Chapter 12

“Oh?” Francis asked, keeping his eyes on Hestia who was trying to give him kisses and wiggled around. Kaos handed her over, and Francis wrapped his arms around her when she settled in for a cuddle.

“There was a thing at Makai’s in the summer. They cleared out an old boat shed. Bunch of firemen from Mercer and Sheriff’s people from here came to help, apparently,” Kaos started.

“Right, and Lotte with her kid, Joie, were there, too. Forrest had gone on a bit of a rant about Lotte raising ‘her son’ wrong by allowing ‘him’ to wear dresses and whatnot. It wasn’t pretty.” Padraig made the air quotes in appropriate spots.

It sounded like something the Mark Francis had met would do. He felt… angry at the man, especially now that he’d gotten to know Kaos and his gender identity a bit better. He vaguely remembered Lotte and Joie, from when the latter had been an infant. But he also felt sad.