Page 26 of Klora (Mates of the Mylos #6)
CHAPTER 26
ADRIAN
The diner was bustling but apparently, since our group was so large, our seats had been reserved in advance and everyone else was already here.
“It’s fine,” Klora reassured me. “We’re not late. We are right on time, bang on the dot as you humans say.”
“Okay, but it’s better to be a few minutes early,” I told him. “Like, ten or fifteen.”
He nodded at me in understanding. “I didn’t account for how long it would take to locate your donut at the pharmacy.”
I felt myself flush a deep crimson. From the way the hostess’s lips quirked and she pressed her lips so firmly together after giving me a quick glance before looking pointedly away after he spoke, I knew she’d heard him. Gah! Let the ground open up and swallow me whole now, please!
“Don’t say that where just anyone can hear you!” I hissed and damn it, that had made it worse as now the hostess’s shoulders were shaking as she tried to hold in her giggle.
“Here you are,” she said, showing us to an area alongside one of the long side walls of the diner. Chairs and small tables had been pushed in between a corner booth and next to it to create a single long ‘table’ with enough seats for everyone. All the padded booth seats were taken, leaving only padded chairs for us. I eyed them as Klora acted the gentleman and pulled one out for me with one hand, hoping that the seats were actually softer than the firm looking vinyl cushioning suggested. I noticed too late that he’d carried a familiar bag in, which he was not as subtle as he probably imagined while reaching in with his other hand. Oh, please, God, no.
Of course, my prayers weren’t being answered. I stood stock still as he pulled out the inflated ring shaped cushion. When had he managed to do that? Yes, we’d gotten one that self-inflated if you pulled a tab, but it had definitely been in its box when the cashier placed it in the bag. The bag which now looked empty except for a small yellow box. Cushion now on my seat, he grinned at me proudly. It was a sweet gesture, it really was, and if we’d gotten into one of the booths, he might have gotten away with it. As it was, I knew a few of the others had seen it, including the Lieutenant Commander who was sitting to the left of the chair. I sat down, deciding the best course was to pretend nothing was unusual and play it off. But of course, the God of Humiliation was not done with his party tricks for today. Nope, he waved his imaginary mystical fingers and prompted my mate to sit down and then hand me the bag.
“In case you need more,” he said simply, keeping his voice low. Not that it mattered, seeing as everyone was sitting so very, very close. “The dispensary medic said it was not as effective as our own healing salves.”
“Oh my God!” the human sitting across from Sachuu squealed. “Is that a mating bite? Wow! You guys really are a mate match, huh?” he squealed. He gave Sachuu an apologetic look. “Sorry I thought you might be just giving me a smokescreen in order to work and ignore me last night.”
Sachuu reached across, patting the man’s hand.
“I would never,” he vowed. “I swore to you, no more secrets. If it is something I cannot tell you for security reasons I will simply say so. Everything else, that knowledge is also yours.”
Note to self: do not share any confidences with Sachuu because from what I could see, the Mylos were very literal in their meaning. Anything I said very likely would end up relayed to his mate.
The man gave him a small smile. “Okay. I hear you.” he turned his attention to me. “Sorry, I should have introduced myself when Klora forgot. I’m Richie, Sachuu’s other half, and the cutie here with her pretty plumeria barrette is my sister, Rosie.”
“Sachuu’s my daddy!” she announced proudly. “And you only used to be my brother,” she corrected Richie. “You’re my other daddy now too.”
Richie gave me an apologetic look. “It’s complicated.”
“I adopted her and you are my mate and her other parental figure. There is nothing complicated about that,” Sachuu said.
I laughed. “I get it. I’ve had kids in my class who got adopted by a much older sibling’s new husband or wife, and due to the age difference, called their sibling Mom or Dad as the case might be. It’s more the role and significance of it in a child’s life, I think, than the actual genetics of it.”
“Yeah! The DNA Donut doesn’t matter! That’s just jean nunchuks!” a little boy next to Rosie agreed, to my confusion as I tried to figure out what he meant. Then the penny dropped, and my lips twitched.
“I must interrupt to apologize,” Klora said, looking chagrined. “In my rush to seat my mate and make sure he was comfortable, I was remiss. I should have told you who everyone is.”
“I’m Jimmy!” the irrepressible little lad exclaimed. “I’m getting two new dads and my brother is also gonna now be my for real dad too!”
The human male on his left waved at me. “I’m Chris, the other brother-dad guy he’s talking about. And the two hunks sitting across from us are my mates Korah and Oshar.”
The beaming young woman who sat on Chris’s other side turned out to be his bestie, Lynn, with her mate Yorix beside her in the corner.
“Oh! So you are the bride and grooms!” I exclaimed, relieved to be able to put faces and names to them.
She laughed. “When you say it like that, you make it sound like I’ve gathered a harem!” She waggled her eyebrows comically.
I laughed, all my earlier embarrassment forgotten.
“Congrats on finding your match! Did you really meet Klora when he rescued you? Last night, Oshar told us about what went down.”
I glanced at the two children, not knowing how much to say without possibly scaring them. “Yeah, he did. Me and the kid I was with.”
“You have a kid?” Rosie asked, glancing around with a hopeful expression.
“No. I’m a teacher and he was a kid who came along on our field trip,” I answered vaguely.
Richie stared at Sachuu. “I still can’t believe our parents sank so low as to get involved in something like that.”
“Our DNA Donut was getting a kid to come live with us, but I don’t think he wanted to! And I tolded the police and they came to gets me and then my Daddy Oshar came and gotted me and brung me here and I get to live with him and Chris and Korah forever and forever on a spaceship!” Jimmy told me excitedly.
I tried to parse what he was telling me. Oh! My eyes flew wide.
“You mean it was your parents who were expecting,” I pointed my index finger up at the ceiling to silently indicate Tyrone who was currently above us in orbit, “to come stay at their house while they had him?”
Sachuu grunted. “Indeed. His wife ended up telling us everything they knew, which was only their part of things. It looks like the plot was highly compartmentalized. They were going to homeschool them both and were planning to move to a more remotely rural property after selling their home. They planned to tell everyone they were taking in her sister’s child while she was in rehab for alcohol abuse.”
“That’s…that’s terrible!” I said, my mind agog at just how wild it was that somehow, all these people who were either investigating the case or close friends of those who were, just happened to be so intimately involved in it, even if peripherally.
“And what would you like to drink?” a voice asked and I turned to see a smiling waiter waiting to take my drinks order.
I hadn’t even picked up the menu resting between the sugar shaker and the salt and pepper on the table in front of me, so I went for what should be a safe choice.
“Orange juice and a coffee, please.”
“Decaf or regular?”
“Regular.”
“Same,” Klora told him before he could ask.
“I’ll be back in a moment. Is everyone here now?”
“Yes,” Oshar said.
“There are more wedding guests, but with so many already here who are part of the main wedding party, we decided to make this just us,” Lynn explained to me and I nodded, picking up the menu to take a look as everyone else did so as well.