Quinn grinned, but it was weak, and he sensed it. She tugged on a strand of Nina’s long hair. “It means I’ve grown on you. Maybe it’s only like mold or whatever bacteria, but I’ve grown on you. You really are a marshmallow just like Ingrid said.”
Nina growled under her breath and tipped her sunglasses down her nose so Quinn could see her eyes. “Walk, or I’m going to eat your skinny little bird legs right off your body and pick my teeth with their bones.”
Quinn reached upward with a notable shaky hand and patted Nina’s lean cheek. “Clearly someone didn’t paint away their discontent.”
Nina moved in closer and flashed her fangs. “Move or I’m hiking your featherweight ass over my shoulder like the sack of potatoes you are.”
But Quinn only chuckled. “If only my scale said featherweight. I might be short, but my hips don’t lie.”
Nina pointed in the direction of home. “Now.”
“On it, Boss.”
As Quinn turned to make her way down along the sidewalk, Khristos cupped her elbow, unable to let her too far from his grasp.
Yet, her excitement was uncontained. “So, OMG, right? Who knew those two should end up together?”
“Sometimes, the most unlikely people, people who appear so ill-suited it makes you cringe, are true soul mates. I tried to tell you.”
“Was that the part where you were clenching your teeth and you had that tic in your jaw?”
He laughed as he navigated them through the crowd. “Somewhere around there. You were so busy sharing your bad experiences and bonding, I worried you’d talk yourself out of their match. You have to be careful not to let your experiences cloud your judgment, Quinn. It’s important. Those two are going to do great things together for children in Doctors Without Borders.”
Her sigh was one of happiness, her eyes full of that special brand of Quinn wonder. “How unbelievably romantic.”
Then she stopped dead, her eyes wide in revelation. “I’m just like my mother. Oh, criminy, I’m just like her. Bitter and preachy,” she said on a groan.
He grabbed her hand, not just because she needed a reminder of how different she was from her mother, but because he liked how it fit in his. “No. You’re not that bitter. That takes time, and long, dark nights spent raging against life instead of living it. You have plenty of hope left in you, Quinn. I promise.”
She sagged against him. “My mother drives me crazy, but I hate hearing she was in such a dark place. If there’s one thing I want, almost more than I want a family and all the stupid things people razz me for wanting, I want her to find some measure of happiness.”
“She can find her way out of that dark place if she tries.” And she could. If she’d just open up to Quinn.
“I like your mother’s dark place. Nay. I fucking love it. It’s balls-to-the-wall stunning shit,” Nina interjected, her hand at Quinn’s back.
“But it’s not healthy,” Quinn reminded Nina. “I know you love all her sarcasm, but you also know complete happiness. I know you do. I see it with Carl and when you talk about your little girl Charlie. My mother doesn’t have that, and it hurts my heart.”
Nina’s face changed in the blink of an eye. “You know what, you’re right, Mini-Goddess. I lost my mother to drugs when I was a kid. I hate thinking she left this earth so fucking unhappy.”
Quinn shot the vampire a look of pure sympathy. “I’m sorry, Nina.”
Nina’s look was far away. Khristos knew well the pain losing her mother had wrought in her life, but her grandmother, Lou, had helped ease that hurt since she was a teenager.
Nina nodded. “Me too. She had some serious problems. But I’ve got my Nana Lou, and she’s pretty righteous.”
Quinn sighed with a forlorn shrug. “The problem with my mother is, I don’t know what to do about her unhappiness.”
Nina strolled beside her, her long legs eating up the pavement. “It ain’t up to you to do anything about it, kiddo. You can’t be responsible for her happiness. She has to be.”
Quinn appeared to give that some thought before she patted the vampire’s arm. “Sage vampire is sage. But let’s not talk about my mother anymore. There’ll be plenty to talk about when we get back to my place. Tell me about that couple back there. How do you know so much about these people and why don’t I know anything?”
Khristos dug out his phone from his pocket and held it up. “I get their information from the gods.”
Her eyes grew wide and round when she clapped her hands. “Oh! Can I see?”
“Uh, no. You’re not ready for the forums just yet.”
“The gods have forums?”
“We’re very twenty-first century, complete with wifi and everything.”
Quinn let her head fall back on her shoulders when she laughed. “If you have apps, I’ll just die.”
“Don’t start digging your grave just yet, but yep. With apps, too.”
This time she laughed harder, hearty and rich with texture.
He really shouldn’t like watching her laugh. He shouldn’t like the sound of it in his ears. It shouldn’t do that weird shift thing in his heart.
But it did.
Careful, Khristos. Be very careful.