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He laughed, got out of the Bentley, closed the door, and came over to me. Citrine jumped off his shoulder and joined the wisps chasing each other around the garage. “I’ve already started planning the proposal, so this works for me. However, that car doesn’t have enough space for our babies.”
I pointed at my parents. “They’ve volunteered to take them rock hunting.”
“We’ll do a few trips as a family to teach the kittens that they’ll be going fun places when rock hunting. That works.” Erik rubbed his hands together before investigating the other two vehicles. One was an SUV, a large one suitable for stashing at least six bodies in. The other was a fancy family car, which would work as a daily driver and fit all our pets and their supplies without issue. “Kinsley, I have off Wednesday and Thursday this week. Let’s go on a road trip after I get off work.”
“To where?”
Erik smiled, grabbed his backpack, and rummaged through it before pulling out a thick stack of papers. “We might have found a clue or two on your missing people, and if we happen to go on a road trip, you can ask questions because you don’t have jurisdiction issues. Your license is valid anywhere in the state, and it’s easy to get you licensed for other states, too. They’re old leads, so waiting a few days won’t hurt anything, but we can see how our babies handle longer car rides.” With a rather stern expression, he faced my parents. “This is a party for two. The only extras invited are Citrine, Garnet, and Tourmaline. If Peridot would like to come with us, he may.”
My mother’s expression softened, and she held out her hands. “Peridot, darling? Would you like to go with Citrine and Garnet on a trip?”
The green carbunclo zipped over to my mother, transformed on her opened hands, and mewed.
“It’s okay if you want to go, little one. You can’t go with them on every trip, but if you’d like to accompany Citrine and Garnet this time, you can.”
The kitten gave a hesitant squeak, and he climbed up my mother’s arm to perch on her shoulder, nuzzling her throat. With a smile, she petted him. “You can decide closer to their departure. You don’t have to decide right now.”
“We’ll swing by and ask Peridot if he wants to go right before we leave,” I promised. “That way, if he’s feeling up for it, he can go. And in the worst case, you can always fly to retrieve him and take him home if he gets separation anxiety.”
“There. If you want to go, you can. If you don’t want to, that’s also fine.” My mother grinned at me. “Now you have some meaningful work to do. You can follow dead leads while you work on charming your yellow dragon.”
“The whole idea is to make sure the leads I’m hunting for don’t die, Mom.” However, as she was right about the meaningful work thing, I accepted the papers from Erik. “But now that I do have meaningful work, if you want to stay for dinner, you can, but we’re going to be ordering in. If we’re heading out on Wednesday to start chasing leads, I have a lot of work to get done.”
“How about I cook while you work, baby? I stocked the fridge, and there’s a roast waiting to go into the oven. Do what you do best while we come to terms that our little hatchling is all grown up.”
“You’re going to be feeding the movers, too, aren’t you?”
“Considering that most of them are related to Erik, yes. I’ll even be a good mom and give you a tour of the house first, although I suspect I’ll lose you once you see the master bathroom.”
“How are you going to lose me in a bathroom?”
“Two words, little child: jetted tub.”
I stared at my mother with wide eyes. Erik and I had talked about getting a jetted tub in Miami; we worked hard, and hard work resulted in a lot of sore muscles, but neither one of us had wanted to spend the ridiculous amount of money needed to install one. Upon comprehension I would be able to eventually evict everyone and lure Erik to said tub, I determined I had the best parents on the entire planet.
Careful not to dislodge Peridot, I went over and hugged my mother. “You’re the best mother on this entire planet. Sorry Erik, but she is.”
“I’m going to have to agree with you on this one. My mother is pretty awesome, but jet tubs are just that cool.”
“Your mother helped with the jetted tub acquisition,” my father informed us.
“How do we settle this tie?” Erik asked. “Because that means my mom is just as awesome as your mom.”
After releasing my mother, I stepped out of her range before suggesting, “A cage match between our mothers, and the last mother standing wins?”
“As long as it’s non-fatal, I’m game. Would you accept a proposal if I were to offer it while our mothers are duking it out in a cage match?”
My mother scowled. “Erik Millson!”
“How about you offer the proposal upon a victor being declared, and the child of the winning mother has to issue the proposal?” I grinned at the thought of our mothers going at each other like they meant it. “They’d both have to survive, obviously. We do love our mothers. And we’d have to make sure both mothers are conscious to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But after hearing about what your mom did to that mercury dragon? I want to see my mom face off against your mom.”
We both stared at my mother and waited.
“She did pass her test with a perfect score,” my father reminded my mother. “And she was bold enough to claim our family name as compensation for us torturing her in public. At that point, you have to see if those yellows are worthy of our little hatchling. And we get a wedding out of your suffering.”
With a wicked grin, Erik said, “I bet our dads would put on a good show, Kinsley.”
“They really would, but with our moms fighting over which one of us proposes, what would our fathers battle over?”