“Yeah?”
“Marjory doesn’t believe I’ve been on a dragon ride before, but I told her all about you and how you stay with us sometimes and how you’re our family, and she still doesn’t believe me.”
I couldn’t help the twitch of my lips when she called me her family. “That stinks, but what do you want me to do about it?”
She grinned at me. “Will you drop us off at school today? Then I can show her you’re real.”
That made me laugh a little. “Sure, peanut. I can do that.” I’d adopted Ker’s nickname for her, and luckily, she didn’t mind when I called her that. Although she was getting older and complained about Ker using the nickname, especially in front of her classmates.
Ker shot me a fake glare, obviously not happy that I could get away with it. I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Can I come too?” Roman asked as he walked into the kitchen, freshly showered and smelling like a dream.
Zellya’s eyes went wide, and she bounced in her seat. “Yes! Then I’ll have two dragons to show off.”
That made us both chuckle, and Ker sighed, saying, “I don’t think it’s very nice to show them off just because they’re dragons.”
“Why not?”
Ker shrugged and seemed to struggle with that answer, but Roman gave his shoulder a squeeze and said, “No worries. Oak and I don’t mind being shown off for our little peanut over there.”
She giggled and stuck her tongue out, and Rome shot forward and pretended to grab her tongue, making her squirm and giggle even more. I laughed at the sight, and Ker looked completely exasperated even though he was clearly fighting a smile.
Roman tickled Zellya a little before he backed off. “Finish your breakfast, okay?”
“Yep! I’m almost done. Then we can go to my school.”
She put a bite of pancake in her mouth that was so big, I doubted it would fit in mine. Ker saw this, let out a defeated sigh, and dropped his head, shaking it in awhat am I going to do with herkind of way.
Roman walked over to me, put his hand on my lower back, leaned around, and instead of kissing my cheek like I thought he would, he stole a piece of bacon off my plate.
“Hey!” I smacked his hand, trying to grab it. “Get your own.”
He shoved the entire thing in his mouth and said around his food. “This is good.” But it came out like, “‘his if ‘ood.”
“You’re disgusting. Don’t talk with your mouth full.”
He stuck his tongue out, filled with bacon.
“Ewwwww! What are you doing?” I couldn’t help but laugh as I pushed him off me. “Gross. Stop teaching the kids bad habits. Go get a plate.”
He swallowed a bite, and this time when he leaned in, I covered my plate with my hands, and he laughed but really did give me a cheek kiss.
I shook my head at him as he walked into the kitchen, and I caught Keryth’s eye. He gave me a huge smile and a double thumbs-up. I shrugged and sighed, waving him off.
Yes, Roman was perfect for me, even when he was being gross, but I didn’t really know how to talk about it. I wasn’t sure I’d fully processed the whole viramore thing yet.
I mean, what the hell did I know about being in a healthy relationship? I’d never even made it past a third date with someone before, let alone had a real partner.
I didn’t want to fuck anything up.
The last thing I wanted to do was hurt Roman, so… I suppose we were going slow? Or something.
I didn’t even know.
Sigh.
After everyone ate and got ready, we headed out the door to Ker’s minivan. Alsira was getting ready to graduate, so she was still in school, which meant all four girls plus Trayben—Keryth and Anton’s fae-vampire fledgling, so their youngest boy—were in the van with us. We were totally packed, and Jed was sad when we pulled away since he wouldn’t fit.
