The first night, she jotted down the next scene in her magical Finland book as a surprise for Nikos. He loved it when she read it to him before bedtime.
Over the next few days, once the evening closed in, if there was nothing else claiming her attention, she was drawn to her desk in what used to be that guestroom, which was now her own study.
One night she was writing away when Cleo called outside her study, “Kyria Jen? There’s a concert going down at Ionas’s place. Come with us pleasepleaseplease?”
“I’ll be right there!” She just wanted to finish this sentence. . .
She finished that sentence and three more, then tore herself away. She found Nikos leaning against a pillar, smiling. “More on that story?”
“Yes! I think I see my way to the end. I think.”
“Do you know what changed?” he asked.
“Yes. I’m writing about me. And here.”
His eyes widened in mock alarm. “You’re setting it here?”
“Nope. Still in my magical Finland. And you wouldn’t recognize anybody, though they’re all there—I learned that from Godiva. It’s thanks to you.”
“Me! I’m glad I inspired yo
u, but how?” He caught her hand as they fell in step.
“Because you gave me this life. In two ways, actually. Saving me, of course, from electrocution, but also by reaching for my phoenix. I am surrounded by the magic I always craved. It was this life I always wanted. I don’t know if it is due to that phoenix DNA or what, but, well, I realized that if I disguised everything, I could write about how wonderful my life is, for somebody who also wants this life but isn’t lucky enough to meet her mate.” She kissed him. “Or to turn into a shifter. Of course, that’s what I’m trying for. I might fall flat on my face, but at least it’s fun trying.”
He laughed, then they jumped up onto the low wall, shifted, and flew side by side down to the harbor.
The days slipped away, turning into two weeks, then three, always with so much to do and to see. And to discover—life with Nikos was filled with those moments of great beauty or great surprise when time seems suspended, and then with a sudden rush is reborn into a new and even more delightful normal.
Then one morning she woke to a new thought. At first it was not pleasant at all. She’d been vaguely aware of breast tenderness, but shrugged it off as the result of so much terrific sex for the first time in her life. Fifty-five year-old bodies took time to adjust. Even fifty-five year-old bodies that kept feeling more like twenty-five or thirty at most. But when her stomach seemed to do a flipflop, and the usual breakfast smells that she loved made the flipflop even more flippy, she sat on the edge of the bed, trying to remember the last time she’d had a period.
Nikos came in, took one look, and sat beside her. “What is it? You look a bit pale.”
“My mother,” she said, “didn’t hit the change of life until she was sixty-two. She was forty-nine when she had me. And I never took birth control in my life. I didn’t think about it . . .” She raised her troubled glance to his face.
It was his turn to go pale, but then a rush of color heightened his cheekbones, and his eyes blazed. “Do you mean . . . is it possible . . .” He ran his hands up his face into his hair. “I never thought about it either. It’s just been too many years, and—” He turned to her. “The mate bond, even for humans mated to a mythic shifter, will extend lifetimes. But you becoming a phoenix, I think . . .”
“I’m not suddenly a kid again,” Jen said. “I’ve got the same lines in my face, and—” Here she was nattering on about the signs of aging, when it seemed that the impossible had become possible after all. Something she had wanted all her life. “Nikos, I’m pretty sure I’m pregnant.” She turned wondering eyes to him, and said softly, “Is it something you wanted?”
His throat ached, and he blinked away the sudden spring of tears in his eyes. “I thought I’d accepted that I would be the last of the Demitros House. That I would need to find another unicorn with my particular talent to inherit here, before I died.” He took her hands. “I’m so happy I could . . .” He shook his head, and his mouth turned tender. “You know the hetairoi have been secretly making wedding plans, for when we say the word.”
She gave an unsteady laugh. “Perhaps it’s time for that word now?” She threw herself into his arms, and they rocked together, laughing, and if there were more tears, those were an expression of the depth of that happiness.
After they announced that they would marry on the day of the Spring Festival, Jen said, “I think it’s time to tell my friends back in California.”
“Joey is up to date with most of our news,” Nikos said. “If you need rest . . .”
She shook her head. “I’m perfectly fine. Maybe a little queasy in the morning, but Iliana’s sister at the infirmary gave me some ginger tea, which does the trick. Besides, even if Joey has told Doris, and she’s told Bird, I owe it to them to tell them everything myself. And I miss them,” she added. “I’ve got enough of my story to promise that this time, I will finish one. So I’m ready to start going to the writing group again.”
They took a day to adjust their sleep to account for the ten hour difference, and transferred to Jen’s house on a Thursday morning. They walked across town, stopping by Linette’s for fresh pastry for breakfast. Then they went the rest of the way up to Bird’s.
“Jen!” Bird exclaimed happily when she opened the door. She hugged Jen, who felt a pang of guilt for letting so much time pass, but Bird just bustled around offering food, then excused herself to make some calls. When she came back, she said, “I hope you don’t mind if Doris and Joey come over. We can talk freely, but I suggest we make a date to meet with Godiva, just the Gang of Four. She’s been asking about you.”
“Do that,” Jen said. “We can meet at Linette’s before writing group, just like the old days. How’s that? I can provide a shifter-free description of living on a Greek isle.” She made a face. “Why does that make me feel kind of shady?”
Bird’s forehead puckered. “I know exactly what you mean. The four of us were always a group. Maybe we didn’t share every little thing, but, well, things are different.”
She offered them a room in her enormous house, which was more shifter-friendly than Jen’s place. The rooms were beautifully decorated, and each had a balcony with French windows opening onto them. The first time Jen opened those glass doors, she remembered finding Petra and Cleo on one of the balconies—probably after a little flying trip over the ocean. She and Nikos were already planning a sunset flight over Catalina to the west.