CHAPTER FOUR
Cameron~
“Will you be serious, Cameron Reynolds? Does Tasha know what’s going on?” His sister was a phoenix made. Why hadn’t Tasha healed her brother?
He shrugged. Pain lanced through his head. He shut his eyes.
She was at his side in a flash. “What is it?”
“M-m-moving.” The single word was all he could manage as sweat sprang all over his body.
Her hand was as cool as her words were hot. “You’re burning up.”
Her touch ran through his body like an electric charge. “I-i-infection. I take antibiotics for that. Unless I m-m-missed my d-d-dose.”
“Okay, you’re in bad shape, Reynolds, but you’re overmedicated. This has to stop.”
“Why?”
“Why? Why?” Her voice rose. His Frankie was going nuclear. Not that she was his. Not anymore.
“General Custer! Because it’s beyond belief that you’re taking psychotropics, you knuckle-headed boar-bear. Have you lost what small fraction of common sense you ever possessed?” She was practically incandescent.
“Van Buren,” she swore. “You know very well that all meds affect shifters in wacky ways. How many times have I seen you refuse to take anything stronger than aspirin? Now, here you are popping pills like candy.” Her anger petered out and he caught a glimpse of the worry that had sparked it.
“It’s better than the dreams,” he told her flatly. “Anything is better than that.”
Abruptly she collapsed in one of the armchairs. “That’s ridiculous.” But her protest was weak.
“Not so much.”
“If you had just fucking accepted my Gift of Immortality three years ago, you wouldn’t be in this fucking position now.” She was hissing softly. Probably afraid she would teach Quincy and Becky bad language.
To think that back in July he had decided to take her up on that offer. Talk about your irony. Life was a bitch. A three-headed bitch for sure. Now he had nothing to give her in return for immortality.
But he put his arms behind his head and relaxed a little. Funny how fighting with Frankie made him feel more like a man than anything had in weeks. Dr. Strong had warned him that the antidepressants would probably depress his libido. She had been right. But he had declined her offer of something to fix that. He wasn’t going to start taking little blue pills too. But Frankie was better than Viagra any day.
“How do you f-f-figure?” he asked.
“Phoenixes can regenerate. If you had accepted my gift, you wouldn’t be needing drugs now. Because you wouldn’t have had a shattered leg and a concussion. Or at least you could have fixed them like that.” She snapped her fingers.
“And what about the rest of the t-t-team? Would I have been able to r-r-regenerate them?” He didn’t disguise his bitterness.
“Is that what you dream about?” Trust Frankie. She had charged in where no one else had dared.
“Got it first try, F-F-Frankie darling. B-b-bull’s-eye.”
“How often have you taken bear since you got to Grape Creek?”
He frowned at her. Waggled a hand. And lied. “Somehow I haven’t been in the mood.”
She glared at him for a long moment in total silence. Had she guessed the truth? Out in the corridor he heard Caroline asking Eleanor where her sister had gotten to. It was obviously time for that bridesmaid’s dress fitting they had sprung on her.
That was going to be purest comedy gold. If only he could be a fly on the wall. Eleanor had promised him the lowdown. He could hardly wait.
Frankie rose to her full height. Glared at him some more. “I have to go, Reynolds. But we’re not done.” She stamped out of the room.
His senses settled down again. Cam let himself drift off into the fog once more. Warrior Woman was mad. Nothing new there. But she had said she would be back. And she was a woman of her word. Let the good times roll.
* * *
Frankie~
It took Frankie exactly eight seconds to realize that there was no way she could bring up Cameron’s heartbreaking condition with her family. At least not until the wedding was over. Everyone was too busy, too stressed, and too focused on the multiple celebrations and the horde of elderly houseguests due to arrive.
Even five minutes alone with Cam had made her aware that his aura was totally out of whack. Hadn’t Eleanor noticed? And that fever of his didn’t feel like only a physical infection. It felt more like a paranormal burn. Not that she was any sort of expert on shifter medicine. But Cam was so far gone his condition was obvious.
But first she had to get through this blasted fitting. Mom was driving them in her SUV. Frankie was riding shotgun, and Eleanor was in the back. Caroline’s entire focus was on the wedding and her obligations. Genevieve’s family were the hosts. But of course the D’Angelos also had duties. There was a family dinner tomorrow, and the rehearsal dinner the night after.
Aunt Lois and Uncle Sam’s plane would get into San Angelo in two hours. The Grape Creek compound was already overflowing with family and more were expected. Everyone had to be fed three squares. Caroline had a great deal to do before she could relax and watch her youngest son get married.
There was no point in distressing everyone right now. Besides, if Frankie had to hear one more time how well Cameron was doing, she was going to punch somebody out. If that shambling, gray wraith of a bear was displaying improvement over his previous condition, all she had to say was Cameron must have been a full-on zombie when he arrived in Texas.
She would have expected that Eleanor at least would have recognized that he was overmedicated. Of course, Eleanor was still doing her residency. Maybe she was reluctant to question the diagnosis of ‘real’ doctors. Cam wasn’t her patient. But surely Eleanor ought to have noticed that Bear Boy was not in any way on the road to recovery?
“Thank goodness that Lincoln and Pierce’s houses are ready.” Mom brought Frankie back into the here and now.
When they were first married, Harrison and his first wife Stephanie had built themselves a house within the D’Angelo compound. After Stephanie and their three sons were killed, Harry had been unwilling to set foot in that house of memories and sorrow. But Tasha and Mom had made a clean sweep.
