That’s a lot of things to realize all at once upon waking, and the most important part doesn’t even feel like it’s the fact that we need to figure out how to protect the town with the failing ward and the whole kraken queen keeping evil ocean storm magic crap or whatever at bay.
No.
The most important thing is the way Caleb is holding me, his head and nose nuzzled into my hair so tight that I can feel the warmth of his breath along my scalp.
Gunner shifted position in the night too, as now he’s firmly planted on top of my feet.
And despite the insanity of the previous night, I feel the safest I’ve felt maybe in my entire life.
I’m warm.
Cared for.
I feel loved.
Caleb knows that I’m magic. He didn’t care. He just rolled with it. I think that might be more shocking than a telepathic squid — kraken!! — hanging right outside of Silverlight Shore.
“Good morning,” Caleb says.
The words are soft, his lips brushing the outer shell of my ear in a way that sends goosebumps all over my skin.
Goosebumps that have nothing to do with the fact that something mildly horrifying and completely on brand for Silverlight Shore happened just last night.
No. It’s all Caleb.
“Hey,” I say. “That should be awkward, right?”
“What?” he asks. “The fact that your breath smells like Gunner’s after he eats raw food?”
“Well, that’s incredibly rude,” I say. The words come out garbled because I’ve slapped my hand over my mouth.
He laughs, snuggling me closer. “I’ve never been so happy to smell bad breath in my life. But if you want, I’m pretty sure I bought a bulk pack of toothbrushes, and you’re more than welcome to freshen up in my bathroom.”
“What time is it?” I ask. Subject change, subject change, subject change.
“Oh no, you’re not getting off that easy,” he says. “What about this is awkward, besides your bad breath?”
His arms have tightened around me, and he’s pulled me even closer — so close that I can feel the beating of his heart against my shoulder blades.
It’s not the only thing I can feel pressed up against me, either.
I bite my lip.
“I don’t hate it.”
“Maybe I should brush my teeth right now.”
“This isn’t awkward, Ivy,” he says. “This is perfect. This is what I’ve wanted to wake up to for years.”
For some reason, a teeny tiny jealous little imp in the back of my mind pipes up and decides to speak right then.
“There really wasn’t anybody else?” I ask him.
Turning around, he threads his arms around the back of my neck and pulls me closer.
Now that our torsos touch, it’s incredibly intimate, and I’m not oblivious to the fact that my dress totally rode up to the tops of my thighs while I slept last night.
“Are you jealous, Ivy Romantic?” he asks.
