“No one.I wanted to wait like you do until Christmas.I know they think that we’re not having any, but this will be a great surprise for them all.”She said it had been for her as well.“I bet.When we said we’d have them someday, I never dreamed it would be so late in our lives.I’m just glad that we talked about it and got it straightened out for us before we created one.”
Melbourne put his hand on her still flat belly and kissed his mate.She was his everything, and he would tell anyone that.As soon as her cell phone rang, he let her go to answer it.Little bit of Sunshine was doing so well that she’d opened two more restaurants across the state.And he’d been having fun supporting her.
“I want to tell your mom first.She’ll be the happiest.She’s forever hinting about how we’ve never made her and your dad grandparents.I think they have like thirty grandkids and at least a dozen great-grandkids.One more will be lost in the crowd.”He didn’t think his mom would ever be unhappy about another child in the family.She was as bad as his dad about spoiling them.“And your grandma.She’ll need to be there when we tell your mom.Which I wonder now if they’d already known or not.I know that they can be sneaky.”
“Dad might know, but he’d never tell until we said something.And I’ve been staying away from Fowler, too, so that he doesn’t know.I can’t seem to keep anything from him.”She lay her head on his shoulder.“I love you, darling wife.I don’t know how I could be so happy every day with you in my life.But I am.More so daily.”
“I love you too.”She didn’t move, and he didn’t rush her.He had things he was working on, but there was never anything as important as she was when she needed him.“Do you suppose we should retire?”
“From what?”He was slightly distracted or might have caught onto her feelings.“Retire from what, love?We already don’t work but a couple of days a month.You do go in and do the ordering because you like to stay on top of that, but you don’t go into the restaurant unless you have to.I’m not mayor this time, but with the elections coming up, I’m a shoo-in for that job.And it’s a piece of cake now that everything is in working order around town.Are you asking me if we should go on a long vacation?Because if you are, I’m all for it.Before the baby is born.”
“I’d like to see Europe again.Perhaps take a month off and go see the world.I don’t care.”They’d been all over the world in some capacity or another.Just going on a trip or working for the family.They would be asked to do it because they could without children.Children could make business difficult when you had them hanging around your legs.He couldn’t wait until he had a few doing the same.They’d already decided on only having two or three.More than that, and they’d be too set in their ways.They were kind of anyway.Set in their ways, Melbourne thought.When they were getting annoyed by their nieces and nephews, they decided it was time to have their own before they got to the point of being annoyed by their own children.
Melbourne did his own investments and was quite good at them.When he finished up, making sure to invest in the smaller companies too, he looked up to find the youngest of Fowler’s children sitting in the chair across from him.He looked around before speaking to her.
“How did you get here?”Celesta shrugged and told him she wanted to talk to him.“All right.But your parents know where you are, right?I mean, you’ve not gone missing again, have you?”
She’d done that once before.Come up missing from the other realm, and no one could find her anywhere.Come to find out she was in this realm playing with his brother’s children, having tea and cookies with their dolls.She said she’d gotten bored with playing with her brothers.She told him that her momma knew where she was.
“All right, sweetie, tell me what it is I can do for you.I’m all ears.”She sighed, and he looked around the room.If he were honest with himself, he never really enjoyed this child’s company.She was odd and seemed to be focused on the rules a great deal.“I was just going to have some lunch.Have you had any yet?”
“Not yet.I was hoping that you and I could have some together.I have something important to tell you.”He got up from his desk and held her hand while they entered the kitchen.“You don’t need to be afraid of me, Uncle Melbourne.I’d never harm you.”
“I know that.I’m not afraid of you, honey.”He didn’t think he was until she brought it up, however.“Why would I be afraid of you?You’ve never done anything to me to make me think that you’d harm me.”
She didn’t say anything more while he got them out some sandwiches.Since there were children coming by their home all the time, he and Sammy made sure there were plenty of snacks and good food for them to eat when they dropped in.This was unusual because Celesta lived in the other realm with her parents.He handed her some carrot sticks to go with her sandwich.He was halfway through his when she looked at him again.
