as normal travelers couldn’t bring any fruit or fruit products across the Canadian border.
She made the preparations and adjustments with very little thought, for she had been making these compromises all her life. Neither did she waste much time speculating over who the non-family visitor was. Her parents attracted interesting people like magnets drew iron filings to them. It could be anyone, and she would find out soon enough.
At least there would be some decent non-time-travelling conversation at the dinner table.
Her preparations finished once again, Alannah closed up her apartment and looked around one last time. Then she dug out her heavy winter snow coat, which she hadn’t used in L.A. even once. She shrugged into it, then slung the backpack over her shoulders.
She jumped quickly, before she grew too warm inside the coat.
