Either how I petted animals translated well to children or…
Oh, God.
A flicker of memory from the time I tousled Rían’s hair and called him a good boy surfaced, and I wanted to find a hole to crawl into before I could repeat the mistake.
Note to self: Do not treat people like pets.
And yet…
No. Bad Ana. I had to scour it from my mind. There must be a steel wool pad here somewhere.
“Are you okay?” Goldie tugged on my jeans. “Your face is all red.”
“Cleaning fumes,” I choked out, waving a hand in front of me. “I should have opened a window.”
With a wave to Jess, Goldie and I hit the sidewalk and began our stroll to visit Fayne.
four
Despite Goldie’sassurances that the new addition to Fayne’s backyard was an obstacle course for training, to me, it was a mishmash of every piece of playground equipment known to mankind. Or dragonkind. Even the fort at the kids’ park wasn’t this big. Rían had gone all out, and I had a sneaking suspicion as to why.
To start with, the playhouse was big enough to hold a half dozen kids. Three swings, monkey bars, a net for climbing, two slides, a rope ladder. Oh. And a fireman’s pole. Even an old tire wider than I was tall.
“It’s something, isn’t it?” Fayne offered me a glass of sweet tea. “Took Rían ages to piece it all together.”
“He did this alone?” I whipped my head toward her. “Why didn’t he ask for help?”
“Liam pitched in, and I did too, but Rían enjoys tinkering. Mindless tasks help him unwind.”
“This was a mindless task?” I tipped my head back to see Goldie raising a pirate flag I hadn’t noticed yet. The skull atop the crossbones was dragon, not human. A cute touch. “Instructions for these things might as well be written in an ancient language requiring a Rosetta Stone to translate.”
“If I’d had a Rosetta Stone, I would have smashed parts A, E, and Q to splinters with it.”
Whirling around, I found Rían standing behind me with a towel draped around his shoulders. “Hey.”
“Hey back.” He mopped his face dry. “What do you think?”
“That, like most things Walsh related, this was a multilevel scheme.” I gravitated to his side, checking to be sure Goldie was still engaged before asking, “Does she have trouble making friends?”
A knowing smile tipped Fayne’s lips, but she deferred to Rían, who simply nodded once.
“Being the alpha’s kid is tough.” I crossed my arms over my chest as I watched Goldie swinging by herself. “Being the magnus’s kid sister probably isn’t all that different.”
Unsure when I had gotten close enough for my arm to brush his, I didn’t move away.
Neither did he.
“Pressure from parents to play nice with her so I’ll show them favor,” he murmured. “Jealousy when she gets preferential treatment, even though she earns the privileges through high grades, volunteer work, and extracurriculars.”
A determined grunt from the monkey bars prompted Fayne to go supervise Goldie, leaving Rían and me alone. Coincidence, I was sure. Pfft. Yeah, right. Walshes were a sneaky bunch.
“Goldie volunteers?” I gasped for dramatic effect. “Forfree?”
“Free might not be the right word. She tends to get permission to keep leftover supplies, decorations, or food items. Depending on the activity. Then she recycles them for her own use later with a few tweaks.”
“Do you think she would take me on as an apprentice?”
I was only half joking, but I didn’t get to hear Rían’s answer because Sloane burst into the backyard with us. Liam was right on her heels, his expression grim.
