“Ba-by, ba-by, ba-by,” she sang back at him, banging an upside-down mixing bowl with a wooden spoon. He stared ather, mouth agape. “Ohhh, sorry, little man. Big noises areyourjob. I forgot!”
She laughed and set the bowl and spoon in front of him. He grabbed both with an expression of naked glee. She hid her own smile as she turned back to the kitchen counter—and theothermixing bowl, which would have been upside-down on the floor in half a minute, muffin mix decorating the floors walls and ceiling, if she hadn’t given Tomás the decoy.
“No like nananas!” Tomás declared as she mashed browning bananas into the bowl.
“I know, sweetpea, but last week you didn’t eat anythingbutbananas, so now we have a whole lot to get through.” Because everyone and their neighbor had helped them stock up after seeing Tomás dive dragon-snout-first into a banana split dessert at the local restaurant.
Her neighbors were amazing. But sometimes overwhelming. And not only when it came to groceries.
“No like nanananana muffins,” Tomás declared darkly.
“Mm-mm. And I bet you don’t like spinach, either,” Maya mused, peering over the recipe.
“Spidge!” Tomás’s eyes lit up.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Really? Well, okay…” She shook her head. The recipe called for enough banana to hide the taste of spinach, but hey, if her little dragon liked spinach more than bananas this week, maybe the green stuff could do the job of disguising the unacceptable yellow fruit. “Plus, we can take them when we go and see Lainie and Harrison and their new baby! Won’t that be fun?”
Work was over for the day and she had her regular baby-date with Lainie in a half hour. Normally she wouldn’t put this much effort into messing up her kitchen this time of day, but she hadn’t made it to the grocery store yet this week.
And she knew better than to appear at a house with a newborn and not come bearing stacks of easy-to-eat snacks.
BANG-BANG-BANG—
Ting!
Maya frowned. Was that her phone? Hard to tell now that Tomás had started drumming again. She tapped her pocket, then her apron. No phone. Oh well.
And, wow, wasoh wellstill a novelty when it came to answering her phone. Once, she would have dropped everything and scrambled to find her phone and make sure she was well on top of whatever work emergency was summoning her. But now?
Work was over for the day. Which meant work wasover.For thewhole rest of the day.
Truly, she was living the dream.
Not the dream where Corin loomed up out of the shadows, dark and blazing and shirtless for reasons she didn’t want to interrogate, but still. A dream. A very nice dream, with time for banana muffins, hanging out with other sleep-deprived parents and, later, a walk down to the beach. Maybe Tomás wouldn’t even fly off and try to break into the ice-cream parlor.
BANG-BANG-BANG—
And soundproof earbuds. She scooped mashed banana into the muffin mix, and bit her lip, wondering whether to risk asking Tomás if he wanted to help her spoon it into the tray. In the pro column: it would be adorable, it would assist his fine motor skills, it would be less noisy than the drumming.
In the con column: the whole reason she’d given him the bowl to drum on was to keep himawayfrom the goopy muffin mix. His motor skills were actually pretty fantastic already, in humananddragon form—it was convincing him the mix belonged in the muffin tray instead of artistically dotted around the house that would be the problem.
BANG-BANG—
She winced. “Hey, sweetpea, let’s tone it down a bit—”
He stopped immediately.
Maya blinked.
Not that her son wasn’t the sweetest, most adorable and considerate baby in the world, but listening wasn’t one of his top skills. Then she saw it wasn’therhe was listening to. His gaze was distant, his head tilted as though he was hearing something far away.
Fire blazed in his eyes.
Maya darted forwards, not quick enough to even get close as he shifted into dragon form and zipped out the door. The bowl and spoon clanged to the floor.
“Shoot,” she muttered and rushed after him. She was halfway up the stairs when he shot back down, a glittering bag dangling from his claws.
He crash-landed onto her chest and peered quizzically up at her. His net bag of treasures jangled against her apron. “What did you go and get that for all of a sudden?”
