She hardly knew what to say after that. They just stared at each other until Jayce walked to theWand started pecking out more letters. He spelledWELCOME HOME.
Shit.Was Boston home? She still didn’t know. She sighed. “Home?”
Jayce cocked his head. When he didn’t follow up, she went on to explain.
“Everything I have, everything I am,” she amended, “is in New York. I live and work there. I don’t think I told you how much I’d be giving up by leaving. I just took the lieutenant’s exam. There’s an opening in my firehouse. I was told that unless I massively screwed up the test, the job would be mine.”
Jayce didn’t move. He just continued to stare at her.
Uncomfortable, she continued to talk. “Also, I’m in my last semester of college. I’m about to get my degree in fire science. It would probably set my graduation back if I were to transfer here, not that I wouldn’t do that if I had to.”
Jayce toddled over to the letterOand pecked it. Then he continued pecking until he had spelled out the wordONLINE.
“I don’t know if I can do that. I’ll have to look into it. Or…since we still have a lot to learn about each other, we could just keep up the long-distance relationship until I finish.”
Jayce sat on the board where he was. She didn’t know what that meant, but she could interpret it to be a stubborn “no.”
She rose from the couch and started to pace. “If things had gone normally, we would probably have taken our time, gotten to know each other, assessed our compatibility over time, and all that normal stuff people do before they commit to a big change.”
Jayce rose and spelled outNOT NORMAL.
Kristine let out a frustrated breath. “I know. I know. This situation is not normal. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to restore some normalcy.”
Jayce walked to the opposite corner to the wordNO. He hesitated a moment and then pecked the word.
Kristine had hoped he wouldn’t. Hewasbeing stubborn.
Kristine folded her arms and glared at him. He took off and flew out of the room. Exasperated, she threw her hands in the air.
A moment later, Gabriella hurried in with a tall glass of ice water. “Is everything all right, dear?”
Kristine sighed. “I don’t know. I think we just had our first fight.”
“Oh dear… I should remind you, Jayce is still a child at this stage. Whatever he said is probably what he would’ve said when he was only about three or four years old.”
“Shoot. I forgot about that.” Kristine accepted the ice water and took a refreshing gulp. “When will he be, I don’t know, about eighteen or nineteen? Mature enough to see reason.”
“Come. Sit down. Antonio is talking to Jayce now. He’ll probably calm down after their conversation. Do you mind my asking what your fight was about?”
Kristine didn’t quite know what to say. Shedidmind. But this woman might become her mother-in-law someday. It would not be a good idea to piss her off.
“I’m sure it’ll all work out. Please don’t worry about it.”
Antonio walked in with Jayce on his shoulder. “As I’m sure my wife explained, we estimate that Jayce is only about four years old right now. It hasn’t been that long since he returned, although we don’t know how much flying he did. To tell you the truth,” he laughed, “there are advantages to having him unable to interrupt or talk back.”
“Well, I can understand that. We kept getting…distracted and still have a lot to learn about each other. I don’t even know how old he was before the fire.”
Both parents looked surprised.
“Seriously?” Antonio asked. Then a smile stole across his face. “Ah, yes.” He glanced at his wife. “I remember those early days of ‘getting distracted.’ Don’t you?”
Gabriella set her hand on his knee. “You hush.” Then she focused on Kristine. “I can tell you how old all of our children are. Ryan, even though he looks about twenty-five, is actually thirty-three. And Jayce is thirty-one. Hopefully, he’ll wait until he looks thirty-one before he shifts back. We’ve explained it’s important to wait until we tell him it’s time.
“Now here are the rest. Miguel is twenty-nine, Gabe is twenty-six, Dante twenty-four, Noah twenty-two, and Luca is just nineteen.”
Antonio laughed. “I don’t know how you keep them all straight, never mind knowing how old they all are. How do you remember all that, hon?”
“How? Because I’m a mother, and I’ve given birth to every one of them. That’s how.”
