He wore dark blue flannel over a grey Henley that hugged the muscles of his broad chest. He’d ditched the Carhartt jacket and shoved both sleeves up his arms to show off his strong forearms.
Streaks of sun-bleached blonde threaded his brown hair, making those green eyes of his sparkle like slow-flowing water.
He looked like summer and warm sand and everything I’d ever wanted in my life.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hey.” He glanced away from me to assess the basket. “Looks like someone’s got plans.”
“I do. Have plans.”
“Aw…isn’t this sweet? You two kids are just the bee’s knees.”
“Go away, Crow,” we said at the same time.
He chuckled. “See you two around. And Ryder? Stop making my girl sad. Or I’ll make time in my schedule to have words with you.”
Great. An over-protective almost-uncle threat. That was just super great.
Ryder shot me a look. “You’re sad?”
“If there’s a chance to stir up trouble, Crow’s got the spoon. You know that.”
“Sure,” he said, though the way he said it meant he also knew Crow liked it best when the trouble was based on truth. “You…” He took a breath and changed tactics. He stepped forward and took both of my hands in his. “Dinner sounds great. Thanks for the beer.”
“Crow picked out the beer,” Crow called out from halfway across the store.
“Right,” I said. “Can we agree to keep the gods out of this?”
“What gods?” He returned my smile.
“All of them,” I said. “I’d like to have a nice meal with you and no one else.”
The dragon pigoinked.
“Dragon pigs and Spuds excluded,” I added.
Ryder was still smiling, but a shadow crossed his face. I waited, not ready to jump to some kind of conclusion. Not ready to think he was already figuring a way to cancel the date, a way out of it.
“Uh, one god,” he said.
“Which?” Calm. I was calm. The ocean in summer, no wind, no waves calm. The sand blown clean and smooth, not a footprint to be seen calm.
“Mithra.”
Now there was wind, waves, churning sand.
“Mithra is joining us for dinner?”
“No not, well, in a way, but no. Not…um…physically.”
“‘In a way’ because you’re tied to him, or because he’s trying to use you to do something he wants? Like get into Ordinary without having to follow the rules. Like ruling Ordinary.”
“He’s a god of rules, Delaney.”
“Oh, I know. He’s a god of contracts who tricked you into signing a contract with him. A god who hates that a Reed is standing in his way of taking over a town he won’t even enter legally.”
Ryder cleared his throat and glanced around to see if we were gathering a crowd. Okay, yeah, I’d been a little loud.
