“I am sorry to say it, but she might yet have headaches then,” Russell murmured.
“Si.” Dante sighed the word unhappily. “And you are no sorrier to say it than I to think it. After the explosion and turning and now this accident, she has suffered enough.” He shook his head. “I should have accompanied her to the ladies’ room.”
Russell shrugged. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty, my friend. None of this is your fault.”
Dante didn’t agree, but merely changed the subject. “Where is Francis?”
“At the gate,” Russell glanced back the way he’d come. “He asked me to come check on Mary for him.” He turned back and smiled at Dante. “He likes her. So do I.”
“I always knew you were both intelligent men,” Dante said solemnly and Russell laughed. Smiling faintly, himself, he asked, “So you are back on the gate. Does this mean Francis is done with wanting to become a hunter?”
“Oh, hell no,” Russell said dryly. “He was all ready to rush right down to Venezuela to hunt down the bastard behind those men who fried in the van. It took a lot of talking to convince him to wait until he has had some more training.”
“Has he not already had training?” Dante asked with surprise.
Russell grimaced and nodded reluctantly. “Yes, but—”
“But you have convinced him he needs more because you do not wish him anywhere near danger. You do not wish to lose him,” Dante suggested sympathetically.
Russell ran a weary hand through his short fair hair and nodded. “I waited a millennia for him, and while I did not recognize that he was my life mate immediately on encountering him, once I did . . .” He shrugged. “I could not bear to lose him now, Dante. I could not go back to the lonely existence I was living before him, especially now that I know what I would be missing.” He paused and shook his head. “I do not know how Lucian bore it all those millennia after losing his first life mate in the fall. I could not do it were I to lose Francis.”
Dante nodded, understanding completely. He already felt the same way about Mary.
They were both silent for a minute, and then Russell cleared his throat and said, “The reason Francis wanted me to check on Mary was because, as he reminded me, we never did get to that shopping trip, and he would still very much like to help her shop.”
Dante glanced at him with surprise. “He wanted you to ask that for him?”
“Francis has issues with rejection,” Russell said quietly. “His family turned their back on him when they realized he preferred men to women.” He smiled wryly and added, “In a way, he was more alone than I when we met. I, at least, had my family.”
Dante nodded. “I am sure Mary would enjoy his company when we shop. But . . .” He hesitated, not wanting to offend either man.
In the end, he didn’t have to figure out a way to word his request. Russell grinned and suggested, “But you want to ensure he dresses her like Barbie and not Stripper Barbie?”
Dante nodded with relief, and then grinned and said, “Not that I would mind one or two Stripper Barbie outfits for at home.”
“But the majority of the clothes should probably be more Next-Door-Neighbor Barbie,” Russell said with amusement. “I understand completely and shall pass that along.”
“Thank you,” Dante said with a smile.
“Give us a shout when she wakes up and wants to go. I shall talk to Mortimer about arranging someone to take over the gate.”
“There will probably be no need,” Dante said, glancing toward the house and the window of the bedroom Mary inhabited. “I suspect she will sleep through the night. We probably will not shop until tomorrow afternoon.”
“Just call then and we’ll come,” Russell said and slapped his shoulder before turning to head back around to the front of the house.
Dante watched him go, and then turned to see Bailey walking back toward him, her duty done. He squinted his eyes and watched her legs carefully as she walked. She was not yet used to the somewhat clunky cast, and it slowed her down a little, but as he had said to Mary, she wasn’t limping at all.
Thoughts of Mary made him pat his leg.
“Come on. Let us go check on our Mary,” he suggested and turned toward the house.
Bailey immediately turned toward the house and began to move more quickly. In the end, she reached the door before he did and waited patiently for him to open it so that she could rush inside and up the stairs, eager to see her mistress.
Mary was woken up by more than eighty pounds of dog leaping on top of her. It was accompanied by angry whispers in Italian that could only be Dante, she thought with amusement, as she reached out to pet her dog and try to calm her.