What’s New Pussycat(72)

Martine finally smiled, and it felt good. “The way you explained things, you were willing to kill Derrick to save me, Mom. How’s that going to pan out come Thanksgiving when we’re all sitting around the table? Pass the stuffing, attempted murderer?”

Dianna smiled and laughed, too. “Don’t be silly, young lady. I was going to do no such thing. I was going to steal Escobar’s magic while he was out cold and use it to reanimate you and Derrick. But Derrick’s mother saved us all instead.”

Martine let her side sag against the cracked wall, taking deep breaths when Derrick came up behind her and wrapped his arm around her waist, forcing her to lean on him. “Hey, you two all right?”

“I don’t know,” she answered truthfully, smiling at her mother and entwining her fingers with his. “But I think I will be. I think we all will be.”

Faith approached them and held out a hand to Dianna. “I think we need to get to know each other. I mean, we did just commit a paranormal felony together, and we are going to be family whether these two youngsters think so or not. So why not join me, maybe come back to Cedar Glen to get your wits about you—get back on your feet? We’ll take really good care of you,” she coaxed with a smile.

“Um, speaking of a paranormal felony,” Derrick said, interrupting them. “What do we do about him and this mess?” He pointed to Escobar, who was rousing from his unconscious state, and then to the enormous fallout in the hallway.

Dianna’s cheeks flushed red. “Oh, we can’t have these poor tenants come home from work to this, and we certainly don’t want that man out in the hall to remember anything. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. It’s a simple spell. Anyone in the building who might have seen what happened won’t remember a thing when I’m done,” she assured them.

Martine grabbed her mother’s hand and smiled. She didn’t want to let go, didn’t want her mother to run back to Gavin out of fear. There was nothing to fear anymore. Not as long as she was around. “I’m not very good at it, obviously, but if you show me how to do whatever it is you do, maybe I can help you clean up? And will you come back to Cedar Glen, Mom? I’d really love to spend some time with you…”

Another tear seeped from the corner of her mother’s eyes. “What we do, Martine. I’m going to teach you to love being who you are. And I’d love to go to Cedar Glen, honey. As to this mess, this one’s on me. You and your handsome man go home and work things out. You have a lot of talking to do. I’m sure Derrick’s mother will help me, won’t you, Faith?”

Derrick’s mother wrapped an arm around Dianna’s smaller shoulders and smiled. “You bet I will. I say we start with Mr. Warlock here. As a parent, I’m not sure how I can let such poor behavior, by a family member no less, go without some sort of consequences. What do you think, Dianna?”

Dianna laughed as she and Faith picked their way over the debris. “Consequences ahoy!”

Derrick turned Martine in his arms, pulling her close and resting his chin on the top of her head.

She smiled into his chest—relieved and happy. So happy, she was almost afraid to enjoy it. Her mother was coming back to Cedar Glen. That was the first step to leaving her father. For right now, that was enough.

“So, Pussycat, speaking of Cedar Glen. Let’s make a deal.”

Martine chuckled against his pec. “Haven’t we done this before, Farm Boy?”

Tipping her chin up, he kissed the tip of her nose. “We have indeed. But this one’s going to be a little different.”

Melting against the shelter of his body, she wrapped her arms tighter around his waist. “Oh, really. How so?”

“Don’t make any decisions now. Not about your future or your mother or anything else for at least the next week, until the mate. During that week, get to know me. Date me, for lack of a better term. And at the end of the week, we’ll talk about where to go from there.”

“Date you, huh?” she asked on a playful smile. “I hope that means you’re paying for everything because I’m flat broke.”

“It means we do this like two people who really like each other. You stay at my mom’s or Nat’s. I text you lame texts just to say hello. You giggle and twirl your hair. We go out to dinner. We take walks. Maybe I send you some flowers. You know, date stuff.”

“Stay at your mother’s? So no sex until the mate? What kind of hedonist are you?” she teased, pressing her lips to his, woozy with delight that Derrick wanted to court her.