The Flame Game (Magical Romantic Comedies #12) - R.J. Blain Page 0,130
love the tiny terrors on the way. And naughty uncles don’t get invited to hold the babies right away, where nice uncles who dance to my tune get invited to the delivery and get to hold the babies.”
“You win.”
“I had this figured out, but thank you for reaffirming that.”
The Devil laughed, and we spent the rest of the drive to the hospital talking about how best to integrate Jeffrey with his family.
We both needed some serious tutoring on how to handle important and serious things with grace, as neither one of us came up with any good ideas on how to make sure things worked out as we wanted.
My husband’s new SUV, which the Devil’s wife had brought to the hospital, waited in the secure lot, and I loaded the pets into it after making sure everything was in good order. I giggled at the flame-orange bow in the back. Leaving the animals in the Devil’s care, I went inside to discover Jeffrey waited in the entry fiddling with his tie and fidgeting.
“Ready?” I asked, painfully aware he had nothing to take home with him.
“As ready as I can be. Dr. Rassen says it’ll be difficult to adjust, especially since I keep remembering things. But I remember my sister and brother. And their children.”
“If you’re not ready, we can always reschedule. They just think we invited them to dinner because I’m a new chief, and apparently, family dinners with the commissioner and his family is a thing the new chiefs do at least once. And since my family is as ridiculous as my husband’s family, we had to take over an entire damned hotel to fit everybody. I brought my uncle with me, so you get a choice of vehicles. You can go on a ride with the Devil, or you can join me with two wolves, a husky, and an ocelot.”
“Did you just say I could go on a ride with the Devil? Is he your uncle?”
“Yes, and yes.”
Jeffrey blinked. “But how?”
As he handled the news my uncle was the Devil, I figured he might be able to handle the insanity waiting for us at the hotel. “I married the Devil’s nephew. Well, great nephew. It’s complicated. He’s a pretty nice guy, he just likes to pretend he’s all evil. Really, he’s not all that good at being evil. Just pretend you’re awed. His native language is sarcasm.”
“Are you going to be offended if I go with the Devil?”
“Absolutely not, especially since the Devil is probably trying to convince Rabies the Wonder Wolf the world is not ending. I dared to leave him in the SUV.”
“You have a wolf you named Rabies?”
“Well, he was rabid when we found him, and it’s a miracle he’s recovered so well, so he’s Rabies the Wonder Wolf. That plus he immediately developed separation anxiety, so we have to take him everywhere until we can convince him he won’t be abandoned.”
“You have a wolf.”
“Technically, we have three wolves, but Belinda is more standoffish, and she doesn’t like to leave home. She loves people, but car rides scare her, and she’s not good about going new places. We’re working on that, but it’ll take time. She just likes people too much to be released into the wild. Belinda is a very good wolf! We have a big enclosure for our pack, although Rabies the Wonder Wolf and Sunny sleep in our room. Belinda has herself a cozy den in her enclosure, so she’s happy. Apparently, Belinda needs a friend that’s not Rabies the Wonder Wolf or Sunny, so we’re waiting for a rescue so she can have a proper pack. That will be fun. By fun, I mean, we don’t need more wolves, but we’re going to end up with more wolves. We’re going to need a bigger house. Again.”
Jeffrey stared at me. “Are you nervous?”
Damn. Jeffrey had learned my ways. “Maybe.”
“I can tell. You’re positively babbling.”
“I just want everything to be perfect today, and I neglected to tell my husband I was bringing you to dinner. In fact, my husband still thinks we’re three weeks out from the reunion.”
“I see. You are being sneaky, and you are afraid he will disapprove.”
“Maybe you should become a therapist, because that is something my therapist would say.”
“Why do you have a therapist?”
I laughed. “Well, apparently, all police chiefs get therapists, because we have a tough job. I had no idea Sam was seeing one, but he only gets a session once a month. I get a session