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Happiness was being with the gargoyle I loved. I’d missed him so much too. Way too much to admit. “I kind of like you like this, all snuggly and sincere. Maybe I’ll periodically knock you unconscious so I can have this version of you when I get tired of the sarcastic, obnoxious one.”
“I’m always the snuggly sincere person under the sarcastic, obnoxious one. You just have to tell me that you love me, and I’ll be struck even more completely than if you’d used a sledgehammer.”
“Gargoyles are notoriously hard-headed. I’m not sure a sledgehammer would do it.”
He sighed heavily. “I love you.”
I smiled against his chest and closed my eyes. “I know.”
He bit me. The jerk actually bit me, right on the ear, and it didn’t draw blood, but the point was that he couldn’t just bite me without me biting him, and his neck was right there under my teeth, and he tasted so good, and felt so good, and the world grew all golden and hazy.
“Jackson, what have I told you about sitting in the dirt?”
The woman’s voice was like getting shoved off a roof as far as effectiveness at dousing any and all flames of physical desire. I hopped off Percy’s lap faster than I could say, ‘caught necking by my mother,’ and tried to look innocent and not slutty, but I was wearing an old pair of cut-offs that were suddenly way too short, and my mom’s gnome tee, that had somehow survived the wreckage, but not without a few holes. It made me feel close to her, which would have been nice. To be close to her instead of close to this vision of breathtaking competence and taste. She was wearing heels in my construction zone. My life was always a construction zone riddled with outbursts of chaos.
I waved politely. “Hello. I’m Gabriela Doe. Welcome to the healery. I’m afraid that we’re in the middle of construction, so no one can help you. You should head to one of the larger hospitals,” I blathered, like you talk to college application people.
She gave me a kind smile, then refocused on Percy, who was still sitting in the dirt. Didn’t she know that telling him to do something was the best way to get him to not do it? She definitely didn’t know him, although she’d called him Jackson. Was she a relative or something?
I cleared my throat and then continued. “He can’t get up, because he’s still recovering after his epic work to save Singsong City. He’s a real hero, otherwise he’d be standing up. But he can’t. Why don’t we go somewhere else and I can buy you a cup of tea?” She was clearly someone who drank tea and didn’t hang out in construction zones.
She smiled kindly. “I’m actually here for him. I’m his mother. Once I heard that he was injured, I came right away.”
His mother had caught us necking. I was going to turn to silent stone now and never, ever come back. “Oh. Great! I’ll leave you to have your touching reunion alone.” I turned and then Percy swept my ankles, so I fell back on top of him. He caught me perfectly, so I didn’t even lose my breath, but I was once more on his lap, while he sat determinedly in the dirt, at the well-heeled feet of his mother.
I was going to kill him. Because that worked so well last time. I guess it was inevitable that she know about me, about us, because she was probably one of the few people who would have to be at our very small wedding. I looked up at Percy. Did he want me to tell her, or did he? He smiled at me, so sweetly, and then right there in front of her, he kissed me.
A swelling golden sound rose out of that kiss, rolling forth like a beacon of light and hope to all mankind, originating in that last holy third kiss, a vow of love that no force on earth could undo.
It was surprisingly short, and when he pulled back, he looked as startled as I was.
“I’m sorry,” he stuttered. “That’s not what I meant…” He looked around wildly, stared at his mother for a moment before he stood up, bringing me with him so we were both standing, but both unsteady, because that dong was still ringing through my body, and we had to be together, because we did. Forever. And that was all there was to it.
Percy’s mother smiled politely. She seemed to do that a lot. I guess there were worse reactions, like my mother’s, who had apparently seen the whole thing from the balcony. She screeched like a banshee and then climbed over the balcony, wearing a nightshirt and skanky black lace undies that I had no idea where she’d gotten, and then she got stuck on a scaffolding, and a construction worker had to awkwardly get the piece of rebar out of her shirt, which flashed her indecent undies even more.
I buried my face against Percy’s chest, because I wanted to die, but also because he was so Percy, and he was mine, through and through.
Poe landed on my shoulder and pecked my ear. I was pretty sure it drew blood that time, but I didn’t care. I was busy hiding from the world in Percy’s shirt, and I would stay that way as long as possible.
“Mother, this is my wife, Gabby Doe.” He stroked my hair and then added in a more surly tone, “I suppose I have to tell you that she’s also Bellham’s daughter and heir.” He sounded so arrogant and snotty sometimes. Oh well.
She laughed, a short, surprised sound that didn’t seem rehearsed. It surprised me enough that I looked up at her.
She gazed at him, then at me, then at both of us and nodded as if satisfied and delighted. “Fate is a fickle beast, and such a noble soul deserves a noble mate. Karma will kill you.” She wiggled her eyebrows, for a moment miles away from the prissy lady who belonged on the cover of a magazine.
Huh. She was probably as mental as Percy beneath that polished exterior. That was gargoyles for you, or at least the ones related to me, or soon to be related to me, but no, it was done. That was a marriage, witnessed by our mothers, and all those construction workers, and Poe. I was a freaking wife, and I still couldn’t serve light drinks.
My mother reached us, and then she threw her arms around me and Percy, and then gave Mrs. Whatever-his-actual-last-name-was a hug and then hugged us all together.
“I’m so honored to be included in your sacred gargoyle ceremony,” she gushed. “I would like to take you all out for sushi to celebrate.”
“Mom, you have to put on pants,” I said first of all.
“She can wear mine,” Percy said, straight-faced.
“I’m not wearing pants,” his mother offered with another polite smile.
And so it was that we ended up going to the Cat’s Pause in my mother-in-law’s gorgeous silver car, with my mother wearing an old tablecloth around her waist, secured by some of Percy’s mom’s extra hair pins. It could have been worse, but I wasn’t sure how, because we were all crammed in the backseat, me between mom and Percy while his mom was pinned against the door right next to him.
