The R.L. Mathewson Chronicles: The Beginning

The R.L. Mathewson Chronicles 

The Beginning

 Boston, MA

            “Why the hell are we at a chocolate buffet for this meeting?” Ephraim demanded as he pushed away his empty plate and sat back in his chair. He threw his arm around his mate’s shoulders as the woman in question looked wistfully around the large private banquet room filled with every type of chocolate imaginable.

            “Because this is where R.L. asked us to meet her,” Nick said on a tired sigh as he was once again forced to wrap his arms around his wife’s waist and pull the cute little thing with a serious sugar addiction back onto his lap before she attacked the chocolate fondue fountain, again.

            As Jason sat there, nibbling on a chocolate-coated strawberry that he’d swiped off Trevor’s plate, he couldn’t help but wonder if Jamie was a long lost Bradford. One look at the large plate of food that her husband had ordered and pleaded with her to eat before she went on a sugar binge quickly killed that theory. The woman seemed to only care about sweets when Bradfords could, and would, eat anything.

            Then again, she’d fit in rather nicely with the shifter and Sentinel sitting across from him, fighting over the last slice of chocolate pudding cake, Jason mused as he gestured to the abandoned lunch plate. Nick gave him a reluctant nod before focusing all of his attention back on the woman now pouting in his arms.

            “You greedy bastard!” Trevor hissed with a murderous glare as he shook his hand, no doubt trying to work the out the sting, courtesy of the metal spoon that Jason had been forced to whack against the back of his hand when the bastard had made a move to steal the plate of food from him.

            Ignoring him, Jason picked up the plate overflowing with turkey, and the works, and placed in front of him. As much as he loved a good dessert, he loved a good meal more.

            “You could share!” the greedy bastard snapped.

            “No,” he said with a heavy sigh, making sure to sound saddened by the fact that he wasn’t about to share. “I really couldn’t,” he added, before he took the first bite of turkey and practically groaned in ecstasy.

            “Don’t even think about it,” Zoe said in a harsh whisper to her husband when Trevor made a move to stand up, making Jason chuckle as he tore into the large buttery biscuit.

            “But,-”

            “You promised R.L. that you wouldn’t get us kicked out,” Zoe reminded the greedy bastard as Jason made a show of taking a large bite out of the delicious buttery morsel.

            Judging by the murderous glare that Trevor was sending his way, he knew that his cousin was tempted to jump over the table and beat the shit out of him, but Trevor knew better than to piss R.L. off. She might be laid back and easy going, but she had a low tolerance for assholes who came between her and chocolate, especially a chocolate buffet.

            “Speaking of R.L.,” Eric said as he placed a plate overflowing with chocolate puddings and pies in front of his wife Joe, “where is she?”

            “The last time I saw her, she was in the hallway talking with Tristan and Caine,” Connor said, not bothering to look up from his computer screen as Rory pointed out something that sounded like a design flaw to him.

            “Was Shayne with him?” Jason asked, wondering if they’d be able to fit in a quick game tonight before he took his little grasshopper out for dinner.

            “No,” Rory said, shaking her head absently as she pointed something else out to her husband, “I think he’s home with the rest of their brothers looking after Marty.”

            “Is she still having problems with morning sickness?” Zoe asked, slapping her husband’s hand away from her plate.

            “Yes, but that’s not the problem,” Rory answered, adding, “they’re having a problem with spirits again,” before anyone could ask.

            Kale gave a snort of amusement as he tried to swipe a bite of cake from Izzy’s plate. “That’s a pretty fucked up series.”

            “Tell me about it,” Jason said, chuckling in agreement along with most of the men at the table.

            “I don’t know why she bothered writing anything else,” Chris said before adding the one thing that was guaranteed to piss off every character at the table, “she should have just stuck with the Sentinel/Pyte series.”

            “Oh, because writing about Pytes, vampires and shifters that lick their own asses are somehow better than ghosts?” Trevor asked, not even bothering to hide his snort of disbelief.