New paint on the walls, new furniture, and new art had transformed Harry and Stephanie’s love nest into a vacation home that let Harry forget his grief. He was never going to forget his boys or his first love, but he could be happy again. He and Tasha and the girls were staying there for the wedding.
As soon as they had married, Lincoln and Pierce had also started building. This was the first time either of them was going to be staying in their new houses. Which was all to the good, since they each had a baby now.
In a family that adored its children, of course those infants were cherished. But the main house was soon going to be crammed with elderly relatives. It would be better that Linc’s and Pierce’s families could be out of the way when they needed to be. And it was quite probable that Lincoln’s Beverly* and Pierce’s Diana** would be glad to have a retreat.
But the instant that Grant and Genevieve had disappeared on their honeymoon, and the relatives had cleared off, Frankie vowed she was going to sort Cameron Reynolds into at least two piles. And maybe make herself a bearskin rug from any leftovers.
Miz Trudy was delighted to see her. The seamstress had made her and Eleanor their prom dresses. Even at seventeen, the D’Angelo twins had been too tall and well-developed for off-the-rack.
“Not the first time I’ve made dresses for gals I ain’t measured myself, but I don’t never like it. Not ever.” Miz Trudy stuck pins under Frankie’s elevated arms. “I’m that glad to see that after all there still ain’t a scrap of difference between you and Eleanor.”
The dresses weren’t as half as bad as Frankie had feared. They were as streamlined as Eleanor had promised. Even so, there were a lot of pins involved in the fitting. Miz Trudy had made the waists a trifle loose.
“Just in case,” she muttered. “With you modern girls. Well, you never know.”
Mom laughed, but her face told Frankie that she didn’t find Miz Trudy’s remark the least bit funny.
The fitting seemed to take forever and yet within twenty minutes they were back in the SUV. Miz Trudy had assured them that the dresses would be ready on their way back from picking up Aunt Lois and Uncle Sam from the airport.
But Mom had other ideas. “I’m going to pick up Lois and Sam by myself. I’ll drop you girls at the house on my way to the airport. I need you to start supper. We’re going to have that beef stew I made this morning. But you’ll need to add potatoes and so on.”
“No worries, Mom,” Eleanor said. “Even Frankie and I can manage that. But did you forget that we’re taking Genevieve out for her bachelorette party?”
“I did not. That’s why I asked Sam and Lois to come this afternoon. I figured if it was just your dad and me and them, we could have a nice relaxing meal, and they could have an early night and recover from their trip. They’re not as young as they used to be. And it’s a long trek for them all the way from Virginia.”
Frankie nodded. Lois and Sam had to be in their late eighties. Or even older. It was hard to tell with phoenixes. They aged more slowly than mortals did, and of course they faked their identification to make themselves appear less freakish to the authorities.
Phoenixes were supposedly immortal. But she and her sibs had been brought up to understand that living forever was a recipe for unhappiness. In her family they settled for very long healthy lives. And the ability to regenerate if catastrophically injured. That was what she had offered that stubborn bear, and he had rejected.
“Once they’ve had a chance to rest, they’ll be happy to see James and Harding,” Mom broke into Frankie’s thoughts. “Not to mention Quincy and Becky. I don’t think your Aunt Lois has ever forgiven us for letting Harry get married without calling a gathering of the clan.”
Letting Harry? As if. Frankie chuckled. “Have you tried telling her why Harry and Tasha were in a hurry?”
“George Washington! Are you kidding, Frankie? You know what Lois is like. It’s hard to change her mind. She’d still be sure to think Tasha was pregnant. And she’d tell everyone in the entire family so.” In fact, Harry and Tasha had gotten married so he could protect her and Rebecca from her ex-husband. But that wasn’t a story even for the extended family.
By the time the limousine came for her and Eleanor, Frankie was eager to get away from the chaos in her parents’ house. Despite Caroline’s best intentions, the house was in an uproar.
Fortunately, as soon as they arrived, Sam and Lois had insisted on going to their room for a nap. So they missed the confusion caused by the caterers delivering glassware and plates to the D’Angelos instead of to the Carsons. They also missed Rebecca and Quincy demanding to be allowed to ride Princess.
Ordinarily Poppy Danger, as both girls called George D’Angelo, was the world’s most indulgent grandfather, and nothing delighted him more than giving his granddaughters riding lessons. But between the fact that the girls had slipped away without telling their parents where they were going, and the general busyness, Poppy had turned them down. Their noisy tantrum, had added to the pandemonium.
With a grateful sigh, Eleanor stretched out her legs in the limousine. “Do you think it’ll get better?”
“I doubt it. I think it’s only going to get worse. Why on earth did the caterers come to Grape Creek instead of going Elora?” Elora was where Genevieve’s family lived. Mrs. Carson had invited Genevieve’s female relatives to a garden party this very afternoon. Frankie could only hope that the caterer’s china had arrived in time for tea.
Eleanor shook her head. “I think it has to be the strain. Everyone associated with the wedding is under fire. It’s not just the caterers. Gen says that this morning the florist had paparazzi camped outside and interfering with her unloading her truck. They wanted a preview of the bridal flowers, if you can believe.”
Frankie shook her head in disbelief. Who cared what the flowers were going to be?
Eleanor grinned at her expression. “Maybe if Genevieve hadn’t insisted on using local people, it would’ve gone better. But you know she’d never do that. And I think our local businesses are more or less grateful.”
“Well, people being people, I suppose they feel entitled to complain about the downside.”
“Well, sure. And here we are.”
*Phoenix Aglow
**Phoenix Ablaze