Page 19 of Immortal by Morning (Argeneau #37)

“I noticed there is a sit-down arcade table for two in the living room,” Roberts mentioned as soon as Abril was out of the

kitchen.

Crispin glanced to him in question.

“You should go play games with her on it,” he said. “You might both relax enough to actually talk.”

“What can we talk about?” Crispin said with a little frustration. “I cannot tell her who and what I am.”

“No, but you can tell her about some of the jobs we have had maybe, or talk about your family.”

When Crispin glanced to him askance, Roberts said with exasperation, “I do not mean tell her about your family’s origins.

Just tell her you have brothers and sisters. And that your father has remarried and lives here in Canada, which is why you

moved here seven years ago. To be closer to your father and his wife. Things like that,” he suggested.

Crispin nodded slowly as he considered that. There were things he could talk to her about after all. And maybe if he told her about his family and such, she would be willing to

tell him things about herself too. He’d really like to learn more about her.

“Go on,” Roberts urged. “Catch her as she returns from the laundry room and convince her to play a game with you and talk.”

Crispin eyed his partner with amusement and pointed out, “You know I am older than you?”

“Yes,” Roberts agreed, and then said, “And?”

“And yet you are the one giving me instruction on how to woo my woman,” he pointed out. “It is not as if you have any experience

with life mates yourself. Do you?” he added, because for all he knew Roberts had found and lost a life mate before they’d

ever met. The two of them were friends as well as work partners, and knew a lot about each other, but something like that

might have been too painful to talk about.

“No. I have not yet had experience with a life mate,” Roberts assured him. And then, a wicked grin curving his lips, he added,

“But I am also not trying to think when my mind is stuck between Abril’s thighs. So, my brain may be processing a little more

clearly... and I am happy to help. But I expect the same in return when I find my life mate, if I am ever that lucky.”

“You will find her,” Crispin assured him as he stood up. “And I shall definitely return the favor.”

After checking the wash, Abril led Lilith out of the laundry room and down the hall to the living room. Once there, she told Alexa to set a timer for the time left on the washing machine.

Gina had an Alexa smart home hub, display, or speaker in nearly every room in the house. Abril had thought it excessive at

first, but couldn’t deny they came in handy. She waited for Alexa to tell her the timer was set, then turned, intending to

head back to the kitchen. But she stopped abruptly when she saw Crispin coming around the corner toward her.

“Roberts mentioned there was an arcade table in here somewhere and suggested we play a game to pass the time,” he announced,

slowing as he drew near.

She half expected him to keep walking until he was almost on top of her and then kiss her again. That being the case, his

words and the fact that he stopped a good three feet from her were both a surprise and maybe even a little disappointing.

Not that she wanted him to ravish her, she told herself with sarcasm.

“How does that sound?” Crispin prompted. “Will you play with me?”

Abril’s mind was definitely in the gutter, because the images that popped up in her head at those words had nothing to do

with an arcade game. She had to physically shake her head to get the sexy, naughty images that had assailed her out of her

mind. In a bid to avoid looking at him, Abril turned to look at the two-seater arcade table instead.

“I’ve never actually used it,” she admitted as she walked around the couch and crossed the room toward the game.

“I’m not even sure if Gina has. I think she bought it at one time because she used to enjoy playing games on an old one at a coffee shop near her university when she was in school. But it was way before my time.”

“Then we will both be equally unskilled at it,” Crispin said lightly as he followed her. “Come on. It will be fun. And we

can talk while we play.”

To Abril that almost sounded like a threat. Not that she would mind talking to him, but it seemed to be something they’d had

trouble with up until now. The idea of scrambling to try to play a game she’d never played before, while trying to make conversation

with a man she’d never yet been able to hold a conversation with was somewhat disconcerting. But when he turned on the machine

and sat down in one of the seats, she gave in and took the opposite seat herself.

“There seem to be a lot of games on here,” Crispin commented as they looked over the starting screen. “Which one do we try?”

Biting her lip, Abril looked over the list until she saw a name she recognized. “I’ve seen the movie Pixels , so how about we play Pac-Man?”

“What does a movie named Pixels have to do with Pac-Man?” Crispin asked with interest.