“Daddy is freaking out, and only you can help him.”He said that he’d never seen Fowler freaked out and wondered what had happened to him.“I told him something today.And he saw me kill my great-grandfather.He was a bad man.”
Celesta was just a child and hadn’t killed anyone, he thought.Trying to make it so that she’d not be upset with him, he asked her how she’d killed him when the dragon slayer was said to have done it.She nodded and drank some of her juice before answering.
“Did you know that he was beating on Great Grandma?”He said that he’d not.She’d never said a word.“He was.Hurting her so badly that she would have to lie down for days at a time to heal.It wasn’t good for her to have to do that.”
“How did you find out?”He was going gently with the child.He didn’t want her to tell her dad that he’d made fun of her in any way.Not that he was afraid of Celesta, he wasn’t.He just thought her odd.She told him that the faeries had told her.“Well, that’s a good reason to kill him off, but I’d heard that someone else had done it.Unless you’re telling me that you’re the dragon slayer.Are you?”
He’d been joking.Or at least trying to make a joke about how she couldn’t be the slayer.But all she did was stare at him as if he should be getting something that she was telling him.Looking around the room, he leaned down to the little girl and asked her in a whispered voice if she was the slayer.
“Yes.”He leaned back in his seat and continued to stare at her.He didn’t think she was kidding him or lying to him.He thought that was what was so frightening about what she’d said.“Great Grandma knew right away.Dad is freaking out.Will you go and talk to him?He loves you the most and trusts your word.I’d never hurt anyone in this family now that Great-grandfather is gone.He was hurting her, and that’s not right.”
“No, that’s not right.”His mind was in turmoil.He couldn’t capture one thing to say to Celesta.So he asked her the first thing that came to mind.“Was he hard to kill for you?I mean, you’re so small.I don’t doubt that you did it.I don’t know why I say that when you’re just a child, but I know that you did it.”
“I did it.And no, it wasn’t hard.I just removed his head from his body.I’m powerful.I’ve spoken to the elder faeries.They said that there hasn’t been a slayer around for decades.More than some of them can count.”He agreed with her, telling her that he didn’t think there had been one since he’d been a child.“You’re right.Not for a long time.But I was needed now, and I had to come forth.Great-grandfather was going to behead her next, and I couldn’t allow him to do that.”
“Is it true that he was hurting the children as well?I’d never seen it, but I’ve heard from some reliable sources that he’d been hurting them as well.”She told him that he was going to start beheading them, too, as he didn’t like children.“I didn’t hear that part, but I’d heard that he’d been hurting them.I hear more than my brothers, I think.”
“Yes, we all can come to you when we have a problem, and you take care of it.You had a meeting with him today.Right?”He said she was correct.That he was going to talk to him about hurting the children all the time.“He would have denied it, but you have proof, didn’t you?”
“I do.Two of your brothers were going to come forth and tell on him.It took me a long time to convince them that they’d be all right.”Celesta said he would have killed them both.“You’re sure about that?Never mind.Of course you are.You’re the slayer.”
“I am.”She was so small sitting at his table that he wanted to pick her up and carry her to her parents.But he was too far in now to think that she wasn’t who she said she was.He believed her.“Don’t be afraid of me.”
“I’m not.I don’t know why, but I’m not.I’m sort of relieved, actually.”He laughed a little and felt stupid for it.“This is all true, isn’t it?I…he would have killed them if I’d had them go forward with my plan.”
“You would have died as well.”Nodding, he knew that on some level, he could have been killed by the man, too.“I protected the three of you.It was the only way.You’re all safe now.”
They didn’t say anything more but sat finishing their meal.When Celesta said that she was finished, he helped her down off the chair and helped her wash up.While he was on his knees in front of her, she touched her fingers to his brow.The warmth from the touch was more than he could have hoped for from her.
“You’ll go and talk to my daddy, please?”He nodded, then said that he’d talk to him as soon asshe was ready to go back.“I’m ready.I want him to feel safe.I don’t think he believes me when I say that I’m the slayer.”
