number of email accounts you can open!” Dick said, while the kids hung off of his arms.
Jolene handed me a small musical case, while lugging a larger wheeled case up to the bar. “I really appreciate this, Ty. Zeb got elected to some sort of important staff committee for the school, poor soul, and I promised Jane I would attend this meeting for local supernatural muckity-mucks. Represent the pack, you know?”
You would never know it looking at them, but Dick and Jane were the big muckity-mucks with the local office of the Council for the Equal Treatment of the Undead. They were sort of like the Alphas of the local vampires, regulating their behavior, communicating with the human community and helping other supernatural species maintain their cover. According to Jolene, vampires were way less bite-y and way more socially responsible under their recent leadership.
“It won’t be fun, but it will involve a really tedious and lengthy agenda,” Jane chirped.
“Stretch, you’ve gotta stop trying to sell it with words like, ‘tedious,’” Dick told her.
“I know,” Jane admitted. “But Jolene’s family. I don’t like lying to her.”
Hearing someone else calling Jolene “family” left me with an odd sensation in my chest—empty and sour. And to my surprise, I didn’t feel possessive insult at the very idea that someone was trying to claim my cousin. It was a different sort of jealousy. Jolene had found a place here in the outside world, independent of the pack—hell, almost in spite of the pack. She had a life and people who loved her for herself. I hated to imagine what I would trade for that.
“Uncle Lonnie didn’t want to go to the meeting?” I asked, clearing my throat. “Did Jane use the word ‘tedious’ on him, too?”
“Wow, we reached the mockery stage of our relationship really quickly,” Jane told me, throwing up her hands.
Jolene shook her head. “You know Daddy. He accepts the idea that working with the vampires is better for us, but he just doesn’t like the idea of doing it himself. Besides. I’ve been friends with Jane for years. If anybody’s going to be cooperative, it’s me. Daddy, not so much.”
“That’s a really good point,” I conceded.
“And when I tell anybody in the pack that the kids are getting special lessons for cello and violin, they act like I’m getting all snooty. ‘What’s next? You gonna put them in private school? You gonna start taking vacations in Europe?’” she huffed, mimicking what I thought maybe was Aunt Lurlene’s voice. “It’s not like I can sign them up for team sports. They’re faster than all of the other kids—like, obviously faster. And Janelyn is so competitive, she doesn’t know how to hold back. They’d boot werewolves out in the open before the end of their first practice.”
“Jolene, I get it,” I assured her. “We weren’t able to play sports, and it’s not like we were able to afford extra music lessons. You’re trying to do something good for your kids.”
“And not get mocked for it,” Jane added.
“Exactly. It’s what good parents do,” I agreed. “I’m really impressed.”
Jolene took a deep breath. “Thank you. It’s good to hear that from someone who grew up like we did. Here are the keys to the van. I’ll ride with Jane and Dick to the meeting. I texted you the address for the music studio. Just make sure they eat their jerky snacks on the way to class. It’s two hours long and the last thing you want to do is to hand wooden sticks to a couple of hangry werewolf cubs.”
“Mu-ohm, they’re called bows,” Janelyn sighed in that derisive tone only tweens could manage toward their parents. “And it’s not like you can hurt anybody that bad with them.”
“Watch the sass, Janelyn, or there will be no triple cheeseburgers after class,” Jolene informed her daughter in her nasal twang.
Having a voice that could peel paint was Jolene’s only real flaw. Janelyn seemed to sense she’d gone too far and mimed zipping her lip.
Jolene told me, “I left cash in the glove box. Our drive-thru bills can get really ugly. Just tell the cashier it’s the Lavelle twins. They’ll know what to do.”
“Which fast food place?” I asked.
Jolene jerked her shoulder. “Any of them. We’re known pretty much everywhere.”
Thinking of the amount of food my own family could put away at any given meal, I nodded. “That makes sense.”
“Okay, kids, have a great time,” my cousin said, kissing each of them on the top of their heads.