“Um, no. He didn’t do that either.” Emeric flopped back on the guest bed and looked up at the ceiling. “When can I move to my bedroom upstairs? Uncle Dorian said I could keep the little soldiers we found and I need somewhere to put them.”
His Uncle Dorian claimed not to have much but he was just a barely restrained packrat too.
“We’ve got two options. We can order one online and have it delivered or we can go pick one out probably Wednesday.” I’d given up pretending he wasn’t going to stay with us when Macy had used a new friend’s phone and explained that she’d gotten distracted at the outlet mall and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.
Yep.
She was still using presumptive language that made it sound like she’d take him eventually, but that wasn’t going to work. My assumption that she was grown-up enough to take on the responsibility of taking care of Emeric had been grossly overconfident.
“We need to pick one out.” Emeric looked so sure about that I knew anUncle Dorian sayswas coming. “Uncle Dorian says touching things is better because we have to see the quality.”
“Then we’ll do that later this week.” Because I had a never-ending pile of paperwork on my desk at the house and out at the ranger station. “We’ll make a list before we go. Two lists. Needs and wants.”
Nodding seriously, Emeric frowned and looked amazingly like Dorian when he was thinking and fighting off yawns. “I need a bed but I want a shelf. I can do that.”
Hmm.
“Let’s keep that shelf in the need category unless there’s one up in the attic?” I couldn’t remember if we had anything like that or not. “It might take us a while to find the perfect stuff for your room, so if we have something we can use temporarily that’ll be good.”
Nodding, Emeric settled back against his pillows as he glanced up again like he was picturing his room. “Uncle Dorian says we can’t rush that kind of thing and we might need to look at flea markets and places like that because antiques are sturdier.”
Emeric’s confident tone made me wonder what conversation I’d missed.
“I think that’s a good plan as long as you like the furniture.” I didn’t care what his room looked like but I wanted to make sure he knew he got to pick it out. “After school tomorrow you can do some research on decorating stuff and see what style you like.”
I was really hoping he wasn’t going to love that weird IKEAeverything looks boringstuff, but I could live with it in just one room.
“We’re also going to need to pick out bedding.” We really did need a few lists. “What color should it be?”
The way his eyebrows went up and his head cocked made him look like he thought my IQ had just dropped ten points. “Blue.”
Duh.
“Perfect.” Eventually he’d be comfortable enough to figure out his own tastes, right? Was that something we needed to talk to a therapist about too? “Okay, you head to bed because we’ve got to get up early for school and I need tomorrow to come fast so we can see what happens next in the book.”
Emeric sat up and gave me a tight hug as I sighed and grumbled again. “Books shouldn’t have cliffhanger chapters that early.”
He snickered quietly but tried to look serious by the time I let him lie back down. “Maybe if we’re good tomorrow we’ll get two chapters.”
“I think bribes might need to be involved.” I wasn’t sure what the chapter to behavior scale looked like but I wasn’t willing to take any chances. “We’ll figure out some good options.”
One chapter was just kind of stingy.
“You’ll…” His yawn that time was wider as he finally relaxed completely into the bed. “You’ll figure out good options. You’re a good mate. You…you think about what he likes. I…I saw that online. The…the relationship guy said you have to think about what your partner likes to help make them feel important.”
He’d snuck the weirdest stuff when he’d been browsing online.
“Thank you.” Running my hand over his head, I sat beside him on the bed as he closed his eyes and stopped fighting how tired he was.
The trip he’d made to find us had worn him down more than he understood but part of me couldn’t help wondering if his family had been taking care of him good enough to begin with. The more I thought about it and compared to some of the other pups his age, the more I worried he wasn’t as filled out as he should’ve been.
Because Dorian was right, Emeric’s paws were huge compared to the rest of him.
His human body wasn’t showing the difference but he’d been running around the yard with the other pups when we’d picked him up earlier and it’d been more obvious then.
Not that Dorian had noticed.
No, my mate had nearly swallowed his tongue when the pups had all changed to their human forms, naked as jay birds as my grandmother used to say.
