Dead in the Family

out of bounds. “Claude,” I said reprovingly. “That’s too personal.” Fairies just didn’t have the same concept of personal information or personal space that humans did.
    “I apologize,” my cousin said, very insincerely. “I thought you might enjoy knowing before you buy their clothes. You color-code babies, I believe.”
    “Sure,” Tara said abruptly. “What sex is the baby?”
    “Both,” he said with a smile. “You’re having twins, a boy and a girl.”
    “My doctor’s heard only one heartbeat,” she said, trying to be gentle about telling him he was wrong.
    “Then your doctor is an idiot,” Claude said cheerfully. “You have two babies, alive and well.”
    Tara obviously didn’t know what to make of this. “I’ll get him to look harder next time I go in,” she said. “And I’ll tell Sookie to let you know what he says.”
    Fortunately, Hunter had mostly ignored this conversation. He had just learned how to throw the softball up in the air and catch it, and he was distracted by the effort to put my mitt on his little hand. “Did you play baseball, Aunt Sookie?” he asked.
    “Softball,” I said. “You bet I did. I played right field. That means I stood way out in the field and waited to see if the girl batting would hit the ball out my way. Then I’d catch it, and I’d throw it in to the pitcher, or whichever player needed it most.”
    “Your aunt Sookie was the best right fielder in the history of the Lady Falcons,” Tara said, squatting down to talk to Hunter eye to eye.
    “Well, I had a good time,” I said.
    “Did you play softball?” Hunter asked Tara.
    “No, I came and cheered for Sookie,” Tara said, which was the absolute truth, God bless her.
    “Here, Hunter,” Claude said, and gave the softball an easy toss. “Go get it and throw it back to me.”
    The unlikely twosome wandered around the park, throwing the ball to each other with very little accuracy. They were having a great time.
    “Well, well, well,” Tara said. “You have a habit of picking up family in funny places. A cousin? Where’d you get a cousin? He’s not a secret by-blow of Jason’s, right?”
    “He’s Hadley’s son.”
    “Oh . . . oh my God.” Tara’s eyes widened. She looked at Hunter, trying to pick out a likeness to Hadley in his features. “That’s not the dad? Impossible.”
    “No,” I said. “That’s Claude Crane, and he’s my cousin, too.”
    “He’s sure not Hadley’s kid,” Tara said, laughing. “And Hadley’s the only cousin you had that I ever heard of.”
    “Ah . . . sort of wrong-side-of-the-blanket stuff,” I said. It was impossible to explain without casting Gran’s integrity into question.
    Tara saw how uncomfortable I was with the subject of Claude.
    “How are you and the tall blond getting along?”
    “We’re getting along okay,” I said cautiously. “I’m not looking elsewhere.”
    “I should say not! No woman in her right mind would go out with anyone else if she could have Eric. Beautiful and smart.” Tara sounded a bit wistful. Well, at least JB was beautiful.
    “Eric can be a pain when he wants to be. And talk about baggage!” I tried to picture stepping out on Eric. “If I tried to see someone else, he might . . .”
    “Kill that someone else?”
    “He sure wouldn’t be happy,” I said, in a massive understatement.
    “So, you want to tell me what’s wrong?” Tara put her hand on mine. She’s not a toucher, so that meant a lot.
    “Truth be told, Tara, I’m not sure.” I had an overwhelming feeling that something was askew, something important. But I couldn’t put my finger on what that might be.
    “Supes?” she said.
    I shrugged.
    “Well, I got to go into the shop,” she said. “McKenna opened for me today, but I can’t ask her to do that for me all the time.” We said good-bye, happier with each other than we’d been in a long time. I realized that I needed to throw Tara a baby shower, and I couldn’t imagine why it hadn’t occurred to me before now. I needed to get cracking on the planning. If I made it a surprise shower, and did all the food myself . . . Oh, and I’d have to tell people Tara and JB were expecting twins. I didn’t doubt Claude’s accuracy for a second.
    I thought I would go out into the woods myself, maybe tomorrow. I’d be alone then. I knew that Heidi’s nose and eyes—and Basim’s, for that matter—were far more acute than mine, but I had an overwhelming impulse to see what I