“Oh, well Pixels is about these older dudes who used to play arcade games when they were young and—” She stopped because, frankly, it would

just take too long to explain and she admitted, “It would be easier just to show you the movie.”

When he hesitated, she added, “I know Gina has Pixels in her Apple movie library. We could watch it first and then play the game,” she suggested. “It might help us at least know

what we’re doing when we try to play.”

When he nodded, almost reluctantly, Abril jumped to her feet and started toward the other end of the living room and the entry. “We can watch it in the kitchen so Roberts can watch too.”

“Roberts has to watch the tent,” he pointed out with amusement. “That’s what we are here for.”

“He can watch the tent and the movie too,” she said reassuringly. “Besides, it’s probably only an hour and a half long. It’ll

be fun.”

Much to Crispin’s amazement, he actually enjoyed the movie. A surprise because he had never bothered much with movies before

this. Especially since most of his life he’d done his best to avoid people as much as possible. All of his jobs previous to

this one as homicide detective had been mostly solitary pursuits that left him unhampered by the thoughts, joys, sorrows,

and madness of mankind. Both mortal and immortal.

In truth, this was the first job Crispin had taken in centuries that involved dealing with the public. He’d only taken on

the job of homicide detective here in London at his father’s request, to help out the rogue hunters in Southern Ontario. It

seemed their numbers had been somewhat depleted of late by a good portion of the Enforcers finding their life mates. Finding

a life mate tended to make immortals extremely undependable. A kiss goodbye in the morning could end up being a passionate

encounter that left both life mates unconscious. It was hard to get to work on time when you were in an unconscious heap on

your entry floor.

Crispin knew it wasn’t just the need for hunters that had made his father call him about taking this job.

He suspected Basil Argeneau was hoping his son would find a life mate, something he probably would never have done had he stayed home alone all the time.

Crispin hadn’t thought that finding a life mate was very likely at the time.

Now he almost smiled as he could imagine his father’s reaction when he told him about Abril.

“Surprisingly enough I actually enjoyed that,” Roberts said as the credits began to roll.

Abril snorted at that claim. “You hardly watched it. You were staring out the window at the empty tent most of the time.”

“It is what we are here for,” he pointed out with a faint smile, and then insisted, “Besides, you are exaggerating. I saw

far more movie than not, and am certain I did not miss any of the good parts. It was very entertaining. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. It’s Gina’s movie,” Abril said, standing up and walking over to fetch herself a glass. Pausing, she turned

to raise her eyebrows at the two men, “Does anybody else want some water? Or I can get you something else. Beer? Pop or a

coffee maybe?” she added when neither man jumped at the offer of a beer. She hadn’t really expected them to, but had made

the offer anyway.

“I shall take some water, please. But I can fetch it for myself,” Crispin said as he stood and moved down the kitchen toward

her.

Ignoring that last part, Abril stuck one glass under the ice dispenser, let it fill halfway up, then turned and handed it to Crispin before setting the second glass under the dispenser while he carried his glass to the sink to add water to the ice cubes.

“I am not sure how a car being chased around by a big smiley face will translate in a two-seater arcade game, but it should

be interesting,” Crispin commented, handing her the glass he’d just filled with water and taking the glass of ice cubes from

her when she stepped up to his side.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Abril said cheerfully.

“I guess so,” he agreed.

As it turned out, the actual Pac-Man game was different than the Pac-Man they had seen in the movie. In the movie, the good

guys had been called the ghosts, riding in cars being chased by a big yellow smiley face who was Pac-Man and also apparently

the bad guy. In the game, they played the big yellow smiley faced Pac-Man, making him the good guy... maybe. Crispin wasn’t

sure who was good and who was bad, since as the yellow guy they occasionally went after the ghosts too. Although, the other

guys, or ghosts, always seemed to be coming after them. Even so, he and Abril soon got the hang of it and it was actually fun.

Mind you, it was also terribly distracting and kept him from being able to start that conversation Roberts had suggested he

have with Abril. At least at first. They had been playing for perhaps twenty minutes or so, when he finally got enough of

a handle on the game to try to talk to her.