Then there was more small talk. I met more spouses of fellow officers in the next few minutes than I’d ever met, and because I was the woman they seemed to expect me to be the chatty one. I wasn’t. Both the men with me today were more easily social than I would ever be. Micah did his best to redirect the conversation away from me and to him, but the women just didn’t seem to understand that I was the “husband,” and that our “wife” was actually in the kitchen with Katie. Of course, we didn’t try to explain that part either.
By the time Micah and I managed to find a way to be by ourselves for a few minutes my nerves were raw and I was sort of clinging to him. I’d forgotten how much I hated get-togethers like this; it was just too many people who were work friends at best, work acquaintances, or near strangers. Touching Micah helped, but it had been years since I’d been at a large party where I didn’t have more of my lovers with me, and those parties had also been vampire and wereanimal events, which meant it wasn’t the same kind of socializing, or they were already my friends. I hadn’t realized how much I relied on touching my lovers, having them help out with the small talk, or having someone to huddle in the corner with and hate the social together. Micah was better at it than I was, but he held me tight, too, his hands stroking my back.
“You okay?” he asked softly.
“I’d forgotten how bad I am at these things.”
He spoke with his face pressed into the line of my neck. “If it’s our people it’s refreshing.”
“Some of these are friends, but they aren’t our people,” I whispered against his hair.
Micah raised his head up, body tense with listening. “That’s Matthew.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“He’s angry, yelling.”
I didn’t ask him how he heard that over the crowd noise. One of the benefits of being a lycanthrope was better hearing, and we’d discovered that the catweres could hear higher noises than the canines. Small children had high-pitched voices.
We started down the steps of the deck, going for the side yard and the kids, but Zerbrowski called after me. “Can I talk to you a minute?”
“We were just going to check on Matthew.”
“I can do it,” Micah said, “you talk cop stuff.”
“You sure?”
He came back to the steps and kissed me. “I’m sure.”
He started walking through the crowd, leaving me with a stupid grin on my face.
“Earth to Anita,” Zerbrowski said.
“Sorry, what’s up?”
He grinned at me, and shook his head.
“What?” I asked.
“You guys are good together, that’s all.”
“Thanks.”
The grin faded around the edges. “But I need you to see something in the kitchen.”
“Is Nathaniel all right?”
“Oh, he’s fine; a lot of the other wives think he’s just fine.” He drew the last “fine” out into that ghetto drawl.
I frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“Haven’t you noticed that we’re missing a lot of the wives?”
I glanced around and it was mostly men, not all, but suddenly a lot. “So the women have gone inside to talk about things other than guns, sports, and police work. Doesn’t it usually end up divided between cops and non-cops?”
“Not this early in the day. Come see.” He motioned me to follow him, and I did, wondering what was going on.
The dining room was what you walked into from the back door, so I could see that the table was covered in food, waiting for Katie to give the “come and get it.” But I knew that the traffic jam of women spilling out into the dining room from the kitchen hadn’t helped cook, because if all of them had helped, or were helping, the kitchen wouldn’t have been big enough to hold them all. Usually, people ask if they can help and if told no, they go outside and visit, drink a few cold drinks from the cooler.