FULL NOVELXO Whose Bed Have Your Claws Been Under: Chapter 27
THE FOLLOWING SPRING
Paige
“Put it in there,” I told our orc friend, Max, as he passed me carrying a box from the moving van out front. I leaped up and stroked the silky black hair of his half-human daughter, Sydnee, riding in a baby carrier on his back. She gurgled and grinned.
Darrow paused as he followed Max down the hall and gave me a kiss. When he backed away, his adoring gaze took in the ring sparkling on my left hand.
“Can’t wait for our wedding, love,” he whispered, lifting me off my feet in a big hug.
Until we could set everything up for our wedding (using Elisa and Raze’s wedding planner services), we were moving in together. We’d bought a cute house in Monsterville a few doors down from Chastity and Max.
“That deck,” Chastity said, coming in from outside, “I froze my butt off out there, but it was worth it to take in the view.” Her head tilted as she looked Max’s way. “I think their view is even nicer than ours, honey. What do you think?”
Sydnee chortled and kicked her feet when she saw her mom.
“Nothing beats our view.” Max grinned, shaking his head as he continued down the hall with her right behind.
The front door burst open, and Poppy and Bart rushed inside, their arms full of potted plants.
“We got them inside as fast as we could,” Poppy said, peering around for a place to set down a plant. “Where should we put them?”
I waved to the living room on my left. “Maybe near the wall? I’ll move them around later once I’ve figured out where I’m putting the couch.”
After they put the plants down, Bart swept Poppy up in his arms. While she squealed, he carried her through the front door. If I knew them, it might be a little while before they returned with more of my plants they’d transported in their car. They’d eloped two weeks ago, and she was now helping him run his castle wedding venue. She wore long dresses every day, settling into her role as the castle’s new queen.
He’d convinced (I think) his staff that I wasn’t a princess, though one of the women recently messaged me expressing sadness that my right to rule had been wrenched away from me. She said she’d be happy to start a social media campaign on my behalf, demanding my reinstatement as the heir to the throne. I’d thanked her and told her I was happy to live incognito, but that I truly wasn’t a princess. She hadn’t replied.
“We need help out here,” Grannie Vi called from the front lawn. “You need to tell us where Raze should put . . . Is that a real person or just a statue? I swear, between Darrow’s statuary business, his carvings, and those vague rumors about medusas, it’s darn near hard to tell.”
Darrow and I snorted at each other before donning coats and mittens and hurrying outside.
Grannie Vi and Uncle Bub stood on the walk, bundled up in thick, matching coats with white fuzz around the hoods. They leaned on their canes, watching as Raze single-handedly carried a statue of a man across his shoulder, his shiny black shoes thudding down the ramp of the big moving truck. Even now, he wore a designer suit, though it looked great on him, giving him an air of sophistication despite his burly ogre appearance.
“I think Raze should put it with the leprechauns,” Grannie Vi said, pointing her cane to the cluster of knee-high figures standing beneath a leafless tree. One of them moved. I think. I frowned but couldn’t tell. Leprechauns hadn’t joined the human world, had they?
Raze started in that direction with the statue, his glasses already fogging up from the chilly air.
“Actually,” Bub said, pointing in the opposite direction. “Maybe he should put it with the deer.” He squinted. “Are those real deer? Darn, but they’re lifelike. Amazing work, there, Darrow.”
Raze turned and stomped through the snow in the opposite direction.
“They’re not real,” Darrow called out, taking my hand and squeezing it. He bought plastic lawn figures from a phoenix who’d moved to town, then turned them to stone. We thought it might be fun to set up a full Christmas display on the lawn and include nine reindeer. We’d smile whenever we looked at it, and it would be great advertising for the statuary business Darrow was opening here in Monsterville.
“They darn well look real,” Bub said, shaking his head. “We need to get inside before we freeze our patooties off, right, Elvira?”
At her nod, they hobbled up the walk and passed us, entering the house.
“You can put him down . . .” Darrow frowned Raze’s way. “Well, wherever you’d like.”
With a grunt, Raze lowered the statue beside the walk. The stone guy stared toward the road, his hand lifted and his finger pointing. The scowl he’d worn the last time Darrow unfroze him remained. He still wasn’t willing to leave our friends, Luna and Storm, alone, so he would remain stone until we loosened him up again this spring.
Raze frowned as he stared at the statue, his head tilting. He pushed his glasses up as he leaned close to study the guy’s face, gnawing on his upper lip with his tusks. “This must be some of Darrow’s art. I’m not confident I fully understand what you’re aiming for with it, however.”
“That one’s called Contemplation,” Darrow said. “I believe someday, I’ll be able to change his name to Redemption.”
Raze grunted. His gaze sought Elisa who’d come out onto the deck, holding Sydnee in her arms. She sang softly to the little girl while Sydnee kicked her feet and squealed. The longing in Raze’s stoic gaze made my heart ache. Over the past month, they hadn’t come to any kind of agreement as far as I could tell, but I still had hope something wonderful would develop between them.
“I spoke with Venom,” Darrow told me quietly.
“On the phone?” I asked.
“Can you picture Venom speaking on a phone?”
Grinning, I shook my head. “Well, no. But even demons need to communicate with people who aren’t standing in front of them.”
“I imagine he can pop himself just about anywhere if he needs to have a conversation,” Darrow said. “I saw him in town this morning, though. When I explained our situation, he told me he’d stop by later and see if he could persuade our stone man to cooperate. Things might get heated out here.”
A demon. Heated. My laughter rang out, and everyone looked my way. “What?” I asked, splaying my hands wide. “I’m happy.”
Darrow’s arm went around my shoulder, and he kissed the top of my head. “Me too. Couldn’t be any happier.”
“Casserole,” Rylee called out, rushing up the walk with Gunner and their little boy, Josh, right behind her. “I made you dinner.” She stopped beside us, grinning. “Where should I put it?”
“On the counter in the kitchen. Thank you so much,” I said. Storm and Luna had stopped by earlier with food from Storm’s restaurant, plus Violet and Goreg came by with scones and muffins. At this rate, we’d have enough food for a month.
After carrying the rest of our things inside, we thanked everyone profusely for their help and said goodbye.
We locked the front door and leaned against it, smiling as we took in the mess we’d have to sort through before our lives would be settled.
Darrow turned and cupped my cheeks. His gorgeous teal eyes met mine. “What should we eat for dinner, love?”
“Hmm.” I grinned. “I believe we still have some chocolate sauce in the fridge.”