“You’d want to be my friend?” James asked again in that same tone that told her that he wasn’t sure if to believe her or not.
“Well yeah, why not?” She answered with a shrug and he remained silent for what seemed like ages to her and it was starting to make her nervous.
“Try to be friends,” he said after a while as if he was testing how the words sounded then mimicked her shrug. “Alright, I can try that.”
“Great,” she replied, feeling relieved that he wasn’t looking at her like she was a freak anymore but was really starting to feel awkward about this whole situation when Chris came into the room without knocking.
“Hey Lily I gave him a bath,” Chris started then noticed James was there. “Am I interrupting anything?” He asked, giving her a sly grin that only made the awkwardness of the situation peak.
“Of course not, we’re just talking about A. J,” James replied that seemed to hint he found the thought of anything more happening repulsive and it made her inwardly cringe for some reason.
“Yeah what he said,” she agreed a little flatly then decided to focus on her son. “Did you like your bath?” She asked A. J. as she took the little boy from Chris. A. J. nodded and started talking about his Rubber Ducky’s boating trip.
“Need anything else, just let me know,” Chris replied then left but not before wagging his eyebrows discreetly at her causing her to shake her head at him but a little smile spread on her face. What a dork, she thought.
“One other thing,” James said once Chris was gone. “What’s Chris to him?” He asked, starting to sound a little jealous. He was worried she let A. J. think Chris was his dad? He must really think poorly of her, she thought and was surprised how much that bothered her.
“His uncle.” She replied to him and after a moment of hesitation she added. “I talked to him about his father, about you.”
“Good,” James replied, looking mildly satisfied and she sighed, feeling slightly relieved as she set A. J. down on the bed and moving her suitcase to the floor. “I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about how we’re going to do this,” he told her and she agreed with her best “Sure whatever face” and she saw his jaw clench but said nothing as he left the room.
Lily sighed, shaking her head as she laid A. J. down for his nap and crawled into the bed with him. “Wow, your mommy’s life sure is a mess kiddo,” she said pulling a blanket over them.
The next morning Lily woke alone but wasn’t worried. She was sure A. J. was with family. Getting up from the bed she went down to the kitchen, not worried about being dressed in a thin tank top and boy shorts, she was with family after all. Chris, Sandy, and A. J. sat at a large round cherry dining table eating breakfast. Lily couldn’t help but smile as she watched Sandy help A. J. eat his breakfast.
“Good morning Sunshine,” Sandy greeted giving her a warm smile. “Can you eat breakfast?” she asked. Ever since Lily became a hybrid, she had trouble eating real food. Bloodlust would replace her normal hunger and cause her to get sick if she ate. Thankfully Veronica had found a way to suppress the bloodlust and its effects.
“Yeah I can,” Lily told her happily, taking out a pill bottle a cabinet where she had put it yesterday and removing a reddish-brown pill and handed it to her mother so she could look at it. “With this I don’t have the problems with eating like I use to and I don’t need to take so much blood either. It’s a sort of antacid for the enzymes in my stomach that reject the normal food,” Lily explained.
“Take so much blood?” Sandy repeated, looking interested and disgusted at the same time. The disgust bothered Lily a little, but she could understand it. Lily wasn’t exactly happy about it either.
“Yeah I only have to drink blood about once a month,” she explained and Sandy seemed to approve as she handed back the pill. Lily popped it into her mouth and swallowing it dry as Sandy handed her a plate of ham and eggs with a warm biscuit. She licked her lips in eager anticipation. It had been three long years since she had one of Sandy’s meals and thanks to the events of yesterday she had hardly touched her dinner.
As she ate, she watched Sandy feeding A. J. his breakfast and Lily couldn’t help but smile and longing blossomed in her chest. Longing for A. J. to belong and have a place in Tony’s pack and have family and friends who accepted and understand him. In Montana, he’d never have that. There were very few werewolves in the Aequivalere and the few that were there avoided and feared her. “Everything okay Lily?” Sandy asked, with a look of concern.
Lily blinked out of her thoughts and forced a smile on her face before she replied. “Yeah Sandy, everything is fine.” She finished her breakfast and got up to put the plate in the sink. “Do you mind watching A. J. for a while? I thought about Chris and I going out and getting reacquainted with the town,” Lily explained, actually she needed to get out and make herself visible as the Aequivalere told her too.
“Sure Lily, you don’t even have to ask,” Sandy replied while Chris got up to get their coats, knowing the plan as well as she did. Sandy watched him go before turning to Lily with a suspicious look on her face.
“Is there something going on between you two?” Sandy asked. There was a slight frown on her face, indicating her disapproval of the idea of it.
“Something between us? Oh good God no!” Lily replied with a scrunched up expression of disgust. “He’s like a brother to me Sandy!” Her mother eyed her for a moment as if trying to weigh the truth of her words and after a moment seemed content with whatever she had learned.
“Well, it kind of looked that way and… well don’t forget you are James are mates after all,” Sandy told her with a pointed tone, surprising Lily and leaving her stunned for a second.
“Actually we’re Sandy,” Lily stated, letting her voice get a sharp edge to it. “Remember he took that serum of Xavier’s and broke the mate bond that we had. We are no longer mates.”
“Please Lily, mates is something much more powerful than some stupid serum that man could invent. You two just had a… falling out,” Sandy told her with a dismissive wave of her hand. Lily looked at the older woman in pure shock.