food on their plates and settled at the big table. Renee quickly realized she didn’t have to worry about her mother. Wynn sat on one side and Silver sat on the other and she had both of them laughing.
Carol was next to Renee. She leaned over and lowered her voice. “I hope you’re okay with us stealing your mom like we did.”
“Of course. She was thrilled to help.”
“Are you upset—I guess you wouldn’t be anymore—but when you were little, were you upset that you couldn’t do what she does?”
“What?”
“Her gift or whatever you call it. You don’t have it. That must have made you sad.”
Something Renee had never considered. She hadn’t wanted what her mother had, she hadn’t wanted her mother to have it. But Carol’s perspective was totally different. Not just because she hadn’t lived through what Renee had, but because she had a practical application for the information.
“I wasn’t sad,” Renee told her, not sure what else to say.
“So Hunter’s getting interested in girls,” Wynn announced, drawing everyone’s attention. “I can’t believe it. He’s only thirteen. I thought I had a couple of years left until I had to deal with that.”
“Thirteen.” Pallas looked shocked. “Don’t tell me that. I don’t want to have to deal with Ryan and girls for a while yet.”
“He’s barely six months old,” Silver reminded her. “You have a ways to go.”
“But still.” Pallas sighed. “My baby.”
“What did you do?” Renee asked. “Talk about it with him or lock him in his room?”
“I wish I could lock him in his room, but they frown on that now.” Wynn grinned. “I told him to talk to Jasper.”
Everyone burst out laughing. Renee chuckled as she thought of what she would guess was a serious case of panic on Jasper’s part.
“I have an announcement,” Bethany said. “I told my parents I’m pregnant.”
“Good for you.”
“Yikes, how did it go?”
“Oh, no. Poor you.”
Verity glanced around the table. “I’m confused. Why wouldn’t you tell your parents? Don’t they want grandchildren?”
“Oh, they want them. There was shrieking and tears and a thousand questions about my health, and that’s just from my dad.”
“Bethany comes from an unusual family,” Pallas told Verity. “How should I put this...”
“Oh, you’re the royal one,” Verity said. “Did I get that right?”
Bethany sighed. “You did. My dad is the king of El Bahar. Technically he’s my stepfather, but he adopted me and I’m the only daughter and my brothers are much younger, so it’s a lot of pressure. I wanted to tell them because they’re my parents and I didn’t want to tell them because he’s going to be overprotective and make my life a nightmare.”
“Ah, I see. He loves his little girl.” Verity nodded. “That’s lovely.”
“You say that now, but you’re not the one who’s going to have fifteen bodyguards and a cadre of servants making sure I don’t fall, trip or otherwise injure my delicate self and his very first grandchild.”
“It’s tough being royal,” Silver said. “Bethany, be brave and endure the pain.”
“Bite me.”
They all laughed again. Conversation shifted to different topics. Renee enjoyed the time with her friends and appreciated how easily her mother fit in. She couldn’t help wondering how everything would have been different if her mother wasn’t...special. In some ways, a lot of ways, life would have been easier. But Verity’s ability made her who she was and Renee knew that whatever happened, she wouldn’t want her mother to change for anyone. Not even for Renee herself.
* * *
JASPER HAD NO idea what Verity wanted, but she’d sounded upset on the phone. He drove to town and met her in the lobby of the Sweet Dreams Inn.
She was pacing anxiously when he walked in and immediately hurried over to him.
“Thank you for coming. Something’s happened and I just don’t know what to do.”
Jasper had just texted with Renee a couple of hours before so he knew she was fine. He led Verity to a quiet area of the lobby and pulled a chair close to hers.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
She bit her lower lip. “Odele, my producer, called. They’ve been brainstorming fun prelaunch ideas for my show. Something that would get the public’s attention and get them interested. Odele wants it a little gimmicky, but not off-putting. I was fine with all that and said she could reach me here if she wanted to talk.”
Jasper really wanted to hurry her along, but knew it was better to let Verity tell her story in her own way. Eventually she would get