22

Our meeting was abruptly hijacked. Craig was no longer in the right mindset to concentrate, for one. His baby girl had suddenly zeroed in on someone else, and he was maybe having a small crisis about this. Having your near-adult daughter latch onto another person would do that to any father.

Donovan stepped out to call Natalie and tell her to get her ass over here.

Me, I grabbed Olivia and Sho and made sure all their information and evidence would get to Craig. Sho assured me he had it, no problem, which was likely the case even without my interference. Man knew what he was doing. Olivia, for one, seemed highly entertained to see a psychic find her anchor, but she also realized now was not the time for her to linger. She gave me a hug, a pointed good luck, then skipped merrily out the door. Sho more or less went with her.

Now I had two teenagers, a father who didn’t know how to feel, and a very amused fiancé. Not exactly how I’d envisioned the afternoon going. Best laid plans of mice and men and all that, I guessed.

While waiting on Natalie to arrive, I slid over to Craig’s side and tried to talk him down from the ledge.

He looked at me with a desperate, pleading expression. “Abby can’t possibly know in a glance like that. Right?”

“Sorry, man. She absolutely can.”

He deflated a little.

“It’s part and parcel of being a Reader,” I explained, still sympathetic to the shock his system had just taken. Like a sucker punch, no less. “We can tell instantly. It’s part compatibility, part seeing the full nature of the other person, but also we can tell after reading them how well their nature fits with ours. Sometimes, it’s a little harder to see the forest for the trees if we’re directly involved. I knew from the second I met Donovan that he was the most incredible person I’d ever know. But dummy me didn’t realize he was mine until three weeks later. At least your daughter is quicker on the uptake than her master.”

Craig snorted a strained laugh. “Yeah. She’s always been a quick kid. Uh…tell me about your niece?”

“They don’t come better than Skylar. She’s incredibly tech savvy—in fact, she’s responsible for what little tech I have in my home—and she’s by nature both protective and caring. Donovan’s also been teaching her Krav Maga for the entire time he’s known her, so if something does go down, I’m confident she can punch it out flat.”

“I’m only partially reassured.” Craig rubbed his head. “Still, bonding right now is a bit too fast, right?”

“The thing is…no. Sorry, Craig, but when it’s right? It’s right. I bonded with Donovan without even realizing it. The girls are likely to do the same if they’re reacting this strongly to each other already.”

He made another pitiful sound. To my eyes, he looked all sorts of confused by this. Part of him was happy his daughter had found her anchor. That had been a worry he’d carried for a while. Another part was convinced she was too young; his baby girl couldn’t have possibly met her partner already. Another part worried about other things—I couldn’t get a read what all on.

Well, he likely had a lot to worry about as a parent.

“I mean, logistically speaking, how do I keep her and Skylar together on a day-to-day basis?” Craig seriously looked in need of a stiff drink. “We’re an hour and a half drive away, so they can’t go to school together.”

Man had a good point there. “We’ll figure out something. Don’t stress.”

From the couch, I was hailed.

“Uncle Jon?”

I crossed the few feet back their direction, taking the girls in as I did so. They looked blissfully happy, almost giddy with it. Scratch that, definitely too giddy to be sensible. They were sparkling so brightly with happiness their lines were a little blinding, to be honest. I felt the need to fetch sunglasses. Both were curled up together on the couch, holding hands, eyes completely on each other and nothing else. I could see sparks of attraction along their lines, so this was clearly not going to be a platonic relationship.

Yeah, let’s just not mention that to Craig yet. The girls could tell him in their own time.

I was really happy for both of them. Skylar was clearly over the moon. I’d been worried for Abby, not wanting her to experience the same hardships I had, and clearly she wouldn’t. She’d have an anchor from this point forward.

Donovan sat next to them on the couch, high-speed calculations going on over there. I knew what was going through that head of his. He was thinking of how much training he could cram into Skylar before school started back up. Ha! Looked like he had an apprentice now too.

Which meant I had to train apprentices, clear a man’s name, and plan a wedding. All at the same time. Damn good thing the girls were cute, as they were certainly a lot of trouble.

“Yes, Skylar?” I stopped and stood in front of them.

“Pretty sure we’re right, but double-check us? We are a match?”

Ah. It was only human to need reassurance, I supposed. I smiled gently. “You two are one hundred and twenty percent a match. I couldn’t put a better one together if I tried.”

Abby looked quite smug about this, like she’d known but felt justified hearing it.

Skylar blew out a low breath. “Awesome. Tell my mom that? She’ll probably think I’m too young.”

