The scent of food was already wafting out of the open door. A mixture of everything good in the world was currently in my mother’s kitchen. I was so sure about it.
“Mom, I was supposed to be helping you cook,” I said, as we finally pulled back from our hug and moved into the front hall. Jayden was practically skipping as he followed along behind us. Which, honestly, he pulled off, despite his massively muscled frame.
“I just got a head start since there were so many of you coming today. It’s wonderful to have a full house.”
Another blonde popped up in front of me, and thankfully this time she wasn’t covered in her own vomit.
“Tessa!” I threw my arms around her and pulled her close. Our hug lasted almost as long as with my mother. The boys sidled around us, following my mom into the kitchen area. Tessa and I remained locked together.
“I’m sorry I showed up like a hot mess at the Hive,” she mumbled against my shoulder. “I just get really depressed some days. I can’t cope with you being gone, with the loneliness. Even Blake … like today, he can’t be here because of the sun. I’m always on the outside of your lives.”
I gave her an extra squeeze. “You know the saying, babe: the grass is always greener on the other side. You have serious FOMO, but there’s nothing you need to fear you’re missing out on. The Hive is dark and deadly.”
The look on her face told me she was tuning me out again. I forced myself not to bitch-slap her. Despite the fact that I was so happy to see her, she was also pissing me off a lot lately with this moronic stubbornness of wanting to become a stupid vampire.
Pretending the tension between us wasn’t there, she flashed me a smile and linked her arm through mine. Her face was only lightly made up today and she looked pretty, fresh-faced, and healthy. “So Blake is meeting with the Quorum again tonight. Apparently they have conferred with other Quorums, and the international vampire council. They’re the ones who keep track of the world numbers or something. We should have a decision in the next week.”
My mouth dropped open. “Tessa!”
She elbowed me sharply. “Shh, don’t ruin this day. Your mom and I have been planning it for a week.”
I gave an exasperated sigh. The pissed-off was growing, but I didn’t bother to argue with her again. There was almost a hundred percent certainty they would deny the request. It was next to impossible to change humans any longer. The human-vampire truce was on shaky grounds, and we didn’t need more bad publicity, especially with the newly-turned child. Actually, if anything good could come out of that horrible happening, it was that Blake’s odds of being granted permission to turn Tessa were probably now at minus one.
I relaxed as we crossed through the sunny living room and into the open-plan dining area which bordered the kitchen. The extension on the dark wooden table was open, and extra chairs had been brought in. There were already settings out, ten of them by my count, delicate white china which we had inherited from my grandparents. They had passed on ten years ago, but it was almost as if they were here with us when we used their stuff. It wasn’t just the china. Everything in this room held a memory for me. It was home.
My mom wasn’t wealthy like Tessa’s, but we’d always done okay. I loved our furniture, mostly dark wood and antique, rich with age and history. Crossing into the white and turquoise country-style kitchen, topped off by dark timber bench tops, I ground to a halt, before peals of laughter ripped from me.
Holy shit. The sexy six were cooking.
The enforcers were stationed around the kitchen, their hulking forms making the room look positively tiny. Each of them was wearing a frilly and feminine lace apron and my mom had them hard at work with food prep.
I couldn’t stop staring. Ryder and Sam especially had me in hysterics. Both of them looked absolutely lost for words, as if they couldn’t even understand how my petite mother managed to get them into this position. Still, I was happy to see that each of them were making the best of it, Ryder kneading bread, Sam snapping the ends off of green beans. Markus had even started to sing, his Scottish brogue deepening as he basted the turkey. I wonder if he’d been informed that that amazing liquid was a secret concoction passed down from Grandma May. Knowing my mom, he definitely had been.
Jared flashed me a white-toothed smile; he was on cranberry sauce duties, which we made from scratch in this household. Oliver was slicing cheeses, and Jayden stood at his side, sampling the fare and giving orders, sticking to what he was good at.
And my mom, who was totally in her element, was dashing between all of them, giving instructions.
“Is this really happening?” Tessa’s voice was a bubble of amusement. “Or did we just wander into an alternate universe?”