Fast Alejo was, especially in his serpent mode, but that other awareness jetted through the sky like a moonlit comet. There was one mythic shifter faster than his serpent: a dragon. Alejo glanced up to see an enormous silver dragon eeling with fantastic grace as he closed the distance. Side whiskers rippled in the air as the dragon glided next to him.
“You are Rigo Tzama’s son?” came the thought, mind to mind.
“I am.” Alejo then caught up with himself mentally, and added ruefully, “I probably ought to have introduced myself, but I walked into my mother’s house and found my mate. And I haven’t been able to think about much else since then.”
Alejo felt, rather than heard, sympathetic laughter from the Guardian. “Somehow, it seems to be easier for the young ones?”
Alejo had to laugh at that. “Probably so.”
“I am Mikhail Long. Welcome to Playa del Encanto. I take it your mate is one of Godiva Hidalgo’s guests?”
“In a manner of speaking…” Alejo furnished a quick explanation, to discover that Mikhail Long did not know Wendy except by sight, which surprised Alejo a little, until it occurred to him that Wendy seemed to live in social isolation as much as possible. “I was going to buy a new phone tomorrow, and call my dad, and my friend Lance. He’s connected to the Guardian of the Midwest. But maybe you’re the one to ask?”
“About?”
Alejo gave the silver dragon a rundown on the strange encounter with K’thrynne Nobett of Stella Porta. “Do you know if this company is reputable? She made it sound as if they have heavy hitters in the real estate community among them.”
Then Mikhail surprised Alejo again by saying, “I’ve never heard of them. But I’m relatively new to this town as well. The person to ask is Professor Joey Hu, who has been here much longer, and is part of the city council as well. Being a nine-tail fox, he has a knack for earning sympathy and trust.”
Alejo accepted that, with gratitude. After wishing Alejo a quick and happy resolution with his mate, Mikhail Long eeled away at lightning speed, leaving Alejo to a solitary flight as he gazed down at the glowing geometry of Los Angeles at night. He circled slowly, then flew back, tired enough now to sleep. As he punched his pillow and stretched out, he resolved to get a new cell phone ASAP.
Morning arrived before he was ready for it. But he got up, dressed, and went out to see what he could do for Wendy.
She was not in the kitchen. Instinctively his mind reached along the mate bond, and he found her asleep, in the middle of a jumble of fretful dreams. He snapped his mind back, shaking himself irritably. No trespass until she gave him the go ahead! As he looked around the kitchen he was aware of how much he wanted to cook for her, to give her little surprises just to see her laugh. To hold her all night, so that she would have sweet, untroubled dreams.
Rather than risk disturbing her, he left the kitchen, and retreated through the garden—careful to give the mysterious, hidden community wide and respectful berth—and get in some hard work.
By the end of the day, his mood had improved. He’d finished the porch, and measured the windows whose frames needed replacing. Then he went into town to arrange for the supplies he needed, and he dropped by the phone store to get a new phone.
By the time he got back to Godiva’s, the phone had finished downloading. His heart sank when he saw how many messages awaited him. He knew most of it was likely spam, but he’d have to go through it all anyway. Once before he’d had to replace his phone after it dropped from his pocket into a water trough on the ranch. It might have recovered had not a new horse saw the shiny thing drop and picked it out of the trough. Crunch! He’d put off driving all the way to Louisville to replace the phone, with a result much like this. He’d summarily deleted the messages that had accumulated, to discover that he’d torpedoed three crucial ones.
He put the new phone in his pocket and went into Godiva’s place. The moment the door opened, he smelled savory spices, and looked across the living room to see Wendy moving about, an apron hugging her lovely curves, and a curl of damp hair lying on her neck. He tossed the phone into his room to deal with later, and hustled to the kitchen as if drawn by a magnet.
There he had to put the brakes on. One day, he promised himself, he’d be able to wrap his arms around her, and pour every good emotion rushing through him into her. Not yet, one step at a time. Remember the plan he’d painstakingly figured out while working all day. Baby steps, earn her trust first. Graduate to a picnic, and move toward a real date. And if that went well, maybe tell her about shifters, and if she accepted that…
“Sam, can you set the table?” Wendy called, then she turned to see Alejo. Her face brightened to a smile, and his serpent nearly burst out right then and there. No! A quick, vivid image of splintering the kitchen table and knocking the hanging pots and pans crashing in all directions kept his over-eager serpent back inside. “How did your day go?” he asked.
Her forehead puckered and the color came and went in her face as if she were completely unused to hearing this question. This most normal, everyday question.
“I got through the housecleaning in record time,” she said cheerfully, then came another of those slightly guilty glances toward her laptop. “Not much time for anything else, but hey, at least this place isn’t a pigsty.”
“It looked great before, but now it shines,” he said.
“And you?” she asked softly, tentatively.
“I got the porch deck finished,” he said. “Looks like we both get gold stars, even if we have to give them to ourselves. Hey, Sam,” he added as the little boy carried plates to the table and began setting them out.
He didn’t expect an answer, but he didn’t want Sam to feel ignored. He was going to turn back to Wendy when Sam looked up, an odd expression on his face. Then his wide gaze behind those thick glasses rolled toward his mother, and he returned to table setting.
Alejo bridged the moment. “Tomorrow I’ll tackle replacing those window frames, if you’re okay with unlocking the place.”
“I’m back at the bakery tomorrow, or I’d help,” she said. “I’ll give you the keys.”
Alejo thanked her, his heart leaping at this small measure of trust.
Dinner was cheerful, everyone fairly quiet, tired after a long day. First Eve and then Lily turned up. Eve seemed tense, but her face brightened when she sniffed the aromas. The other woman was quiet and polite as always. Both readily filled their plates when Wendy said, “There’s plenty. I made a ton of spaghetti sauce, and there are meatballs for the meat eaters.”
When they finished, Wendy brought out several flavors of gelato for dessert. By the time that was eaten and the kitchen cleaned up, the dishwasher humming, everyone seemed ready to call it a night.
