“I never said that,” Mandy protested as Celeste and Taylor followed her into her room. “Truman’s a great guy. He’s just not for me. I’m sure he’ll make some were-chicavery happy.” As she said that, she crushed the coffee mug in her hand, and it shattered. Hot coffee splashed her shirt. “Oops,” she muttered.
“Yeah, I can see how you wouldn’t like him,” Celeste mused. “You’re probably holding out for someone with a lot more money and prestige. He just works security for the pack, right? Low-level drone. Kind of a loser.”
“Quit being such a fucking snob!” Mandy snapped. “Who the hell cares about money? Truman’s gorgeous and funny and sexy, and whoever gets him will bevery lucky!” Then she flushed red. “Oops.”
Celeste was grinning hugely. “Got you. You’re in luuuurve,” she said. “With your mate.”
She looked at Taylor.
“How did I do?”’ she asked.
Taylor held up her hand and high-fived Celeste. “You did great,” she said. “You have so nailed this pack/best friend thing down. I don’t know why you thought you weren’t good at it; you’re a natural.” Celeste felt a warm glow settling inside her.
Mandy looked away, out the window. “You want the truth? I liked Truman from the first second I saw him, back when I was pretending to date Grant, and I avoided him because I knew I could never be with him. I consider you guys my friends. If you are my friends, please don’t ask me why.”
“Oh. Suddenly this isn’t so fun anymore.” Celeste looked at Mandy with sympathy. “I won’t ask why, and I won’t bring it up again. But if you ever want to talk about it, I’m all ears.”
And Mandy and Celeste split up to pack their bags.
Jeffrey was very excited to take the helicopter back to Somerville.
He was less excited when they went into court that afternoon and he had to talk to Rhona again.
This time, when they headed back to the house, they had a whole parade of cars with them. Grant had rented ten SUVs, all of which were the same make, model and color. He and Jeffrey and Celeste rode in one of the middle vehicles, to make it harder for any would-be kidnappers to figure out which vehicle they were in. They had a total of fifty werewolves with them, including Mandy and Truman. They would travel to and from town in a group.
When they went back to the house, Grant went to the media center to confer with Talbot and Ford, and Jeffrey played in the yard outside, with Reynaldo watching.
A little while later, Jeffrey came back in to the house. He was unusually quiet.
“Do you want to tell your mother something?” Reynaldo asked.
Jeffrey looked at Celeste. “Reynaldo and me were playing tag but he was too fast for me. So I changed into a cub and ran into the bushes because I wanted to win. I’m not supposed to do that.”
“Took me a couple of minutes to find him,” Reynaldo said, looking flustered. “I’m sorry.”
“Jeffrey!” Celeste said, exasperated. “You put yourself in danger doing that. If anything happened to you, I would be sad forever and ever. You need to have a grownup watching you all the time.”
“I know,” Jeffrey said. He looked so miserable that Celeste was taken aback.
“It’s all right. Nothing happened. All right, let’s go find your dad and see what time he wants to eat dinner.”
“I’m going to send myself to bed without supper or TV right now,” Jeffrey said. “I’m not even going to get a bedtime story.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Celeste protested.
“I’m not hungry anyway,” Jeffrey said quietly, and marched off to his room.
Celeste went and fetched Grant to tell him what had happened.
“I’ll go talk to him.” Grant closed up his laptop, went and got a plate of cold cuts for Jeffrey, and went in to his room.
She stood in the hallway, listening. Jeffrey refused to eat. So Grant started reading one Jeffrey’s favorite storybooks, but he deliberately got it wrong.
“That’s not how it goes!” Jeffrey said indignantly.
“You know what, you’re right. You’re better at reading than me. Can you help me?” Grant asked.
“Really, Dad. You need how to learn to read better. What if you see a sign on the road and you can’t read it? You might get lost.” Now Jeffrey sounded a little worried.
