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“For what?” Nox asked from where he was scooping half a cheese ball onto a single cracker.
“To be included. Tonight.” Heat flushed her cheeks again. “I’m awkward, and it probably won’t get better as the night goes on.”
The women laughed and assured her she was fine before they all made their way to the dinner table.
Landon and Nox glared at each other as Landon pulled the chair out for Lucia.
“Umm, thank you,” she mumbled, sitting down.
Nevada had been in the middle of taking her seat when Nox pulled the entire chair out from under her, and she nearly fell. He righted her by the arm, staring directly at Landon, and then scooted the chair in so firmly, Nevada plopped into it.
“You have lost your mind tonight,” she admonished her mate.
Nox flipped Landon off. Landon flipped him off in return, and then took his seat next to Lucia.
“I think we should exchange story-times,” Nox announced. “About Landon’s feelings on a certain Novak from the time he was a fetus.”
“I think we should make Nox eat outside with the raccoons,” Landon said.
Lucia snorted but covered it with a cough. When she looked over at Nevada, Nox’s mate was frowning at him. “Are you on drugs tonight?”
“No, honey, I just have forgotten to tell you the three hundred stories of my least-favorite brother, Landon, over there and his crush on a Gray Back. And now she is all grown up, sitting at our family dinner and smelling like my brother.”
“I think it’s time to say a prayer,” Clinton announced.
“What?” Nox demanded. “You’ve never said a prayer in your life.”
“Yes I have,” Clinton said, glancing at Lucia with a plastered smile. He sat down in the chair at the head of the table, and the entire back of his tux ripped. Riiiiiiiiip. His smile didn’t move.
Landon’s voice said he was fighting back a laugh. “I’m with Nox on this one. I’ve never heard you pray.”
“I do too!” Clinton argued.
“Do not,” Landon said through a baiting grin. “What do you pray for?”
“I prayed for sons. I pray the fish are biting tomorrow. I pray that Kirk steps on the rake I left by his porch tomorrow morning, and it makes a perfect arch and whacks him in his stupid face like in the cartoons, and at the perfect angle for my cameras to capture it in slow motion—”
“Clinton!” Alyssa admonished him.
He inhaled deeply, and the fabric of his ruined tux ripped even more thoroughly. He folded his hands neatly and angled his face to the sky. “I pray my sons remember their manners for this glorious dinner my mate has painstakingly prepared for us, and that Lucia doesn’t tell her dad to kill us. Amen.”
“Amen,” Landon muttered, at the same time Nox said the same.
Lucia had to put her hands over her mouth to control her laughter, and then she made the mistake of looking over at Nevada, who was doing the same. When their eyes met, they burst out laughing. “You can’t look at me in a serious moment,” Nevada punched out between laughs.
“I don’t see what is funny,” Clinton said. “Honey…bear…balls, will you please pass the cheese plate.”
Alyssa deadpanned, “I would, but Nox already ate it all.”
Indeed, Nox was scooping the last cheese cubes from his plate into his mouth. “We’ve never had cheese cubes before.”
“It was an appetizer!” Clinton griped.
“Ma, it was delicious,” Nox said remorselessly. “Well prepared.”
“Thanks, son. I just dumped the package onto a plate.” Alyssa’s eyes were dancing with humor.
“Did you eat the entire cheese ball too?” Clinton growled out. His tux ripped a little more.
