Chapter 72

But I just wait for Anton to reply, unwilling to let the slightly awkward silence get to me. Because I’m not letting him distract or joke his way out of the question this time.

“Come on, Anton,” I say, holding his gaze. “You know every detail of my romantic life and you refuse to tell me anything about yours. I want to know.”

He raises an eyebrow at me. “Every detail?”

I can’t help my smirk, even as I whip a finger up and point it in his face. “Don’t you do that,” I growl. “Teasing me, evading the question. Come on, Tony. Spill.”

Anton grins at my use of his nickname and then sighs, closing his eyes. “All right, but you’ll be disappointed June. There’s not much to tell.”

“Then why haven’t you told me before?”

“Because,” he replies, shrugging one shoulder. “I don’t…I have trouble opening up to people. I think you’ve figured out my tricks – that I like to joke and distract and turn the conversation from me. Growing up in the group home I learned early to keep my deepest secrets to myself, to not let the other boys see the vulnerable innerworkings of my soul.”

“Why?” I ask quietly, fascinated.

He opens his eyes, smiling a little. “Not everyone grows up with Rafe and Jesse Sinclair as their male peers, June. I grew up sharing a house with sixteen other boys, most of whom were jerks. Once, just once, you let something personal out? They’d tease you for years until you were just this little crumbled cookie of a person.”

“You’re romanticizing it,” I say, dry, “if you think that Rafe and Jesse were always paragons of kindness. They could be jerks too.”

He nods, admitting it. “Still, I get to win on this one, June.”

“Sure,” I say, nodding and reaching out to pat his head. “You win for mean household, Anton. I’ll give you that one. So?” I raise an eyebrow, not letting him escape. “What does this have to do with the girls? Unless…there were boys?” My eyebrow arches further, because even though Anton has never suggested any interest in men, it could always be something he just kept close to his chest.

He laughs, shaking his head. “Nah, it’s girls. And the girls I’ve dated in the past – I don’t think I ever really let them in either.”

He gives me a few details then, the names and general impressions of a few of the girls he dated – the most significant ones. How they met, how they made him feel, how some were very romantic, cute encounters and others were pure physical attraction. I listen carefully, quietly, letting Anton spin out his story. And while my wolf growls a bit at the mention of each new girl, I overall just…marvel in the fact that he’s telling me. Anton, who is such a mystery just sort of…spilling his heart out.

What a gift, I think, truly touched that he would trust me with all of this. That he’d want to tell me, largely without prompting once he got started.

Of course he wants to tell us, my wolf says, curling up soft in my soul, her long dark nose resting on her paws. It makes perfect sense.

I smile a little and pet her fur.

“So, that’s pretty much it,” Anton says at last, giving a bit of a shrug. “Nothing ever lasted long, always ending when we lost interest in each other or…well, when one of them wanted to go further with the relationship, to press for a commitment.”

“Do you feel like…you don’t like commitments?” I ask, curious. Because, obviously with how fast I jumped into an engagement with Blythe, that has not been my problem.

“No,” he says instantly, his eyes locked on mine. “I just…my wolf always knew, deep down, that the girl I was seeing wasn’t the girl. And that it was not fair to make a commitment to her when I was still looking for someone else.”

“Do you think you have a mate?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. I don’t think it matters. I always just knew that when I found her, that would be it, mate or not.”

I smile a little. “She’ll have to be one hell of a girl.”

He nods, just once. And doesn’t say a word.

“Thank you for telling me,” I murmur, snuggling deeper into the blankets, raising them up to my chin. “I’m grateful. And I know that it’s…against your instincts to do it. So, thank you.”

“Ah, you make it easy, June. You’re easy to talk to.”

I snort, knowing that’s patently not true. Anton laughs and strokes a hand over my head, my hair, making me smile.

“You go to sleep, baby bat,” he whispers. “Big day tomorrow.”

“Big day every day, here in the Underworld,” I grumble. But I do as my ghost bids, letting my eyes flutter shut and drifting off to sleep to the feel of his hand again and again drifting soft over my hair.

The next morning, I stand in the very small circle of floor that’s not covered in newly-conjured items with my hands on my hips. I look around with quite a bit of pride at all of the supplies I’ve conjured up for Midnight. “Do you think it’s enough?”

I look up at Anton, curious, as he sits perched on the edge of my vanity, one foot still on the floor, his arms crossed. He stares at me like…I may have lost my mind. “Oh, it’s enough, June.”

“What!” I say, laughing and spreading my hands out. “I want them to have everything they need!” I spent most of the early morning conjuring up everything I could think of from our camping trips as a kid, and then all of the good food that they might want, and then some games and entertainment, and then ways to package it so Midnight can carry it.

