I smiled, maybe bigger than necessary. “It is, but I love it.”
Jack smiled in return. “You love Jayne.”
“I do.”
“The rest will come. You’ll see.” He left me to fix my coffee and to think about what he’d said. Did he know what I was struggling with? Or was he just good at guessing? I had no idea.
I could only be thankful he was so understanding. The last thing I wanted was to upset the father of my bride.
And not just because he was the king of my new homeland.
Chapter Two
Jayne
Seeing my dad and my husband talk like old friends made my heart happy. Well, happier. I was already pretty much on Cloud Nine. I was a newlywed, after all. If you couldn’t be blissful as a newlywed, there was something wrong with you. Just saying.
And being married to Sin was so much more than I’d ever imagined could happen to me. He was the best guy ever. Sweet and handsome and so smart, loved cats, loved me, was kind and generous, had incredible parents, could talk to the dead, and had no problems with my constant need for sugar and Dr Pepper.
Also, so hot. Like next-level hot.
The man was a keeper. And I had no plans on ever letting him go. Ever. Did I say ever? Because I meant it.
Which was why I had to figure out what was bothering him. Call it a wife’s intuition, but something wasn’t quite right with my guy. And that bothered me. I wanted him to be as happy as I was. Or at least as happy as a necromancer could be.
It couldn’t be me that was causing him to get all introspective. We were too much in love with each other for him to be upset at something I’d done. Besides, we hadn’t done much of anything lately. Except for, you know, husband and wife kind of stuff.
That made me smile again.
So if it wasn’t me, what was it? Could he be missing his folks? We’d had such a great visit with them. Tons of fun, lots of great meals, plenty of laughter and a little sightseeing for me since I’d never been to Vegas before. Maybe our visit had made him realize how much he missed spending time with them.
For a second, I wondered if I should invite them up again, but I knew they were getting ready to debut a new finale trick in their Las Vegas show, Dead Sexy. There was no way they’d take a break from rehearsing to come for a visit. I wasn’t even sure they could. I knew they stuck to a pretty rigid schedule.
And really, it wouldn’t be right of me to expect them to drop everything. Their show was a mega-hit on the Strip. I’d seen it for myself on our weeklong visit there.
Hands down, the coolest, craziest live performance I’d ever seen. Not that I’d seen a lot of live Vegas shows. Or any. But that didn’t detract from how jaw-droppingly wild it was with its combination of amazing magic with a little Walking Dead flavor and some mystical vibes thrown in. And that was with my full knowledge that Sin’s dad, Anson, was a gifted conjurer, and his mom, Lila, was an actual zombie.
Imagine what it must seem like to the regular Joe off the street who didn’t know the main performers were supernaturals. No wonder they packed the house every night.
But that was just more reason why asking them to put everything on hold was basically impossible. They couldn’t walk away from the show.
Which brought me back to Sin. What was troubling him? He obviously didn’t want to tell me. Or at least it wasn’t something he was interested in discussing with my parents in earshot.
I knew I should let it go, but… I couldn’t. The love of my life was upset about something. It wasn’t in me to ignore that.
I worried that pushing him to talk might only upset him more. He’d come to me when he was ready, right? I had to believe that.
He returned with a fresh cup of coffee and took his spot next to me.
My mom was spreading pink grapefruit marmalade on her toast. “Sinclair, would you like to tour the new ribbon factory with me today?”
He looked at her. “I, uh—”
“I was kind of hoping he’d help me in the apartment today, Mom.” I knew touring the ribbon factory wasn’t going to be high on his list of things to do, although it was kind of my mom to include him. “We really need to get our closet organized.”
“It’s true,” Sin said. “Jayne’s stuff keeps creeping onto my side.”
My mom laughed. “She’ll have the whole thing if you don’t watch it. Yes, you’d better work on that. Wait.” She stopped laughing. “I thought you each had a closet in that new apartment?”
“We do,” Sin answered. “Jayne has one and I have one that Jayne shares with me.”
My father snorted. “Sounds about right.”
My mother gave him a look before answering. “Well, Sinclair, don’t worry about it. You can see the ribbon factory anytime.”
He sent me a grateful glance before responding. “I certainly appreciate you including me in that, though.”
“Of course.” She went back to her toast and the About Town section of the Pole Post, the North Pole’s newspaper.
Under the table, Sin gave my leg a little squeeze. “Have I told you how much I love you?”
I grinned at him. “Not in the last five minutes.”
My mom looked up from the newspaper, smiled, then went back to reading about who’d been seen where.
Sin nodded at the pancakes left on my plate. “Finish those and we’ll get to work on that closet.”
I harpooned a fluffy triangle of blueberry goodness. “Maybe you could move all your stuff to the linen closet.”
He laughed. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
I nodded as I chewed. “You only ever wear black jeans, a black or gray T-shirt and your leather jacket.”
“Not true,” he said, crossing his arms over his gray T-shirt. “I also sometimes wear a white T-shirt. Or black turtlenecks or sweaters.”
“Ah, yes.” I held my fork up for added punctuation. “Your sweater collection. Of three sweaters. Why did you need your own closet again?”
He laughed, and across from me, my dad shook his head. He looked at my mom. “Like mother, like daughter.” He lifted his cup in Sin’s direction. “Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile.”
Sin winked at me. “It’s a good thing she’s cute.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Hey, I’m more than cute.”
“Yes, you are.”
I finished my last bite, wiped the syrup off my face with my napkin, then set it on the table beside my plate. “All right. Let’s go work on that closet.” I nodded at my parents. “See you guys later.”
“Have a good day, honey,” my mom said.
“You, too.”
My father gave us a nod over the top of the sports section. He was sponsoring a crawler team this year, exhibition only, but that didn’t stop him from checking the finishing times against the other competitors. Crawlers were the snowmobile-car hybrid vehicles we used to get around in the North Pole.
As we walked out the door and down the hall, Sin slipped his hand in mine. “You know I wouldn’t have minded visiting the ribbon factory with your mom.”
“I know. But I also know it’s not the kind of thing that’s high on your list of exciting ways to spend your day.”