Page 2 of Midnight in the Garden of Okay and Meh
“Wine helps,” Karma said under her breath, then smiled broadly at Adam, a tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed poltergeist.
“It sure does. Now, there is nothing wrong with that picture,” Ysolde said, flipping her ponytail as she gazed at Baltic, who wore his usual enigmatic expression.
“I mean, I know they’re all handsome, but when you get them together in a group like that, hoobah,” I said, wiggling my eyebrows a couple of times at Drake, who immediately looked interested, his green eyes flashing at me in a manner that had me suddenly very aware we were going to be separated for a few days while he dealt with some business in Budapest.
“Did you check on them?” Adam asked Ysolde as we all were seated. “Your dragon friend said he’d keep an eye on them for us, but this place looks pretty busy, and he might miss something.”
“You have a daughter. You shouldn’t be nearly this twitchy over Pixie having her first date,” Karma told him, patting him on the arm. He took her hand and rubbed his thumb over her fingers.
“My daughter is in her late twenties, and has a long-term boyfriend.” His lips twisted for a few seconds. “I’m not saying I think he’s perfect for her, and when she found out I did a background check on him, she gave me hell for weeks for what she referred to as interfering. Pixie, however, is different. She’s much younger, and Brom seems a bit ...”
“Intelligent?” Ysolde asked, scooting her chair closer to Baltic. “Charming? Handsome, because thankfully he doesn’t look in the least like his bio father?”
“All of those things, of course,” Adam said. “But he also doesn’t seem to be any too steady on his dragon feet, if you know what I mean.”
Baltic lost a bit of his enigmatic expression, and donned what I’d come to think of as Drake’s martyred look. “He’s better than he was. He no longer sets the kitchen on fire trying to feed himself.”
“Yes, that’s right, he is getting better now that you’re showing him the dragon way of things,” Ysolde said in the same soothing tone I’d heard her use on her three-year-old son.
Jim, who had been sitting on a flat cushion that Bastian had provided especially for it, reading one of its seemingly endless stash of Welsh Corgi Fancier magazines, tched. “Kid’s a menace with his fire. I’m not saying it’s his fault, because when the First Daddy bonks you on the head and makes you a dragon, you’re going to be extra dragony, but he’s still a menace. He set my tail on fire when I went over to see how things were hangin’.”
“I explicitly told you not to bother them while I was in the bathroom,” I scolded Jim.
“Drake said I could,” it protested, then, licking the tip of one toe pad, turned the page of the magazine.
I looked at Drake. The corners of his mouth curled up.
“Bad wyvern,” I said, leaning in to kiss the nearest corner.
“Hello, all! How nice to see everyone. Where are ... oh, there they are. I assume we shouldn’t say hi?” The voice from behind me resolved itself into Allie and her husband, the silver-eyed Christian. They took two of the last four spots at the table. “And what an excellent idea for us to get together now that we’re all in London. No May and Gabriel?”
“They’re running a smidgen late,” I told her, pleased that our new friends were blending in so well with our group.
“Did you bring your kids, Allie?” Ysolde asked, straightening up from where she’d been whispering in Baltic’s ear.
“No. They had some school events that they didn’t want to miss, so we left them with our friend Joy and her husband and kids. I told Christian we could consider this a romantic getaway.” Allie smiled brightly at Christian, who said nothing, but Allie blushed just as if he had.
Ysolde nodded. “It seems great minds work alike. Pavel and Holland are taking care of Anduin while we’re in town for a few days.”
“We are gloriously kid-free for a few days, as well,” I said, putting a hand on Drake’s leg, my fingers lighting on fire at the feeling of his thigh just sitting there being so sexy it almost had me fanning myself. “We’re renting a place in Scotland while we see if we like the area, so our brood is roaming the Highlands like the wild creatures they are. We’re going up at the end of the week after Drake has returned from his business trip to Hungary. So! Here we are, together again, minus the blizzard and imps and fire and Jim peeing hither and yon.”
“I only hithered once, and never yonned,” Jim muttered, looking up when a server brought menus, water, and two bottles of dragon’s blood wine. On his heels were two familiar forms.
“Sorry we’re late. You won’t believe this, but Magoth is in town, and is insisting he stay with us, saying we owe him for a future act of kindness or some such ridiculousness. Hello, Allie, Christian. Karma, you look well. How is your shoulder, Adam?” May took one of the last two seats, Gabriel settling beside her.
“Much better. I wish polters healed up as fast as you lot, but sadly, it’s not one of our talents,” Adam answered, flexing his right shoulder, where he’d had surgery a few months before.
“So, elephant in the room,” May said after a few minutes of general chat. She craned her head to see around me. “How is the big date going?”
“No doubt just fine. Brom has been dancing to YouTube videos for the last three weeks in preparation,” Ysolde said, accepting a glass of wine. “He said something about winning the dance contest to prove to Pixie that he’s worthy, or some such silliness. Honestly, when I was his age, the closest I got to the opposite sex was begging my father’s stable boys to let me help them groom the horses.”
“You were seventeen when I claimed you from the mortals,” Baltic pointed out.
“I was an old seventeen,” she told him, smiling at us before sipping at her wine. “Besides, kids aged faster eight hundred years ago. Oooh, an excellent vintage.”
“Should we try it?” Allie asked Christian.
“The wine?” He looked like he wanted to wrinkle his nose. I had the feeling that although he appeared relaxed, he was a bit keyed up, but put it down to being amongst dragons. Drake told me that vampires and dragons had always kept each other at a distance. “I don’t know that you’d like it.”
