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But she listened to Astrid.
And after the two talked for a minute, Astrid made her way back, eager for the tour she was promised.
An hour later, we were all in the, I didn't even know what to call it, a command center? It was full of people on computers, others looking over files, pinning things up on walls.
"Your pocket is moving," a voice said, calm, unaffected, belonging to a guy with dark features and the kind of confidence that screamed he was good at what he did and he knew it.
"Narc!" Astrid hissed at him as she reached into her pocket to pull out her goddamn hamster, Ben.
"Hamsters are ridiculous pets," the man commented in that same tone.
"Play nice, L," Lo demanded.
"And what animal does make a good pet?" Astrid challenged, pulling some pelleted food out of her other pocket for Ben.
"Chickens," L declared.
"Chickens aren't pets."
"Sure they are."
"They live outside."
Lo was watching the two as they walked away with drawn together brows. "What?" I asked.
"Nothing. Just L doesn't usually want to have conversations with anyone."
I stood back and watched as Astrid moved from section to section of the building, realizing even if she didn't yet that she had found a place she belonged.
I wondered if Lo had a pets-allowed policy.Roderick - 10 months"Mijo," my mother called, something in her voice making me stiffen a little as I followed her into the kitchen.
"Qué pasa?" I asked as I saw her leaning against the counter, giving me what I could only call a disapproving frown. It wasn't one she often gave me, but it was a look a kid remembered when their parent had shot it in their direction.
"Ten months, mijo. Ten months."
"Ten months what?"
"You don't know how long you've been with her?" she asked, voice raising at the idea.
"Oh, Liv?" I asked, shaking my head, not understanding her mood. "Yeah, it's been ten months."
"And there is no ring on her finger because..."
Ahhhh.
Okay.
The 'when are you getting married and having babies' talk. She'd been oddly lax about it since Liv started coming by for dinners with my family. I figured she realized that things were new between us, that pressure was not something new relationships needed.
Ten months.
It was time for the guilt trip.
"You think she doesn't want you to ask? She wants you to ask."
"You don't know that. Liv is a bit... complicated when it comes to these kinds of things."
Complicated was maybe an understatement.
Two months before, we'd finally all sat down - me, Liv, Cam, and Reign - about the future of both of our organizations. With Astrid off at Hailstorm, they had been struggling to keep up, to do all the computer shit along with the drops. And Reign had this firm policy about me not helping out. Things had been getting tense. The conversation had been long overdue.
Liv had been tense, silent, unwilling to engage in the conversation. She had needed time to sit on it, think it through.
That time was ten days.
Ten. Days.
But in the end, she had agreed to the deal.
She'd talk to her contacts, tell them that she was handing them off to us - The Henchmen. In return, she'd get a cut of any deal that came from her contacts. For doing no work. It was fair. More than fair.
And she, well, essentially, she was retired. But you couldn't say that to her. She didn't like hearing that.
I knew, eventually, she would have a house, have babies to take care of, that she would no longer be retired at all; in fact, she'd be busier than ever.
But I didn't want to scare her with that.
And as for Cam, well, he had a prospect badge on his chest since he refused to retire even for a short period of time and Liv would never accept him leaving town and joining a new organization.
"Complicated? She loves you. I've heard her say it."
She did say it.
It took her two months after I started saying it to feel like she could as well, even though I knew she had felt it when I first started feeling it.
"Yes, Ma. She loves me."
"And you love her."
"Yes."
"So? What is the problem?"
"I'm gonna ask, Ma. When the time is right. What's the rush?" There was an odd look in her eyes I didn't understand, wouldn't understand until I finally did ask Liv a month later and she insisted on a quick wedding on The Henchmen compound.
Apparently, I was going to be a father.Livianna - 15 months"This is all your fault," I told him, needing to vent my fear and uncertainty somewhere.
"I mean, technically, mami, this is all on you."
"So what if my egg split? Your sperm is the reason we are here at all. Otherwise, they would have just split and disappeared like always. But, oh, no. You had to have strong swimmers."
The prospect of being a mother hadn't scared me as much as I thought it might when I had first found out. Which was when Grace had told me I was pregnant.
