Page 34 of Eye on the Ball
Luckily, Jack had no such fear. “But maybe?”
“I just don’t know. I need to think and talk to my family. I’m sorry, Tess.” She yawned, and I instantly felt awful.
“Rose, no. Please, don’t be sorry. I shouldn’t have hit you with that out of the blue. Are you staying with us?”
“I’m so sorry that we dropped ourselves in on you, Tess,” Alejandro said, looking unhappy. “We were just coming for a quick visit, because Rose was going stir-crazy with her family all hovering.”
“Nobody can hover like my family,” Rose said ruefully. “I miss our daughter, but I needed a break from her toddler magic, too. The babies are coming soon, and I really, really needed a rest.”
“How soon?” Jack’s whole body tensed. “Should I do something? Boil water?”
Rose and Alejandro both laughed. “No, Jack, but thank you. I have at least two weeks to go. But … I’m sorry to impose, but is there any chance we could bunk here for the night? If I don’t have to go home until tomorrow, I think I’ll be able to survive two more weeks of Mom and Granny meddling. And I could really use a nap right now.”
“Of course!” I snapped into host mode.
Ten minutes later, Rose was resting comfortably on clean sheets in my guest room with a glass of water and a few emergency cookies on the table next to her. My cat, who’d been conspicuously absent while magic was being thrown around, had jumped up onto the bed and stretched out next to her.
“No, Lou,” I began, but Rose stopped me.
“Please, can she stay? My cat, Bob, showed up at my house in a rainstorm, too.”
I froze. “How did you know that?” Lou had been a stray who’d, yes, shown up at my house in a storm, but I’d never told Rose or Alejandro that.
“Lou told me.”
Of course she did. I gave my cat a considering look. She’d never talked to me, at least not in words, but she seemed to have no problem communicating with visiting witches and pixie armies.
“How—”
But Rose was already asleep, resting on her side, one hand on Lou’s silky fur. I backed out of the room and quietly closed the door. Alejandro, hovering in the hall, shoved a hand through his hair.
“She’s asleep.”
He sighed and slumped back against the wall. “This pregnancy is so much harder on her than the first one. I thought two babies might be twice as hard, but it’s more like five times as hard. And the babies are so magically active that she doesn’t get nearly enough sleep.”
“I’m glad you came to visit.” Part of me wanted to touch his hand—both for reassurance and to test Rose’s assertion that she’d protected him, too—but I was so conditionednotto touch people I didn’t dare. “You can stay as long as you want.”
“That’s wonderful of you, Tess, but if we stayed longer than tomorrow, you’d have a whole parade of Cardinals descending on your doorstep. The family is … a lot.”
“I know all about intense families. Hey. Are you hungry for some actual food? We could grill something.”
Like I needed to ask. Men and grilled meat—a romance for the ages.
Jack was totally on board with the plan. The two of them headed out with half the contents of my fridge, and I went to my room to take a shower and decompress.
By the time I returned to the kitchen, in jeans and a black, scoop-necked top, my table was covered with platters of burgers, steaks, and sausages. There were grilled buns, too, but not a vegetable in sight.
I shook my head and started slicing lettuce and tomatoes for the burgers and whipped up a quick salad. I also popped a tray of chocolate chip cookies in the oven from the leftover dough I had in the fridge. Sometimes a girl needs chocolate to go with all that meat.
When I closed the fridge, my gaze landed on the invitation I’d put there beneath mySmart Women Readmagnet. We were cordially invited to the preview night of Connor’s Pub tonight. We’d been excited to go, but we couldn’t drag Rose out to a pub, and I wasn’t about to callously trot off to a pub and leave her and Alejandro alone.
Although … maybe they wanted to be alone? From what they’d said about her family …
No use speculating. I’d just ask.
The guys came back in, carrying yetanotherplate of burgers.
“Are we expecting company?”