“True,” Devon says and then frowns. “You know, I never got to test that theory because of the whole Jess thing. I guess I kinda forgot.”
“Try it now,” I suggest, leaning my hip against the counter while Delinda looks on with interest. “But on something other than math.”
“Okay. I have it. Constantine think of a number and I will guess it. I win and Delinda does the sum my way,” Devon says.
CK nods in agreement, smug, as there cannot possibly be any way that Devon will be able to win this. It also makes me wonder at what level is Marguerite teaching my child mathematics, that there are several ways in which to do a sum? Clearly, we are passed 1 + 1 = 2.
“Hm,” Devon ponders, tapping his chin with narrowed eyes at my husband. “Well, I can rule out the obvious, as you aren’t that stupid.”
“Ahem,” CK starts with an annoyed look.
“Are you thinking it now?” Devon asks.
“Yes,” CK replies.
“How do I know you won’t lie about it?”
“You will have to trust me,” CK says with a shrug.
“Okay. Two,” Devon says and then grins in delight as CK splutters, clearly having been caught off-guard by Devon’s correct answer.
“Pay up, old man!” Devon claps his hands in glee.
CK grumbles and pulls out his phone. He taps into it and Devon’s beeps not long after. Everyone seems to have just fallen back into Earth-living except me. Where’s my phone?
“Fifty-five,” Devon says and points to Marguerite, “Eight-nine and three thousand,” he adds to Delinda and then me.
He chortles to himself as we all look on in complete surprise.
“Well, I guess that proves it,” I say. “You are magickly gifted to never lose, my darling boy.”
“Keep that in mind,” he says quietly with a glance at CK.
CK’s face goes red but then he jumps up as the baby monitor makes a shuffling noise.
“She’s just wiggling,” I reprimand him gently. “Stop it.”
“Can’t I go and sit with her?” he pleads. “I won’t pick her up unless she wakes up.”
I laugh at him and hand him the bottle in the bottle warmer. “Go,” I say, making a shooing motion with my hands.
He bends to give me a kiss on the lips and then he is gone.
“Baby girl, time for bath,” I say to Delinda and she nods eagerly. “I’ll bring her back down for dinner in a short while,” I add to Marguerite.
She bobs her head at me and then slides her eyes over to Devon with a little smile.
I raise my eyebrow her, but don’t say anything. I am terrible, but I want to see if he will act on it. He can, of course. But I just wonder if he will.
Chapter 12
Ponte, Italy, November 2014 - Devon
“I should, uhm….” Marguerite stammers at him, suddenly shy, and races from the room.
“Sure,” he mutters to himself and hauls himself off the stool he had been sitting on.
Suddenly alone, he reflects on all that happened today and his part in it. It still turns his stomach to think about what he had to do to Lizzie to get her baby out into this World. She truly is the strongest woman he has ever known. It has made him wonder about his own future with her. If Remiel was Chosen, and Constantine was Chosen and then him and then Cole… All of these fuckers have either conceived, or been thought to be able to conceive, with his sire. What makes him any different? Is there something that she can do to him, like she did to Constantine to bring him up to scratch? It’s something he intends to ask her. Soon.