            “I don’t lick my own ass, you bastard!” Kale snapped.

            “At least our series is more original than a bunch of guys with a food addiction,” Ephraim said as he pointedly looked at the large empty plate in front of Jason.

            “It’s a medical condition, you bastard!” Jason snapped back, sick of these cocky bastards knocking his love of food.

            “It’s annoying,” Eric said, sounding annoyed as his wife simply muttered something and pulled out a well worn paperback book right about the time the rest of the women at the table did the same thing, apparently determined to ignore the men at the table.

            “Stay the hell out of this, EMS boy,” Trevor practically sneered, getting into the argument that occurred every time they had one of these meetings.

            “Blow me,” Eric said, giving him the finger.

            “Puhlease,” Trevor said, shaking his head in disgust, “like you could get someone like me.”

            “Isn’t R.L. planning on killing you off in the next book?” Nick, a natural instigator, asked.

            Trevor’s gasp of outrage had Jason rolling his eyes. “That’s a lie! She would never kill me off. I’m the most popular character!”

            “In your dreams,” Chris said, gesturing between his father and himself. “We are.”

            Jason didn’t even bothering arguing since he really didn’t care. The only thing that he cared about right now was grabbing a bowl of that decadent chocolate moose, whisking his wife upstairs and licking every drop off her body. Then he would-

            “Please tell me that you’re not having this argument again,” a familiar voice with a slight Boston accent said, drawing his attention away from the chocolate moose and onto the woman that was responsible for bringing him together with his little grasshopper, something that he would be eternally grateful for.

            “How are the kids?” he asked as he stood up and pulled the much shorter woman into his arms for a hug.

            “They’re good,” R.L. said, returning the hug before she pulled away and gave Haley a hug.

            Jason sat down and watched as R.L. went around the table, greeting all of the characters that she’d created and loved. When she came to Kale, the shifter picked her up, gave her a big hug as he whispered something in her ear that had her shaking her head with a smile. Grumbling something about a mate, Kale gestured for R.L. to take his seat and grabbed another chair to sit close to her while Caine and Tristan leaned back against the wall behind her, keeping a protective eye on everyone in the room.

            “I know that you all have things that you need to do, so I’m not going to waste your time with pleasantries,” R.L. said, getting to the point, which was definitely appreciated with this group. “I’ve decided to start something called, The R.L. Mathewson Chronicles on my blog.”

            “Are you writing an online novelette?” Nick, always the editor, asked with real interest.

            The look of disgust on R.L.’s face was priceless and if he wasn’t afraid that she’d get back at him in the next Neighbor from Hell novel, he would have teased her about it. “I don’t write novelettes.”

            “What do you have against novelettes?” Jaime asked, sounding curious.

            R.L. shrugged. “I have nothing against them personally. I just don’t like rushing a story. I like giving the characters a chance to develop. I’m not opposed to doing a collection of extended epilogues for characters that have already been established, but that’s probably it.”

            “Then what’s this chronicles project about?” Madison asked, shifting in her seat so that she could give R.L. her full attention.

            “Well,” R.L. said, sounding a little nervous, “I thought that I’d start handing over the reigns to my blog to all of you.”

            “To us?” he asked, sharing a confused look with Trevor.

            R.L. shrugged as she said, “I thought it would be more fun for the readers if they got a chance to see how everyone was doing and what was coming up through everyone here instead of me giving boring updates.”

            “How would we do that?” Eric asked, placing his hand over the large swell of Joe’s stomach.

            “I have a few ideas that I’d like to play around with,” R.L. said with that secretive smile that usually ended with one of them screwing up and making an ass out of themselves.

            “Do we have a choice?” Chris asked, looking a little nervous for a man trained to kill with his bare hands.

            “No,” R.L. said with a chuckle as she shook her head, “not really.”

            “That’s what I thought,” Chris said with a heavy sigh as he rubbed his hands down his face. “When do we start?”

            “Soon,” was all R.L. said as she stood up and headed for the door, leaving them all to wonder just how badly this was going to end for them.