by Pandora Pine
“Tenny!” Bertha crowed. “I didn’t get you anything!”
“Oh, no? You’ve only given me everything. You’ve kept watch over me, Ronan, and our daughter. You’ve kept our entire family safe. You’re my mentor. My best friend. You saved my life in August. Do you really need me to go on?” Tennyson knew he could. If he did, they’d be here for hours.
“These are cruise ship tickets to Bermuda!” Truman shouted.
“That’s what we got too!” Cassie gasped.
“Me too!” Kaye sounded stunned.
“What the hell?” Jude shot Ronan an angry look. “You asshole! I knew there was something up when you kept pushing me off booking my own cabin.”
Tennyson burst out laughing. “I can explain, but only if Jude promises to stop using that word.”
“I make no guarantees. Especially if you people keep being so damn nice to me when I’ve been nothing but an asshole.”
“Damn right,” Ronan muttered.
Life had certainly been interesting with Jude Byrne under their roof for the last month. After spending nearly a week in the hospital, Ronan and Tennyson had been able to take Jude home with them. His shoulder wound had been the easier of the two to deal with, but the leg wound required crutches. Getting a two hundred-fifty-pound man up the stairs had been no easy feat. Jude’s surly disposition hadn’t made things any easier.
Jude had been as ornery as a lion with four sore paws in the process. Ronan was damn lucky he was still a free man. Ten could count at least five separate occasions where it almost came to blows.
“When I called the cruise line to ask about getting so many cabins in a row together, the rep I talked to asked for my name and when I told him, he lost his fool mind.” Ten laughed. Losing his fool mind was a gross understatement of what had happened. It actually reminded Ten of footage of Beatles concerts when women would faint on the spot after seeing the Fab Four. “Anyway, once he calmed back down, he put me on hold.”
“That sounds like pretty crappy customer service to me! I hope you reported his butt!” Jude looked proud of himself for controlling his language.
Ten rolled his eyes. “His supervisor came back on the phone and started talking about their celebrity cruises and would I like to book one.” He set his hand on Ronan’s shoulder. “I started thinking well, if Luke Bryan is in the next cabin, then sure thing, chicken wing! But that wasn’t what he was talking about.”
“Shit! Jude sighed. “We’re not cruising with Oprah, are we? Seven days at sea listening to stories about her and Gayle and hearing lectures on the benefits of Kale.”
Fitzgibbon whacked Jude’s shoulder. “Shut up and listen. Don’t make me gag you. On second thought, you’d probably like that.”
“Oh, he would!” Betha cackled.
“Anyway, the supervisor asked if I wanted to be the celebrity. Cruise with Tennyson Grimm! I’d do group readings and private readings and I’d even be a show headliner one night.”
“Are you serious?” Carson laughed. “Ten, that’s awesome!”
“He said if I agreed to do it I could bring some friends along for free! So, Merry Christmas everyone!”
“You’re kidding, Ten, right?” Kevin asked. He hauled Ten into his arms, nearly hugging the life out of him.
“Nope!” Ten said when he could breathe again. “We also get some free shore excursions too. There’s a brochure in the box that lists them. We can learn to SCUBA dive or go on a glass bottom boat or snorkel with turtles. There’s a neat zoo/aquarium with free-range lemurs too.”
“Let’s do that, Grandma Kaye! I want to meet lemurs!” Greeley’s green eyes glittered with excitement.
“Tennyson, I still can’t believe that…” Kaye trailed off.
“Maybe you’ll come to one of my group readings, Mom and see how my work changes lives.” It was a long shot, but an offer worth making.
Kaye looked like she was thinking it over and about to say something when the doorbell rang.
“Who could that be? We’re all here. Aren’t we?” Fitzgibbon asked. His hand went to his hip where his gun usually sat.
“Showtime!” Bertha and Erin shouted at once.
