“It is when you not telling does this to him,” Devon points out.
She looks down at Cole and then back up to Devon. “This is not my doing,” she says.
“Yes, it is. He just told me that it is hurting him, and he has had enough hurt for one lifetime. Give him a break,” Devon says candidly.
“I can’t,” Caroly
n says, chewing her lip.
“You can if you want to be with him,” Devon presses.
“No, I really can’t!” she wails and Devon steps back from her near-hysterical reaction.
“What do you mean?” he asks cautiously.
“I have tried to tell my son about his father, but every time I try to say the words, I just can’t.” She is looking a little bit on the crazy side. “I know how crazy that sounds, but the father of my child is…” She stops speaking and her mouth forms a tight, grim line.
“Err,” Devon says as he sees exactly what is going on here, but he can’t tell her.
“I don’t even know why I am telling you this,” she babbles, now able to speak again. “You must think I am some sort of lunatic.”
“No, no, I don’t,” Devon says. Lizzie is such a conniving little bitch at times. She has spelled this poor woman to not reveal that Cole is the child’s father. “Perhaps wait until Cole is sober and try again later,” Devon suggests.
“I don’t know what good it will do,” she says with a sigh. “I love him, and I want him to be happy. I didn’t know this was because of that. I thought that whore ex of his was working him over.”
Devon cringes at the venom in the word “whore.” Lizzie won’t be happy about that.
“Sorry, you probably know her,” Carolyn says with a flush.
“You could say that,” Devon says.
“You are a good friend to him,” she says softly. “Thank you for butting in.”
“No worries, I always stick my nose where it doesn’t belong,” Devon says and grins at her and she goes a bit shy and curls her hair over her ear.
“Well, thank you,” she says. “I will try and talk to him again later.”
“Much later,” Devon advises, with a look back at the snoring Cole.
“Yeah,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “Nice to meet you…?”
“Devon,” he says.
“Devon,” she repeats with a nod and then leaves.
Oh, holy crap! How the fuck is he going to get Elizabeth to reverse this spell? Well, there is only one way to find out. He leaves a note for Cole to wait until he has returned before he should go looking for Carolyn and then he Astraports back home into Lizzie and Constantine’s bedroom.
“Do you mind?” Constantine asks him. “We are in the middle of something.”
“You are always in the middle of something,” Devon drawls as Lizzie giggles at him from her position on top of her husband. “In fact, do you guys do anything except fuck and argue?”
They look at each other with such a disgustingly loving look, Devon wants to hurl his latest sandwich up. He needs to get his act together and ask Lizzie again. She wants it. He knows it. But the longer he doesn’t do it, the worse it gets with Constantine. He knows he is going to be in serious jeopardy when he finally does ask her, and she says yes. Constantine is going to come at him. Hard. He knows it is part of the reason he has hesitated. Lizzie will protect him, when she is here. But that is half the fucking problem. She tends to disappear at a moment’s notice, and while he isn’t afraid of Constantine – much – he isn’t really up for dying the moment he gets exactly what he has always wanted. It’s a catch twenty-two. He should just grow a pair.
“What is so urgent that you couldn’t wait?” Constantine asks him and places his hands over Lizzie’s tiny breasts to cover her up. She pushes his hands away in annoyance.
“I need to speak to you,” he says to her. “There is some seriously messed-up shit going on.”
“Why? What this time?” she grumbles. “I haven’t done anything.”