As he goes up the hall, he pulls his shirt off, and I have to laugh, because he’ll be disappointed when I tell him what I have in mind.
Fortunately for me, Dante and Athena are exactly where I said they’d be. They greet me with big, tongue-out smiles. Athena’s on her back, paws in the air, while Dante dances around her protectively.
“Oh, you two are going to be a lot of trouble.”
I get them corralled and wrangled back into the house, guiding them toward the steps to the basement. It’s just a bunch of old furniture and boxes down there. Nothing for Athena to really destroy. I whistle, and Juniper makes her slow way up the hall, with Pamela unexpectedly trotting at her side. I debate about keeping Pamela up here, maybe putting her in the spare room, but when she follows Juniper downstairs without a moment’s pause, I close the door behind them and hope for the best.
When I come into the kitchen, Charlie’s standing at the sink, and when he hears me, he turns around, pressing his hands against the counter so that his chest sticks out. In the bright overhead light, I finally get a clearer look at his tattoo. It’s pretty clearly a dragon, neck and tail outstretched and wings reaching for air to push it farther into the sky.
“You like dragons?” I say, putting my palm over it.
The tips of his ears go pink. “I...yeah. I guess you could say that. I wrote a book about them.”
“A book?” I kiss each of his cheeks, which have also started to flush.
“Yeah.” His gaze darts around nervously. “Like a novel.”
“I know what a book is, Charlie.” My smile makes my face hurt.
“Oh. Uh. Yeah. Anyway. It’s just a thing. Not like it’s published or whatever. And Athena ate my last copy, so now I have to do the edits all over again.”
“That sounds hard.”
He bites his lip. “It is. Yeah.”
“You’ll have to let me read it sometime.”
“Oh.” His hands flutter, and he tries to squirm away, but he has nowhere to go. “It’s not...Like, it’s not really ready. I wouldn’t want you to—”
“Charlie.” I put a hand at the back of his neck, squeezing just enough that he stills and his gaze meets mine.
“Yeah?”
“Is it good?”
More lip biting. Downstairs, a dog barks, but nothing follows, so I ignore it.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“When you’re ready, I’d like to read it.”
“I...yeah...” He squares his shoulders. “Okay.”
“Good. Now do you cook?”
“I...what?” Charlie’s eyelids flutter as his brain tries to make the hairpin turn. He’s got great eyelashes. “Yeah, I can cook.”
“Good. I don’t have much, but we should eat something.”
“We should?”
I suck at the hollow between his shoulder and collarbone. “We definitely should. Might be a while after.”
He laughs. “What are you going to do while I cook?”
“Watch. Help.” I kiss him again. “Keep you company.”
“Guess I should put my shirt back on then.” Charlie gives me a dismayed pout that almost has me abandoning this plan.