“I’ll get it!” Ronan bounced up from the floor and practically ran for the door. Dixie was strangely silent. Usually, she barked her head off when the doorbell rang.
Tennyson stood up as well. He was fighting back tears. This was going to be a huge moment.
“Everyone, I’d like you all to meet Emilyn Cassidy.” Ronan led a redheaded young woman who looked to be about twenty-five years old into the living room. Strawberry blonde was probably a better way to describe her, with eyes almost the exact shade of blue as Ronan’s. He helped her out of her coat and moved to hang it up in the hall.
Tennyson walked over to them and gave the young woman a hug. “You’re all going to get the chance to get to know Emilyn very well over the next little while. She’s going to be…” Ten paused. The tears he was trying so hard to battle back slipped free.
“She’s going to be our daughter’s mother.” The emotion was thick in Ronan’s voice.
“Hi, everyone! Ten and Ronan have told me so much about you. Hi Bertha and Erin.”
“You can see us, sugar?” Bertha asked.
Emilyn nodded. “I sure can!”
Carson’s mouth hung open. He looked like he was in a daze. He raised his hand like he was back in the third grade and had a question.
“Yes, Carson.” Emilyn grinned like she knew what he was about to ask.
“We’ve been looking to hire an astrologer and crystal healer at West Side Magick. When can you start?” His blue eyes were as big as saucers.
“Hold on one second, Carson!” Erin laughed. “I need a minute with the mother of my granddaughter if you don’t mind.”
“A moment, Tennyson?” Ronan grabbed his husband’s arm without waiting for an answer.
Ten laughed and let Ronan drag him into the kitchen. “Surprise!”
“She’s a psychic too?” Ronan’s mouth hung open.
Ten hadn’t told Ronan this little tidbit. He just nodded.
“Is little miss going to get Emilyn’s gifts?” Ronan sounded dazed.
“In spades, Ronan. Are you mad?” Ten crossed his fingers. Some things were just meant to be. Ronan had fallen in love with the young woman’s profile. Emilyn was bright and curious with a knack for LGBTQ charity work. Tennyson had known the moment he’d met her how psychically gifted she was. He’d known instantly this was the right woman to help them create their family.
“Will she grow up being able to see Erin?” Ronan sounded hopeful.
Ten nodded, holding his breath.
“I could never be mad. I’m thrilled!”
“Our daughter’s going to be an Aquarius. She’ll be charming, impulsive, independent, and stubborn. We’re going to have our hands full, Ronan.”
“Already studying up on Astrology, huh?”
“Spoiler alert, you will be too. There’s something under the tree with your name on it to get you started.”
“Aquarius for Dummies?” Ronan asked.
“Let’s go find out. Merry Christmas, my handsome husband.”
“Right back at you, Nostradamus!”
Beyond the Grave, a Cold Case Psychic spinoff novella, will be available on August 7, 2018!
Museum curator, Harrison Kirkpatrick, has been fascinated by the American Revolution since childhood, but never in his wildest dreams did he ever imagine falling in love from afar with a soldier who fought for America’s freedom. Through a series of events too wild to be believed, Harrison is thrown back in time to 1775 mere days before the Battle of Bunker Hill and finds himself at the business end of a musket held by the very man he has been pining for.
Massachusetts Militiaman, Gannon Chalmers, does not know what to make of the strange man he finds wandering around Bunker Hill days before his unit is to engage the British Redcoats. Is this man friend or foe? What he does know is that there is an un
deniable attraction growing between them that he must resist at all costs.
As the battle draws closer, so do Gannon and Harrison. Can they deny the passion threatening to explode between them like a powder keg? Or will Gannon’s abundance of caution keep him from giving in to the one man who could lay claim to his heart?
On the brink of a war that will change the history of the world, the pair must decide what price they are willing to pay for freedom, and how much they are willing to sacrifice for love.
The preorder is available at my Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Pandora-Pine/e/B013BSSBX0/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1453654665&sr=8-2-ent
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