There were all kinds of hats. Mostly winter hats, given the season. Some hand-knitted, some fur-lined, some brightly dyed felted wool, but also a fair number of all-season cowboy hats and fedoras and other styles she didn’t know the names of. A pair who clearly knew their business were talking to other customers, so she and Keith had the chance to look around without any pressure. Stacy drifted over to the ear muffs, and laughed at a row of headbands above them. “Look at these. They won’t keep your ears warm, but they’re cute.”
She took one down and turned to Keith, reaching up to slide it over his head without thinking how forward and intimate that was. He closed his hand over hers at his cheek, and for a few seconds they were arrested there, gazing into each other’s eyes, until Keith gave a bone-deep groan of dismay and said, “Oh, God,no,” with feeling.
CHAPTER6
Yes! I am almost BEAUTIFUL again! We must wear this ALWAYS!
The stag’s voice echoing in his head would have been funny, if Stacy wasn’t right there and so beautiful and…so confused, now, because Keith had gone ‘oh no’ right in her face. He lifted his gaze away from her for a moment, focusing on the row of headbands above the ear muffs.
Every single one of them sported a set of felt reindeer antlers.
They came in all sizes, from little kid sized with a couple of branching horns to a set that would actually do an adult male deer proud, with half a dozen points per soft tan antler. Stacy had chosen one with three or four points, but the stag gasped as Keith looked over the bigger ones.No I was wrong we wantthoseones!
Keith, out loud although under his breath, said, “I am not buying a six-point reindeer antler headband.”
Stacy, who obviously didn’t know he was talking to the pathetically hopeful stag in his own head, knocked her shoulder against his arm and grinned up at him. “Are you suuuuure?”
Apparently she hadn’t taken the ‘oh god no’ badly, which was a relief. Keith supposed it made a certain amount of sense. Adult men didn’t usually go around wearing antlers, and a theatrical rejection of that was probably kind of normal. Still, he felt badly enough to say, “I wasn’t saying oh no at you…”
She laughed. “I assumed you were saying them at the antlers. I promise they look very handsome.”
See?! She thinks I’m handsome! We have to wear them! ALWAYS. Until our real antlers grow back!
As if reminded of the effort it was going to take to regrow his antlers, Keith’s stomach rumbled. He took several hasty swallows of his cider, relieved he didn’t choke on it, and gave Stacy a mortified smile. “No, it’s just…I mean, yes, I sort of was saying no to the antlers, but…well, I was going to explain over dinner, but I might as well—”
NO! No! She can’t see me until I’m BEAUTIFUL again! We can’t tell her!
Keith, standing there with a panicking stag in his head, a hot cider in his hand, and a beautiful woman at his side, tried to remember any story at all where a shifter’s animal didn’t want to tell their fated mate their secret. Both his parents were shifters, so it hadn’t been an issue for them, but most shifters found their mates in full humans. And most shifters were cautious about telling their mates the truth, because it was more than a little outrageous.
But while every single person he knew who’d found their mate had been cautious about it, their shifter animals had been absolutely confident. They’d had no doubts at all, and to hear the stories his friends told, they’d been impatient with their humans for not going all in right away.
Keith had absolutely no idea what to do with a shifter animal whodidn’twant to tell their fated mate everything.
He’d been quiet a little too long, because Stacy’s eyebrows were high and her expression was becoming more concerned. “Keith? Is everything okay? You can tell me anything, you know.”
She obviously heard herself say that, and wrinkled her nose with embarrassment. “Which is a lot to say to somebody you met yesterday. Sorry, that must have sounded really weird. But seriously, are you okay?”
“It didn’t sound weird at all. I’m just sort of having an argument with myself over something.” Keith glanced at himself in the little mirror the shop had up so people could check out hats and ear muffs before they bought them. The antlers were utterly, completely ridiculous. Beautifully made, actually, but totally absurd.
After a moment, with a huge sigh and a cry of objection from his stag, he took the antlers off and put them back on the…rack, as it were.
And then he got the biggest set, the six-pointers, and slid them into place on his head. “Happy now?”
Stacy burst out laughing and clapped. “Perfect!”
His stag made absolute doe eyes at him.Perfect.More quietly, it also added,Thank you, which Keith thought might be a first. He mumbled something to both Stacy and the stag, then, feeling completely silly, went to buy the antlers. Stacy, behind him, said, “Oh, no you don’t! Those are a Christmas present! Just let me get a set of earmuffs for myself.”
She loves me in them, his stag said with stars in its voice.She thinks I’m so beautiful she’ll buy me my antlers!
Keith opened his mouth and closed it again. There didn’t seem to be much point in arguing with the stag’s interpretation of the gift.Does that mean I can tell her the truth?
NO! I am still UNBEAUTIFUL!Keith was certain that if it was possible, the stag would throw the back of its hoof to its forehead like a swooning starlet, and collapse on a divan.
You can’t have it both ways,he said a little impatiently.Either you’re very handsome with the reindeer antlers or you’re ugl—
UNBEAUTIFUL.
Keith actually laughed aloud.Sorry. I didn’t realize ‘ugly’ was going too far.
