“Okay, you two. I managed to process Kell’s paperwork and got a new doc on the rotation to sign off the discharge without checking all her stats.” Mom spouts it while flipping efficiently through the pages on her clipboard. “So Kara, as her requested next of kin and designated driver, you just need to sign—”
When she looks up, the clipboard slips from her grasp and clatters to the pavement at her feet. Her fingers start to tremble. Her chin starts to wobble.
At the same time, I’m certain my father is about to shed tears in front of me for the first time in my life. He looks like someone knocked the wind out of him.
That someone being Nancy Kane.
“Zeus.”
He responds by pushing air out through his nose, prompting a rough swallow down his taut throat. But at the edges of his unsteady lips, there are tremors of joy. They can be nothing else. As a man, I’m certain of it. As his son, I’m moved by it. Grateful for it. There’s strength in a parent showing their tears to their children. I’ve seen enough of Mom’s to know.
“Nancy,” he finally says.
His reverence doesn’t dent her. She backs up with her arms folded tightly. “Wh-What are you doing here?”
He shakes his head as if he can’t make sense of her words. “You’re more gorgeous now than the day we met.”
“That’s not an answer,” she says. Her tone is cold and her posture is just as stony. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kara
If Maximus and I were still in our delusional bubble about the earthquake swarm, I’d be entreating Mother Nature for another temblor this second. But Hades stands clear of the fault lines for now, leaving Maximus and me to figure out proper focal points that aren’t his parents laying eyes on each other for the first time since his boyhood.
I shamelessly gawk at the two people who are still blatantly magnetized toward each other, whether they want to admit it or not. The wave of their energies is so strong it could be my own. Heaven knows, the feeling is far from foreign with Maximus in my life now.
“I can explain, leaina.”
“I’ll take the explanation without your fancy Greek, thank you.”
I bite my lip to hold in a giggle. Two magnets, no doubt. Except one clearly doesn’t want to be realigned.
After all this time, maybe Nancy Kane isn’t mesmerized by the handsome king of the gods. Still, they already remind me of a couple from a big budget musical, drawn together with such dazzling destiny that everyone on stage freezes or fades to the shadows. It’s difficult to watch Maximus’s mom beholding the adoration that Z has kept so fully aflame for her and tossing it into emotional ice water. Maybe she’s just nervous, but that’s not what I’m picking up at all. Her aversion is like blown glass that has yet to cool. It’s hot but cold. Formidable but fragile. But ready to break with one bad twist…
What does she know that we don’t? What other secrets could she possibly be holding back? The fact that all of Maximus’s early memories have been taken from him heightens my need to know more. Regrettably, we’re not likely to get them from her now. Her resolve is one of the most adamant auras I’ve ever detected.
“You mean Maximus hasn’t told you what’s happened?” Z tacks on a look of such implication and aggravation, my human side winces.
Nancy’s jaw clenches. “What do you mean?”
To his credit, Z pointedly hesitates. There’s not even an indicting glance toward his son. Perhaps he already knows that Maximus will fess up first.
Because, of course, he does.
“Kara was in danger, Mom.” He firms his stance while meeting her gaze. “So I had to go and get her.”
The woman races a startled gaze to me. “Danger? In what way? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” I rush it out, already contrite about causing her such concern. I forget, with frightening ease, that this is how most mothers blast their worry. Then I realize, with equally terrifying clarity, that I’m not sure I could have dealt with twenty-two whole years of it. “I really am, Nancy.”
“But not long ago, she wasn’t,” Maximus says. “Which was why I had to walk through hell and get her back.”
Nancy pales by a shade before dropping heavily to one of the round benches. At once, she’s plummeting her head into her hands too. “Oh, God.”
Maximus approaches her, a hand outstretched. His remorse makes my chest twist. “Mom—”
She throws a hand up, her palm like a stop sign. “Don’t. Just…give me a second, okay? This isn’t like you just snuck out to Jesse’s for World of Warcraft, damn it.”
Maximus remains crouched next to Nancy, with his hands stretched over his thighs. Whether on purpose or not, he lifts his head with a beseeching look—that lands right on his father.
Z, clearly buying into his own press, adapts a stance as if he’s brandishing a scepter topped by a gilded eagle. “Listen to your mother, son.”
As if the eagle has gotten form and swooped in on us, a violent sound breaks the air. After a second, I realize it’s Nancy’s sharp laugh. “He’s been doing just fine without your help for over ten years.”
I can’t pretend that his punctuating glare doesn’t freak me out. Even Maximus jolts at this glimpse of his father’s notorious temper. But Nancy’s already giving back as good as she’s gotten, lurching back up and practically matching him toe-to-toe. She’s a lioness in mint green scrubs, mentally tearing down that eagle’s ego before Z knows what’s coming.
“If you don’t want to hear the truth, then you should go back to where you came from. In fact, I think that’s for the best.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Z drops his hands into his slacks pockets, a casual motion that doesn’t fit the mood of this moment. I want to cheer as Nancy jogs up her chin, officially leveling her blues with Z’s. Though her syllables vibrate with just-try-me grit, her face trembles with just-take-me need.
The perception isn’t just what my gut feels. It’s what my heart knows and my experience confirms. Nancy Kane is fighting a battle that’s just not winnable. She’s in love. The best and worst kind. The forever kind.
But she’s trying to resist…valiantly. She even adds a flippant shrug to her fake nonchalance.
“I mean, we’re having a bit of an emergency here. Just in case you couldn’t tell or anything.” She waves toward the building behind us. “I know it’s a stretch, asking you to look at situations strictly about us lowly mortals, but—”
“Nancy.”
“Believe it or not, and for your permanent record, there are a lot more of us in this city alone than all of you up on Olympus. So if you really want to make yourself useful—”
“Nancy.”
She clenches to a stop, matching the heavy-lidded look he’s wielding now, as he steps closer and dips his face to within inches of hers. When Z’s intention is glaringly clear, and even Maximus is swearing because of it, my own mouth pops open. I guess the almighty of Olympus is a bigger cowboy than I thought. But thankfully, a smart one. He backs off within seconds of getting her palm print across his cheek. His own expression hardens with resolve.