“June, they don’t need a deep fryer –“

“It’s a mini deep fryer! What if they want French fries!?”

“They don’t even have oil –“

“See?” I say, grinning at him and conjuring up a bottle of vegetable oil, placing it precariously on top of the pile. “I knew you were helpful.”

“How will they even plug any of this in?”

“Oh, none of it needs to be plugged in,” I murmur, nodding over to our own television. “Just like that.”

Anton turns his head to the side, studying our gigantic tv, looking quite shocked like he never thought of that before. “So then how does it work?”

“It just does,” I reply, utterly assured, rolling at my eyes. Because, I mean, I honestly don’t know how it works. It’s just magic – and the more questions you ask about it the less fun it is.

Both Anton and I turn our heads as Laila suddenly appears in the room, her Herald at her side. She immediately gives a squeak, falling to the side into a huge pile of blankets – probably because her feet landed on top of a big stack of board games.

“Oh my god,” her Herald says, looking around, appalled. Then he focuses on me, his expression likewise indicating that he thinks I’ve truly gone off the deep end. “Princess…“

“Oh, go away,” I say, waving a hand at him. “We are not soliciting opinions today.”

“It’s fine,” Laila sighs, looking around in chagrin. “I’ll…handle it. You can go.”

Her Herald disappears but even as I call a cheerful hello to my friend, her face doesn’t change. “They have a single yurt, Juniper,” Laila says, dry. “You can’t send them home with all of this.”

“Ohhh just watch me,” I say, grinning, my hands snapping back to my hips.

There’s a clatter out on the terrace and I spin my head that way too, beaming when I see that Jesse and Midnight have appeared there. “Jess!” I call, laughing, tripping over the supplies as I stumble towards him.

“Whoa,” Jesse says, looking around as Midnight and he step into my room. “Crap, June, you sure got the shiny side of the coin in terms of lodging on this planet –“

“Hey!” Midnight snaps, glaring up at him. “You’d better say nice things about my yurt.”

“The most comfortable yurt in which I have ever suffered, Mids,” Jesse says, patting her head and grinning.

I laugh, making my way fully over and throwing myself into my cousin’s arms. “It’s so good to see you!”

“Is all of this for me?” Midnight gasps, wading into the sea of stuff.

“Oh, Midnight,” Laila says, shaking her head as she finally gets to her feet, glancing over at Anton who just grins around from his place on the vanity. “I’m afraid you’ll have to pick and choose – there’s no way you could vanish all of this away to your house all at once –“

“No!” She moans, desperate. “I want all of it! I want…” she frowns, pointing at a whisk on the ground. “What’s that?”

Laila makes her way over to Midnight to explain the workings of kitchen instruments while I beam up at Jesse.

“How…how did you even get all of this?” He asks, looking around in wonder. “Do you have some kind of weird Underworld Super Center you went shopping in?”

“Nope!” I say, holding up a hand and making a cup of coffee appear there. Black, just how he likes it. Jesse moans the moment he sees it, snatching it from my hand and taking a long, long drink. “We just call it up. Fancy House perks.”

“I’m so jealous. I hate you,” Jesse murmurs, glaring at me for a moment over the edge of the cup before draining it. “Also, I love you, give me more.” He holds out the empty cup and, laughing, I vanish it away before summoning a new one.

“No dirty dishes, either.” I say, a bit smug.

“Jesse!” Midnight calls from her place at the center of the room. I turn to see her pointing at my big bed. “If we get one as big as that you can sleep in it with me! There’s plenty of room!” She turns excitedly to Laila. “Can you conjure me up a big one like that!?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Mids,” Laila says, a bit wicked, grinning up at the girl from her spot kneeling on the floor. “A bed like that barely fits one ghost and one girl. You’ll need a much bigger one.”

Midnight gasps with delight as Jesse pales.

I spin to him, eyes wide, because – I mean, where does he sleep now? He’s not sleeping in a tiny bed with that girl, is he? I mean, I know she’s his mate, but Midnight – she’s like a child -

But to my surprise, Jesse isn’t even looking at me. Instead his eyes are fixed on Anton, who sits slump-shouldered on the vanity, grimacing a little.

“Actually,” Jesse says, an uncharacteristic frown on his face. “I want to have a little chat with my boy here. June, do you mind spending a little time with Mids? While Tony and I go outside and have a…chat?”

I raise my eyebrow at my cousin because…well, I mean, on one hand I fully understand him wanting to spend time with his friend.

But why did he put such a weird emphasis on the word chat?