Magical Midlife Love (Leveling Up 4)

If I took the oath.

Three

“How’d you get your son to come?” Austin asked, back to facing me again, bent a little to study my face.

I closed down the link between us so he wouldn’t feel my churning emotions. He might want to talk about things. I most certainly did not.

“Easter break is coming up. He broke up with his girlfriend, so he’s free.” I rolled my eyes, but a grin broke through. I missed the little goblin terribly. Horribly! “I also think he got some pressure from his dad to come home. He’s not really excited about meeting the new stepmom.”

“Oh. Did your ex get remarried?”

I pulled up my shirt to check my blood-crusted skin. A small pink spot of crinkled skin was all that was left of the stab wound.

“No, but you know what I mean. The girlfriend. They’re living together, so it’s probably only a matter of time.”

“Does that…hurt you?”

I furrowed my brow, looking at him, then scoffed at his expressionless face. “Do you think it should? This stoic thing you’ve got going on is annoying. I can’t read you anymore.” I tapped into the magical link again, feeling more confusion. Laughter burbled out of me. “No, it doesn’t hurt me. Honestly, I don’t really care one way or the other. I want him to be happy, and I hope he wants me to be happy. He and I didn’t work out, and that’s okay. I sincerely hope she’s cool, because my son will be the one who suffers if not.”

Austin nodded. “It’s just that a lot of divorces end badly. There are hard feelings on one side or the other.”

“I mean, we’re not friends or anything. But I don’t see the point in being bitter. I wouldn’t change my past, and I’m happy where I’ve ended up. Mostly. Except for some…official house issues.” I pushed away thoughts of that damned office and what was expected of me. “It took some hard times and some heartbreak, but that’s life. The hard times make us appreciate the good times.”

His focus was intense, his eyes rooted to mine, his body frozen.

“What?” I asked, suddenly uncomfortable. “Have I turned into one of those annoying life is sublime people or something? Too chirpy?”

A small smile flirted with his lips, and for once, he didn’t dampen it. “I continually look up to you, Jacinta. It feels like I never really learned the rules of being an adult, and you’re teaching them to me, one by one.”

“Good Lord, Austin, you’re in trouble if you’re getting life tips from me.”

I gestured in the direction of Ivy House, silently asking if he would walk with me. For a moment, I thought he was going to say no—he glanced in the direction of the bar, indecision on his face—but finally he stepped forward.

“I’m a mess,” I said, falling in step with him. “You know I’m a mess. You’re the one that always builds me up when I’m wallowing.”

He shook his head, glancing to his left, where Jasper shadowed us on the other side of the street.

“You can smell him from way over there?” I asked.

“Just barely. I can…sense him. That gargoyle can inflict some serious damage. I don’t need to see or smell him to know he’s there.”

“Like a sixth sense? Women’s intuition type of thing?”

“Exactly, yes. All animals and people have the innate, primal ability to sense danger. It’s built into us. Women have to listen to it more than men because you are so often prey. Shifters are more in touch with their primal sides in general, so we pay attention to it. The best of us have cultivated the sense into a defensive measure.”

“I don’t need to ask if you rank yourself as one of the best.”

“No, you don’t. You already know that I am.”

I shook my head. He wasn’t putting on airs—he was stating a fact.

Something occurred to me. “Damn it. I bet Sasquatch smelled or felt me. That’s how he knew I was there.”

“No, he saw you. The whole street saw you.”

“No one on the other side of the street looked at me,” I argued. “Usually your people acknowledge my presence.”

“They knew you were playing the game, though I really can’t have people stabbing you in public, Jess. More magical people have moved into the area, but there are still a lot of Dicks and Janes. That’s not something they should see. Please remember that in future. But anyway, my people were giving you space. It’s not polite to point out someone’s failures.”

“Well.” I huffed. “Maybe they could have acknowledged me so I’d know my magic wasn’t working.”

“That’d be cheating.”

“You’re quickly becoming my least favorite person.”

He barked out a laugh before wrestling his features back into submission.

I smiled as I watched. “You’re going to have to beat up, like, five people after that outburst.”