“Coming!” Bird shouted back, and went out.
Mikhail heard Bird’s daughter say, “Mom, you’re covered with dirt! Were you out in that gorgeous garden?”
He checked the black T-shirt he’d worn underneath his jacket. To his relief, it only had one burn hole, over his ribs on the left. He clapped his arm against it, and made a mental note not to rise from the table lest he expose the burns on the right thigh and left calf of his jeans.
Bird reappeared, towing a tall young woman after her, who was still talking, “. . . and Skater is on a training mission, or—well, maybe he wouldn’t have come. He said we just found you again, so it isn’t right to pester you with—”
Eyes very much like Bird’s found Mikhail, and widened.
Bird spoke into the sudden silence, her voice a little breathless, “This is Mikhail Long. He’s my—he and I are dating.”
Bec stuck out a slim hand. “Nice to meet you.” Both her expression and tone were unreadable.
Mikhail clamped down on his dragon’s impulse to scan her thoughts. “Would you rather I go elsewhere?”
“No,” Bird said at the same time Bec said, “Yes.”
Mother and daughter gave one another identical startled looks, then Bird’s cheeks glowed with color as she said firmly, “Mikhail is my—he’s part of my chosen family now. Of course you and Skater are, too, always, always, always. But he and I, we share. And he’s very discreet,” she added with the faintest tremor of laughter and a quick, darting glance at Mikhail brimming with such fun that he fell in love with her all over again.
“Whatever,” Bec sighed, and leaned against the sink. “I mean—oh, sorry, what was your name again?”
“Mikhail,” Bird stated. He loved the ringing tone in her voice.
Bec gave Mikhail an absent nod as she pressed her hands to either side of her head. “It’s not you. It’s just, I’m so mad I could spit. Skater proposed to Dalisay on Valentine’s Day. And she said yes.” She glanced at Mikhail, and said, “Skater is my brother. He’s engaged to an awesome Filipina woman who works at the base hospital while she’s working on getting her medical degree. She wants to be a pediatrician.”
Bec turned to Bird. “But to Father, that’s not enough. She doesn’t come from our kind of people.” Bec made air quotes on every emphasized word. “Skater, excuse me, Bartholomew Waterson III—” The air quotes flashed like blinkers. “—can play around with that kind of girl, but for marriage, he should think of his future career, not waste himself on a single mother with that kind of background who’d saddle him with the expense of raising someone else’s kid. Skater kept his cool until Father said, ‘Don’t make the mistake I did,’ and Skater lost it. We weren’t going to tell him we’d found you again, but Skater lit into him.”
“I’m sorry,” Bird said.
“What have you got to be sorry for? It’s true I hadn’t told him, but that was only because I didn’t want to deal with the nasty comments and then the third degree if Father knew we were seeing you, but you know what? I’m glad he knows. Because it pissed him off—and Grandmother, too.”
Bec curled her lip. “Unfortunately, it wrecked Skater’s plans. Because Father still holds the keys, as sole trustee, to the trust funds the grandparents set up for us when we were small.”
“I remember those,” Bird said softly. “They set it up so that Bartholomew was the only one with access. It was right before he divorced me.”
Bec looked puzzled. “I knew they hated you, but why would they do that?”
“Because it was my royalties that originally seeded those accounts.”
“Damn!” Bec exclaimed explosively. “They always said that was their money.”
“No. But I was glad they’d done it. I wanted you kids to have it. I’ve always liked the thought of my earnings paying for your college.”
“Except it didn’t,” Bec said. “Skater dropped out of UCLA law school the first year and went into the Corps. I guess I didn’t tell you, but I got a partial scholarship and the rest was student loans, which I’ve paid off myself.”
Bird said peaceably, “I’m glad you have the money now.”
“But that’s just it. We don’t! Skater wanted to use his share to bring Dalisay’s parents over from the Philippines for their wedding, and put a down payment on a small place near Camp Pendleton for Dalisay and little Tala. I was going to give them a nice wedding as my gift, but Father has locked our accounts. I am so mad I could—”
From the other side of the thin wall, Bird’s cellphone rang. Mikhail recognized the ringtone as the one that had summoned them earlier to the aid of Bird’s landlord.
Bird looked a bit wild-eyed. “Mr. Kleiner!”
Bec patted her mother’s shoulder. “That’s your landlord, right? Go ahead and answer it, Mom.”
r /> “Thank you. Excuse me. I’ll be right back,” Bird said, and left the kitchen.
Bec stared at Mikhail. Her eyes were the same color and shape as Bird’s. But their expression—distrust bordering on suspicion—was very unlike her mother’s. Slowly, she said, “Mom’s never mentioned you.”