Anita Blake 22.5 - Dancing Read Free Page B

still hugging Katie, and I didn’t want to step farther away from my men in the middle of all this.
    “No, it’s all right; we live in the Bible belt, Mrs. Zerbrowski. We know we have to be careful in public,” Micah said. His voice was neutral as he said it; if he was insulted it didn’t show in his voice, or face. He was good at hiding his emotions when he had to. We’d both learned to hide.
    “It’s our kitchen and just us right now,” Zerbrowski said. “You don’t have to be careful around friends.”
    Micah glanced at Nathaniel, but it was our shared boyfriend who put his arm across his shoulders, drawing him closer. Micah hesitated, but slid his arm around Nathaniel’s waist and his other arm across my shoulders, so we were politely cuddled. Nathaniel kept holding Matthew’s hand.
    “Oh, don’t call me Mrs. Zerbrowski, Micah, that’s for work, and my mother-in-law. Please, it’s Katie, and my smart husband is right, we’re friends, and it shouldn’t matter when you’re with friends.”
    “I know that not all the police officers coming today are our friends,” I said.
    “Is Uncle Natty the prince?” Matthew asked. He’d been thinking about what he considered important while the adults had worried about things he took for granted.
    “Prince of what?” I asked.
    “Of you, your prince, if you’re queen and Uncle Micah is king, then is Natty the prince?”
    “Well, actually, Anita is Prince Charming, but when she got promoted to queen I got the title,” Nathaniel said.
    Matthew frowned at him. “I don’t understand.”
    “It’s okay, Matthew. Yes, Nathaniel is my prince,” I said.
    My answer seemed to please him, and he let it go. Matthew was teaching me not to overexplain, to explain just enough to make him happy, and not dig the verbal hole deeper. Talking to children is like testifying in court, answer just what’s asked, don’t elaborate, and don’t volunteer information.
    “Nathaniel and I won’t kiss in front of the other guests,” Micah said.
    “Aww,” Nathaniel said, and did an exaggerated pout at us.
    Matthew said, “What’s wrong with kissing?”
    Micah smiled at him. “There’s nothing wrong with kissing.”
    “I don’t understand,” Matthew said.
    “I don’t think we can explain it to you,” I said. I wanted to be upset with Katie, but I knew the cops that would be here today, and my two boyfriends kissing would not go over well. She was right, but I hated that other people’s insecurities and prejudices made it a risk for the men to touch too much in public. Literally, they risked other men screaming in their faces, or even trying to beat them up.
    “We still have a few things to finish up so the food will be ready,” Nathaniel said. “Why don’t you take Matthew outside.”
    Katie smiled at my prince. “That’s a great idea. Besides, Zerbrowski is dying to show off his new grill.”
    “That’s right, he always grills the meat, and he’s never set anything on fire,” I said.
    “Grilling meat is the only thing he can do without needing a fire extinguisher, but let him near the stove, or oven, and it’s terrible,” she said.
    “I grill vegetables just fine,” he said.
    “I’ll give you that,” she said, and went up on tiptoe to kiss him.
    Nathaniel kissed me and then Micah good-bye. Normally he would have kissed Micah more thoroughly, because he might not get another chance for hours, but we’d started doing less of the tonsil-cleaning kisses in front of Matthew—not just between the men, but between me and the men, or anyone and anyone. Why? Because Matthew liked to imitate, and he’d gotten sent home with a note from preschool. We’d been left having to explain that certain kinds of kissing was grownup kissing, and he had to be a grownup to do it. He’d accepted our reasoning and filed it away on the same list as driving a car, drinking liquor, or being able to lift weights. It made perfect sense to him that it was just one more thing