“Oh, I’m sure that’ll be her first argument. Don’t worry, I’ll tell her exactly what I’m seeing.” To Abby, I said, “Your dad’s on board but worried about the logistics of keeping you guys together while in school.”

Abby blinked, then her mouth dropped open. “Shit! I didn’t think that far yet.”

“We’ll work it out somehow. It’ll be fine. Sky, needless to say, you’re now in training too.”

She leaned sideways to put her head on Donovan’s shoulder. “I can’t think of anyone better to train me.”

Not surprised by that, either. She was used to learning from him, so it should go smoothly. It did mean she was now involved in our day-to-day, as the best way to learn was to shadow Donovan. I had no problem with him teaching her, but hopefully we weren’t interrupting fun summer plans.

The back door opened with the force of Upset Mother Incoming and I winced.

“Donovan, just what did you tell her?”

“I got all of three sentences out before she hung up on me and raced here.” Donovan shrugged. “Talk fast.”

“Thanks for that.”

I hurried for the hallway. Natalie didn’t have a temper normally, so when it chose to make an appearance, explosions of atomic proportions generally happened. She did look fit to be tied, and like she’d been doing errands and stuff—she was in ragged shorts and a tank top, hair up in a messy bun.

“Sis, breathe,” I encouraged her.

Her lines sparked with worry, outrage, and something else. Something lurked behind her worry that spoke of a deeper upset.

“What,” she snarled between clenched teeth, “is going on?”

“Love at first sight.”

That stopped her cold, and she came to an abrupt stop right in front of me. Her mouth worked for a second before she managed to get words out. “What?”

Skylar blew right past me, her hands latching onto her mother’s arms. She was buzzing, nearly bouncing in place, her happiness still running hot in her system.

“Mom. Don’t be upset, nothing to be upset about. Come meet my Abby.”

Natalie looked down at her daughter’s face, still worried, but confusion was overtaking her anger.

“ Your Abby?”

“Well, she’s certainly not anyone else’s,” Skylar stated factually. “As soon as Uncle Jon tells us how to bond, we’ll do it.”

Slow down there, kiddo. You’re about to get me in trouble.

“We were waiting on you to arrive,” I cut in quickly. “To talk this all over. Abby’s father is here, too. Come meet him.”

Natalie followed me in, likely because she didn’t know what else to do in that precise second.

I introduced the two parents and let them commiserate with each other about how this had hit with no warning, and surely they should have had something of a warning. Then I snuck back over to the other side of the room, where Donovan sat, because he was the least complicated person to sit with right now.

Donovan pulled me in against his hip, only to whisper in my ear, “Explain this to me. I get why Abby’s all on board for instant bonding—she can see everything she needs to about Skylar. But why is Skylar on board with it?”

I just looked at him. Seriously? “Well, honey, why were you on board with bonding with me so quickly?”

He blinked. Blinked again. Then snorted a laugh. “Touché.”

“Skylar’s been around me enough to know that if a Reader reacts like this? Then they’re not wrong. That’s my guess. Plus, she’s confided in me several times she’s always wanted to be an anchor but didn’t think it was really feasible. It’s why she settled on working for the police instead.”

“Ahhhh. So this is literally a dream come true for her.”

“Basically. Although I just realized, they might still go police. With Abby bonded, they can totally go FBI now.”

“Oh. Shit. Uh…Gonzalez is going to be impossible to live with once he finds out.”

“Tell me about it.”

I glanced over to the parents’ side, but they seemed to be talking each other down. Good, good. It looked like they were working through the logistics of how to handle this now, so I deemed it safe to pull the girls in closer and coach them on how to bond.

I explained what all went into it. I definitely wanted them to stay close to each other over the next month—at least—so their bond could settle. It would be more comfortable all around for that to happen. Both girls had vehicles, so they might be bouncing between Natalie’s house and Craig’s, but I’d let them figure everything out. My job was to make sure bonding and training ran smoothly.

Natalie did seem more settled, but her mom instincts were frazzled. She turned to me and pleaded, “Jon. Isn’t this too soon?”

I loved how she thought I had any control over this situation. “Nat, to my eyes, they’re already in pre-bonding stage. Absolutely nothing we can say will stop this. Also, no need to. They’ll be fine. We all might need a shot or three of whiskey after this, but they’ll be just fine.”

Skylar frowned at her mother. “Why are you so worried?”

“Just wait until you’re a parent.” Natalie sighed, head in her hand. “Then you’ll get it. All right, if we’re doing this, we’re doing it right. Sky, get on the family chat and tell everyone. We’ll have a party later tonight at Rodrigo’s.”

Ooooh, Brazilian food too? Damn, this day really was going to end with a bang.