“You don’t have a love life,” Zoe countered. “You’re fourteen. I’m not going to be able to talk your father into letting you date until you’re sixteen, and even then he’s going to follow you everywhere threatening any potential suitor’s life.”
“You’re not really going to do that, are you?” Sami asked her father.
Aric shrugged. “In my head, you’re not dating until you’re forty.”
“That was my plan,” Cormack offered as he shifted Lily so she could fall asleep with her head on his shoulder. “Now I’m a grandfather. I don’t really mind, though. I like being a grandfather. It allows you to do things like get a baby sugared up and then saddle her parents with the cleanup.”
“Oh, so funny,” Aisling muttered, although she offered her father a smirk. “I do remember you threatening me that I wasn’t allowed to date until I was forty. You raised it to fifty when you caught me out with Andy Summers that one night when I was sixteen.”
Cormack’s expression darkened. “You mean the boy who disappeared and was never heard from again?”
“He didn’t disappear. His parents decided to send him to boarding school because ... .” She trailed off, her eyes narrowing. “Wait, were you the one behind Andy being sent to that military school in Maryland?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Cormack replied evenly. “I raised my children and left others to raise theirs.”
“Yeah, but ... Andy had been laughing earlier that week because he said his parents wanted to send him away to school but didn’t have the money.” Aisling folded her arms across her chest and ran her tongue over her teeth. “When he got sent away, he was a crying mess. He said his parents were almost gleeful and wouldn’t tell him where the money came from.”
Cormack’s expression never changed. “I have no idea what you’re whining about. That boy was trouble. His parents wanted to send him away because they couldn’t control him. That has nothing to do with me.”
The gleam in his eyes told me otherwise.
“Unbelievable,” Aisling groused. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“I’m pretty sure things worked out well for you,” Cormack countered. “If Andy Summers had stuck around, who’s to say you would’ve found your handsy cop?”
“Oh, so I should thank you for my wife and child,” Griffin noted. “Good to know. I’ll remember that when my three-year-old is screaming for whipped cream on her pancakes.”
Cormack smirked. “It’s always good to be remembered.”
“You know, I’m really glad we got to know you folks,” Aric offered, giving Cormack an appraising look. “It’s turned into quite the educational experience.”
“Don’t you even think about it,” Sami warned. “If any of my boyfriends go missing, I’ll know you did it.”
“You’re not dating until you’re forty, so I have plenty of time to plot.”
“Or I’ll just marry Rafael. You can’t send him away to boarding school.”
Aric scowled. “Keep it up. I’ll take your phone away again.”
“Who is Rafael?” I asked, trying to change the subject. The conversation was quickly veering out of control. I’d heard the name before but hadn’t followed up properly and I was desperate to find a topic that everybody could engage in rather than poke one another.
“My friend,” Zoe replied. “He’s been with us since Covenant College. Sami has a crush on him.”
“Oh, well, now I don’t feel all that special,” Redmond groused. “I’m just one of the masses.”
“He’s a vampire,” Aric added. “I’ve tried telling her that dating a vampire never works, but will she listen? Of course not.”
“Son, they never listen,” Cormack supplied. “Aisling once brought home a carnival worker.”
Aisling rolled her eyes. “Oh, don’t tell that story. I hate that story. I didn’t bring home a carnival worker.”
Cormack arched an eyebrow. “Did he or did he not collect tickets at the bottom of the Ferris wheel?”
“He did that like once.”
Amusement flitted through Griffin’s eyes as he regarded his wife. “It’s probably a good thing I came along, huh? You were one step away from dating a professional clown, I’m guessing.”
Aisling involuntarily shuddered.
“Speaking of clowns, where is Bob?” Zoe queried, glancing around the table. “I haven’t seen him all day.”
“He left yesterday,” Cormack replied. “He said he had things to check on. I didn’t figure it was my place to tell him what to do.”
“Maybe we should look for him,” I suggested. In truth, Cernunnos’ disappearance had been making me antsy. “He’s supposed to be part of the team. We’re working together. I don’t think it’s a good sign that he just disappeared. He could be in trouble.”
“He’s not in trouble,” Zoe countered. “We’ve been over this. He’s only here to try to point us in the direction he wants. He won’t actually join us in a fight.”
“How can you know that?” Cormack queried as he rubbed Lily’s back. The baby hadn’t moved for several minutes, telling me she’d conked out.
“I’ve met him twice before,” Zoe explained. “The first time we were heading out to take on a cult of crazies because they had my parents.”
I nodded. “That’s why Paris contacted you. One of our crazies happened to have ties to one of your crazies.”
“Yeah. We had to hike to this compound to make sure we got there unnoticed,” she continued. “We were in the woods and we found this ring of mushrooms.”
“Paris said it was called a fairy ring,” Aric volunteered.
“I don’t really care what it was called,” Zoe groused. “All I know is I was minding my own business and then, suddenly, I’m zapped into a hole in the ground. I’m not kidding when I say that. It was an actual hole in the ground, with snakes and bugs and a filthy god who wanted to offer me the chance to abandon my husband and friend and take off with him.”
“You obviously didn’t do that,” Cormack countered.
“No. I told him I had what I wanted. He spouted nonsense about seeing multiple possibilities for me. I told him I knew where I would end up, what I needed
