Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Beside a plate of cookies sat four sippy cups of juice and a pitcher of water that I was pretty sure I’d gotten as a housewarming gift a thousand years ago when I’d first moved out on my own. They’d even set out some plastic cups beside it so we had plenty of options.
It was ingenious actually.
Paxton hadn’t expected it either judging by his wide eyes. “Smart people are a pain in the ass.”
Oops.
I could see that Paxton hadn’t intended for his whispered words to come out of his mouth, but he didn’t apologize when they just smiled wider. They knew they were behaving badly and were going to power through it because they liked making new friends.
“Thank you, gentlemen.” Ignoring the shenanigans, I led Paxton over to the couch and sat us down so he didn’t have to decide what to do. “You’ve done a good job with our impromptu tea party.”
I got beaming smiles for understanding their plan, but instead of making Paxton more nervous, he actually started to relax.
Assuming that getting more information made it easier to handle the situation, I focused on talking to the troublemaking twosome. “How is work going, gentlemen?”
Looking down, I nodded toward a sippy cup. “Juice, please.”
I could almost hear Paxton telling himself that a cup didn’t make the Dom or something equally as adorable, but he was very quiet as Kenzie handed me a sippy cup. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Shifting like a matron getting more comfortable in her ballgown, he nodded. “I’ve had a lot of work lately and just finished restoring the cutest set of handmade baby toys. People need to stop storing things in attics if there are animals in the attic.”
I wasn’t sure if anyone had mentioned what Kenzie actually did besides drive everyone crazy, so I leaned toward Paxton. “Kenzie restores antique toys. He does a beautiful job.”
Giving Paxton something safe to comment on went a long way in smoothing out the situation. He smiled and some of the stiffness eased out of his back. “That’s a fascinating career. I’m not handy at all, so I can’t even imagine all the work that goes into that.”
Kenzie wiggled excitedly and charged right into a lecture on how anyone could learn to do it and about how his father had started teaching him the skills at a young age. When he finally wound down, Paxton shook his head. “The only practical things my father taught me were how to order in a fancy restaurant and what to say at faculty events. My parents are both college professors.”
I loved how Kenzie’s and Lorne’s first reactions were to frown.
“That’s sad.” Lorne let out a sigh. “But we have lots of creative people around here if you want to adopt new parents.”
Neither of us was sure if he was serious or not, so Paxton handled it with his wonderful manners. “Thank you for the offer. You have a lot of creative people in town.”
Kenzie nodded, giving another wiggle as he reached for a cookie. “I don’t know if it’s the magic influencing the people or just the type of people who are attracted to the area. Maybe both?”
Blinking, Paxton slowly nodded as I started enjoying my juice. “That’s something to think about. A chicken and the egg kind of situation.”
And they were off.
It wasn’t little play but they had a lively discussion about the creation of the town and if magic could influence creativity. By the time Kenzie was lecturing everyone on what he knew about the new humans in the area who were creatively focused, Paxton had eaten several cookies and had done his best to give my nearly empty cup several covert glances.
He finally broke.
He wanted the juice.
Doing his best to subtly grab a cup, he rested it on his knee and just ignored it. “Do you think the humans in the area who aren’t supposed to know anything are actually that in the dark?”
It was a good question and one that had Lorne and Kenzie coming at it from two very different perspectives. So as Lorne debated the merits of pretending to be stupid and Kenzie thought people were just sweet and could ignore anything odd, Paxton studied them and discreetly took a sip of his juice.
The two naughty dragons were polite this time and pretended to ignore Paxton. There was no way they missed it but it was what Paxton needed to start relaxing again. It also opened the door for his little side just the tiniest bit because as he started giving his thoughts on what he’d seen around town, he slipped down to the floor and ended up right between my legs.
So I stroked his head, stole a few more cookies, and finished my juice as they got to know each other and picked apart the town. Eventually they came back around to the magic question and as Paxton set down his empty cup, he looked up at me and frowned. “Can they come on our walk with us, Daddy?”