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Life’s a Beach
Ahh, life.
So, it’s Monday again. Paxton’s home from the camping trip. Sure, she and Renae are dating, though to hear her talk about the trip, it doesn’t sound much different from a pair of friends going on a trip. Guess it’s hard to be romantic while the parents are right there.
The news ran a small story about Damon Michaels. His official story is disappearing from public view for a week or so due to a ‘personal family matter.’ The TMZ crowd is going nuts trying to come up with an explanation. I guarantee not even their wildest theories will be close to the truth.
Got an email from Quentin earlier this morning. He’s feeling better and plans to take a week or so to recover his strength before getting to work fixing the manuscript. He wanted me to let Tammy know Thae will be safe. He’s going to add a new character based on Lindsey and have her essentially do exactly as we did, sneak into the castle and whisk the child queen away to safety. The Lindsey character is going to be a member of a secret magical order or some such thing. Thae will probably end up at the temple where we left her, secretly spending the rest of her life there as a commoner. Hey, she won’t be rich but she’ll live out her whole life without being murdered. I call that a win.
All in all, it seems things worked out fairly well for everyone. Quentin didn’t say either way if he’s going to keep the zombie stuff in the book. Unless he writes in a vampire causing trouble, which seems totally unlikely as he doesn’t do those kinds of stories, there’d be no way to explain it short of blaming Malin Normund for letting his magic go out of control. Nope. Quentin does not do those kinds of stories. In his world, vampires are absolutely just monsters. They’re not romantic, or mysterious, or alluring. They are fiends to be killed. Granted, he hasn’t yet involved vampires in his stories beyond hinting they might exist somewhere in the world.
So, yeah. I doubt he’s going to add a villain based on Nesanth.
Speaking of Nesanth… I can’t help but wonder if I’ve maybe not seen the last of those two. Seems a habit of mine to make mortal enemies of dark masters. Time will tell if Nesanth is the type to carry a grudge or if her centuries-long catfight with Demetria will go on without me. I’d say I wonder what the hell Nesanth did to Demetria to get the woman so angry she follows her around for actual centuries just to ruin everything she tries to do… but I don’t want to know. Really, I don’t want to know.
“Hey, Ma…” Tammy strolls into the living room wearing a black bikini, sunglasses, and flip-flops, with a purple towel draped around her neck. “Wanna go to the beach?”
I blink, then pause Judge Judy. “Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”
My daughter tilts her head at me like I said the sky was polka-dotted. “It’s almost three in the afternoon—are you okay?”
“Oh wow. Is it?” I fan myself. “I must’ve napped.”
“You did stay up all damn night at Kingsley’s.” Tammy winks.
Okay, you know how kids get squirmy and uncomfortable when their parents talk about ‘romantic stuff’? Yeah, Tammy’s figured out she can turn the tables on me by hinting that she knows exactly what Kingsley and I did. My turn to feel awkward. She’s lucky I don’t have it in me to take things too far trying to out squirm each other.
Paxton races into the living room. She’s wearing a pink one-piece bathing suit and heart-shaped sunglasses. “Did someone say beach?!”
Obviously, the girls conspired. No way the younger one heard Tammy ask about the beach and got changed this fast. I can’t say no to the contagious happiness coming from both of them. Also, dammit, it’s been too long since I got my beach bum on. It’s almost June, after all. Tammy’s in her last few weeks of school before she’s a free woman.
We’re going to have one hell of a summer. This will be our celebration of her full passage into the adult world.
Time to have fun—before fate throws more crazy at us.
The End
