Page 48 of Sapphire Seas

“Not cooking for a night? I’m down with that,” Kes said. One of the many fun idioms he’d taught me.

“Yeah, I’m down with it too.”

Mattias chuckled. “Okay, my sweet parrot, let’s head out.”

I’m not a parrot though?

Consider it another fun saying, Kes popped into my head. Parrots are smart and mimic humans.

Ahhh, okay. Good to know. Was afraid for a second that something had come loose in his brain.

The moment we stepped inside Ionus happy, but loud home, Kes and I kissed Mattias and went straight for the playroom.

“Unca Kes! Unca Cas!” the dragonets squealed and rushed over to us. Well, mostly. Poor Cade was still a bit wobbly.

“Oh, Ms. Luna, you must tell me how to find the best tutu’s for our girls.”

“I dunno,” she shrugged her tiny shoulders. “Papa and Daddy and Unca Oh get them for me. Daddy!”

Alex came barreling into the room, fire extinguisher in hand. “Where’s the fire?” The children stopped what they were doing and stared at him. “Where’s the fire?”

“Um, there is no fire?” What was I missing here.

“Luna, why did you yell Daddy then?” Alex asked her.

“’Cause Unca Cas wanna know where got tutu’s.” For as young as she was, her vocabulary was quite impressive.

“Goddess above, give me the strength,” Alex muttered, staring up at the sky. “Caspian, I’ll email you the links. Little girl, please stop screaming. You take ten years off Daddy’s life when you do that. I thought your brothers lit something on fire.” Ah, that explains the fire extinguisher.

“Sorry Daddy.” She made a kissy face at him and gave him a loud smooch. “Luff you.”

“I love you too, Princess. Now, Daddy’s gonna get back to cooking dinner. Griffin, you know what to do.”

“Yes, Daddy.” That boy was by far the most adult child I’d ever met. He stood guard over his brothers, watching their every move. Anytime it appeared they may cause mischief, Griff stepped right in and put a stop to it.

He’s intense, isn’t he? Kes asked.

Scarily so.

Luna crawled up on the couch between Kes and me and rubbed our bellies. “Babies hungry.”

Let’s see how intuitive she really is.

“How many babies, Princess Luna?” I asked.

She laid her head against my belly and tapped her finger. One, two, three times before she replied. “Four.”

Did they already tell her, maybe? Kes asked.

I-I don’t know.

“Luna, how many do I have?” she moved to lay her head on Kes’ belly.

“Two,” she held up two fingers. “Ugh, more boys. Hope they no fire.”

“You hope who doesn’t have fire?” Ionus asked her as he and Mattias stepped inside the room.

“Papa!” She hopped off the couch and ran toward Ionus. He scooped her up and swung her around. “Babies. Two boys in Unca Kes’ belly.”