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Tam stomped out of the room, muttering under her breath.
Sean noted Liv’s bewildered face. “Don’t worry,” he assured her. “She likes Raine and Margot and Erin. Way more than she likes us guys. She just has to make a fuss, on principle. Pay her no mind.”
“Uh, OK.” Paying Tam no mind was a real toughie. “Whatever.”
“Come on.” He slid his arm around her waist. “Let’s go down and meet them. I want to introduce you.”
They crowded into the foyer as Tam disarmed the security. The pieces of the space-age door retracted. A square of greenery quivered at the end of the long garage. A sporty little silver Volkswagen pulled in.
Three women climbed out. A pretty dark-haired woman who was clearly pregnant, a voluptuous freckled beauty with a bushy red mop of hair, and a slender blonde, her fuzzy cloud of pale hair pulled back into a loose braid. Their eyes fastened on to Liv, alight with interest. She braced herself as they crowded into the little room, looking her over.
“Were you followed? Did you bother to check? Did it minimally occur to you?” Tam barked at the tall redhead in the fore.
The woman beamed, and gave her a bear hug. Tam stiffened, holding out her arms like she didn’t know what to do with them. “Great to see you, Tam. We miss you.” She frowned, spanning Tam’s waist with her hands. “You’ve gotten teensy. What is up with that? You been sick?”
“Sick of hearing about it, that’s for sure.” Tam’s eyes narrowed as she returned Margot’s scrutiny. “Oh, God. You’re pregnant.”
Margot’s eyes widened. “But we’re not sure yet.”
“Be sure.”
“How?” Margot demanded. “Did Davy say something to you?”
“No. He didn’t have to. It’s written all over you. Like neon.”
Liv studied the redhead’s Amazonian body, but she didn’t see any neon. Just strong, sexy curves. The brunette, who had to be Erin, grabbed Tam as well, hugging her with the same fearless abandon.
Tam returned the hug, albeit somewhat stiffly. “How’s gestation?” she asked, patting Erin’s rounded belly in a gingerly way.
Erin’s smile was complacent. “Cowlike. Blissful. A boy.”
Tam smacked her forehead. “As if the world needed another McCloud male.” She turned to the blonde, and suffered patiently to be hugged a third time. “You’re not breeding yet, are you? Say you’re not.”
A pained smile flitted over the woman’s face. “Ah, nope. Not yet.”
Tam’s eyes sharpened as she looked her over. “Hmph,” she murmured. “Not from lack of trying, I bet.” She spun around and indicated Liv with a flourish of her arm. “Well, ladies, here she is. The main event. The mild-mannered librarian who sent a contract killer running with his tail tucked. Our kind of girl. Cute, isn’t she?”
“She sure is,” Margot said, her eyes flicking up to Sean’s with a delighted twinkle in them. “Nice work, buddy. She’s yummy.”
“I didn’t, really. Send him running, I mean.” Liv hastened to clarify. “It was just, you know. Dumb luck.”
The women looked at each other. “That’s all it ever is,” Erin told her solemnly. They chortled, as if at some private joke, and smirked at Sean, slapping his ass as they filed by. He suffered this with a look of stoic martyrdom, and followed them down the hall towards the kitchen.
Margot flung an arm over Liv’s shoulder. “Excuse the invasion,” she said. “We were practically peeing our pants from curiosity. Any woman who could wrangle this spaz into shape must have an amazing set of ovaries. We just had to come and gawk.”
Liv blushed. “After the stories Sean tells, I’m gawking too.”
“Oh, Sean talks too much,” Erin said cheerfully. “Don’t listen.”
Tam spun around and blocked the parade. “Erin. I finished a new piece recently,” she announced. “I want to name it for you. May I?”
Erin looked startled. “I suppose. Wow. Could I see it?”
Tam’s smile took on a catlike satisfaction. “Certainly. Right this way.” She led them down a corridor, and up into the octagonal tower, a workroom paneled in dark wood, the effect both stark and lavish.
Entire walls were covered with tiny catalogued drawers. Bars of powerful lighting hung from the high ceiling. Mysterious chunks of machinery were bolted to the heavy worktables. Strange, twisted metal things like tormented mobiles from a goblin’s dreams spun lazily in the breeze from the window. With the tree poking through the clouds, the smell of metal and chemicals, and the backdrop of the sound of the heaving surf down below, it seemed like an ancient alchemist’s lair.
“The finished pieces are here.” Tam led them to a table draped with black velvet and lit with its own bar of lights. Several polished wooden boxes sat on it. Tam flipped one open, and presented it to Erin.
