The Gatekeeper's Secret: Gatekeeper's Saga, Book Five (The Gatekeeper's Saga) by Eva Pohler

invite them.”
    “Of course we should invite them,” Carol said.
    “Of course,” Therese agreed. “But if they can’t fly up, it’s okay.”
    “Of course they can fly up,” Richard said. “Don’t you want my parents and brother to come?”
    “I, I, yes! Oh, Richard, yes!” Oh, shoot! Therese hadn’t meant to hurt her uncle. She was trying to do the opposite.
    “You don’t think an outdoor wedding in summer will be too hot for the humans?” Jen asked.
    Everyone looked at Jen, perplexed, except for Therese, who wanted to pinch her.
    “I, I mean, as opposed to the animals,” Jen recovered quickly. “Clifford won’t mind the heat, but what about the rest of us?”
    Therese inwardly groaned but had to admit it was a decent recovery. That Jen!
    “I’m sure it will be fine,” Richard said.
    “If this was Texas, I’d be worried,” Carol added. “But Colorado is still pretty nice in June, especially up here in the mountains.”
    “It’s the afternoon rain we need to worry about,” Richard said. “We should play it safe and have the ceremony early, like around eleven. We could serve a lunch afterward.”
    As they discussed more of the details of the wedding—Richard talked about getting fans and misters, if necessary—Therese relaxed a bit.
    Than gave Therese a conspiratorial wink, which made her smile.
    “And you have to invite Todd and Ray and their families,” Jen put in.
    Therese frowned as the anxiety swooped down on her again. “I wasn’t really planning on it.”
    “What?” Carol shot up from her chair. “Therese? Is there something bothering you? Something I need to know?”
    “Huh?” Therese didn’t know what to say.
    Carol looked back and forth between Than and Therese. “Why don’t you want any of your friends and family to come? Is there something you’re not telling us? Are you, I mean…” Carol’s face turned red as a tomato. She glanced over at Lynn, who knelt near her toy box. Then Carol lowered her voice and asked, “Are you pregnant?”
    Hot blood rushed to Therese’s face.
    “Maybe you two should go upstairs and talk,” Richard, whose chocolate complexion had also turned red, said to Carol.
    “No,” Therese managed to say. “I’m not pregnant. There’s nothing wrong. I just, it’s just that Than’s family is so big, and I never really wanted a big wedding.”
    “A big fat Greek wedding,” Jen said, laughing.
    Carol returned to her chair. “Sorry. I…” her voice trailed off.
    That was awkward , Therese prayed to Than.
    He looked like he was about to burst out laughing.
    Lynn ran across the room with a huge plush toy. It was a brown dog with floppy ears. She hurled it onto Than’s lap and said, “My doggie.”
    Clifford looked from his half-chewed dinosaur and gave a little bark that meant, “What am I? Chopped liver?”
    What are you doing to that toy? Therese asked him, glad for the distraction.
    He bent down his head and tail, turned his back to her, and then returned to his chewing.
    “I like him,” Than said of the big plush toy.
    “It’s a girl!” Lynn corrected.
    “Oh, I see. What’s her name?” Than asked.
    “Terry!”
    Therese smiled as tears flooded her eyes. She inwardly laughed at herself. All this talk of mortals coming and putting themselves in danger and of pregnancy, and her tears were brought on, not by those things, but by her little sister naming her toy dog after her. “Aw. You named your doggie after me?”
    Lynn nodded her cute little pig-tailed head.
    Therese glanced at Than. If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself.
    I have an idea , he replied.
    ***
     
    Than disintegrated and went to see his grandmother at her winter cabin near the base of Mount Kronos. She called to him before he had reached her door. In fact, he was still miles away when she spoke to him. He often forgot how powerful she was, but why should he? She was the sister of the greatest Olympian gods. Why wouldn’t she be powerful,