Certainly his hellhound seemed interested in it, and Henry cut it off before it could even say anything.
No, you maynotsleep on the rug. Or the couch.
Everyone is at the festival. They won’t know.
Theywillknow. Even if somehow no one sees you, they’ll come back and see all the hellhound hairs all over the place. I won’t have you shedding all over our mate’s B&B.
You know you want to.
Hedidwant to – everything here looked so comfortable, socozy– but he also knew that it would be a terrible idea, humanform or hellhound. The last thing he needed to do was smear cake all over the couch.
Besides, Luna was already making her way down the corridor, Fillmore happily snuggled in her arms, and so Henry hurried to follow her.
“We’re just down in this room in the back corner here. I mean,I’min this room.” Luna looked flustered, and, as cute a look as it was on her, Henry felt like maybe he should try to reassure her.
“Well, I’m here now, too. For now. Just until I get cleaned up, then I’ll be out of your hair.”
Not that he wanted to be out of her hair – far from it – but he couldn’t exactly ask to stay the night. And anyway, it wasn’t safe or practical, what with his smitten animal fan club and all. He’d have to go away and try to work out what on earth was going on, then come back once he’d gotten that particular issue sorted out.
If she was here for work, surely she’d be here for a few days, right? Maybe he could find a reason to swap phone numbers that wouldn’t weird her out. He didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, but the thought of finally meeting his mate and then never seeing her again because he had to keep his distance lest he lure dangerous animals in her direction was unbearable – no pun intended. He was used to spending time in his own company, but now it didn’t seem so appealing.
“Oh, there’s no rush,” Luna said as she attempted to juggle the keys to her room and a wiggling Fillmore. “Oh, for the love of – Fillmore, sweetie, mommy’s trying to open the door – could you justnotdo that for a moment –”
“Here,” Henry said before his brain could catch up with anything his body was doing, scooping up Fillmore with one hand and tucking him under his arm like a football, safely away from the cake that was smeared across his shirt. Fillmore gazed up at him adoringly, and okay, Henry had to admit that he waskind of cute, in a ridiculous way. Certainly he seemed to like the scritches Henry was giving him behind his ear, his little tongue lolling happily from the side of his mouth.
It took a few long moments before he thought to look up, and when he did he saw that the door was now open, and Luna was watching him with a strange look on her face. It wasn’t a bad look – he didn’t think – but he couldn’t quite make it out.
The moment came and went all too quickly, before Luna snapped out of whatever kind of trance she was in and entered the room. “Here we are – B&B sweet B&B. You can just pop Fillmore on the floor, if you like.”
“Sure,” he replied, walking through the doorway and lowering Fillmore to the floor. The dog proceeded to skitter around the room, his little claws clacking on the hardwood floor as he flung himself about.
“Being a travel writer opens a lot of doors for me,” Luna mused as she watched Fillmore’s antics. “Most places will let me take him with me even if they normally don’t allow pets, since they want a good review. But this place reallyispet-friendly – the apartments on the first floor can all be booked out for people with pets. The owner even told me that they had someone bring a cat once! Apparently they took it out for walks on a leash.”
Henry laughed. “Well, as long as they don’t mind dealing with litterboxes and clawmarks, I guess.”
“It’s not an issue, apparently. The owner – that’s the Natasha I was telling you about – said they wanted somewhere where everyone felt welcome, even if their pets ended up gnawing on the furniture.” She smiled as Fillmore tried – and failed – to chase his own little stump of a tail. “I know that I’m spoiled because of my job, but for your average pet owner it can be such a hassle to try and organize someone to pet-sit so you can get away for a few days. Knowing that you can bring them along is such a relief. And they’re family, really.”
“That they are,” Henry said. He’d never had a pet – he’d never wanted to subject any animal to living with a hellhound – but he could see the appeal. The bond between Luna and Fillmore was obvious.
“Anyway,” Luna said suddenly, “we should get you out of that shirt.” She bit her lip. “Sorry. You know what I mean.”
“I do,” he replied. “I’ll just…”
He half-turned awkwardly, aware of Luna doing the same thing until they were facing away from each other, and pulled the shirt carefully over his head.
“Here,” he said, thrusting the shirt out without fully turning back. “Uh… thank you. For all of this. I appreciate it.”
Luna grabbed the shirt from him. “No problem,” she said, sounding a little breathless. “I’ll just take this down and clean and dry it for you. Should be about an hour if I do it on the quickest cycle. Oh, and there are towels in the bathroom. Help yourself.”
“Sure. I’ll do that.” A thought occurred to him. “You won’t get bored, will you? I don’t want to monopolize your hotel room while you watch my shirt spin for an hour.”And also I would really like to spend some more time with you…
“Oh, no, no, don’t worry about it!” Luna said quickly. “I can write up my notes while I’m there, and the laundry room itself is super nice. It’s got a big window with a view of the forest, a couch, a coffee machine, the whole shebang. I’ll be fine!”
“Well, if you insist,” Henry said, trying not to let his disappointment show in his voice. “Uh. Thanks again.” He turned to face her, but she was still facing steadfastly away. “Well… I’ll see you in about an hour, then.”
“An hour it is.” She paused, and then called out, “Fillmore! Come on, we’re heading off. Let the nice man shower in peace.”
Fillmore was too busy trying to stick his nose into the trash can to pay her any notice, and so she picked him up with a huff, ignoring his protests.
