Do you want her to freeze?he snapped back.Not everyone likes the cold like you do!
“These old houses,” Diana said, casting her eyes upward. “Not that I can blame it, if the weather is changing this quickly.”
“It’s a lovely house,” Calvin said – and he was telling the truth. Sure, it wasn’t particularly large, and it didn’t look like something out of a magazine… but that was all part of the charm. It felt lived in, and well-loved.
Diana laughed. “Yeah, some people pay hundreds of dollars to get that chic ‘artfully peeling paint’ look, but it turns out that you can get the same effect for free just by… not ever re-painting the house.”
“I like it,” Calvin said firmly.
Diana’s cheeks flushed a light pink, and she ducked her head – but not before Calvin caught the hint of a smile on her lips.
“Well,” she said, raising her head again after a moment. “Not that I want to kick you out or anything, but if you insist on walking, you’d better head off now.”
Calvin nodded. “Agreed. Thank you for your hospitality – it really has been wonderful to meet you.” He turned to smile at Ash. “Both of you.”
“It was good to meet you, too,” Ash said. “Thanks for your help with the crossword.”
“Uh, ‘help’ might be a bit strong,” Calvin said, laughing. “I’m still not really sure I get it.”
Ash smiled shyly. “The clue was ‘Analyze dusty bananas’ – so you have to re-arrange the letters of ‘dusty’ to get another word for ‘analyze’, if that helps.”
“Huh,” Calvin said, thinking it over – and then, he got it. “It’s ‘study’! I mean… itis, right?”
He couldn’t say that being a construction site foreman gave him much opportunity to think about anagrams.
Or riddles,he thought ruefully, as the predicament he was in thanks to the weird woman at the pond came back to mind.
Ash’s smile got wider, his eyes sparkling. “Yeah! You got it!”
“Well, it’s easy to get it when you have a good teacher,” Calvin said. “Though I think it’ll be a while until I’m up to your standards.”
“We can keep practicing,” Ash said sincerely. “If you want to.”
“That would be great.” The words were out of Calvin’s mouth before he could stop them. It reallywouldbe great – and it waswaytoo easy to let his imagination spin out from there, imagining evenings spent with Diana, Ash and Bella, cozily roasting marshmallows in front of the fire in winter, eating more of those amazing peach popsicles in summer – he could see himself giving Diana’s place a new lick of paint if she wanted him to, replacing the worn old carpets, putting a new hinge on –
Calvin was abruptly jerked out of his imaginings as Bella gave a quick bark, as if to assent to what Ash had just said.
Smiling, he leaned down to scratch behind her silky soft ear. Probably it would be better not to gettoolost in thought right now. After all, he still had to actuallytellDiana they were mates… and figure out what to do about this so-called curse.
First things first,he told himself firmly.First, I have to get to this campsite.
“Oh, wait – here,” Diana said, scribbling on a piece of paper. “Since you don’t have a phone. Here’s some directions for how to get to the B&B from here – it’s notthatfar, but the turn-off is surrounded by trees, so it’s easily missed.”
“Thank you,” Calvin said, taking the paper gratefully. It was bizarre to think how, even with his wyvern’s impeccable sense of direction, he’d become so dependent on Google Maps. “Again – I really appreciate it. See you at ten tomorrow?”
“Sounds good,” Diana said, her smile lighting up her whole face, her eyes sparkling, dimples forming adorably in her cheeks.
I sure could look at that for the rest of my life,Calvin thought wistfully, as he forced himself to turn away.Let’s hope I can sort out whatever the hell is going on, so I can.
As much as he already knew Diana was the only person he wanted to spend his life with, he couldn’t saddle her with the curse of never using anything electronic ever again.
I’ve got to figure it out. And in the meantime, stop touching stuff!
He grabbed his bag, and, with one final farewell, slipped out the front door as quickly
as possible. It was highly likely that Diana would go outside at some point tonight and realize that it was much warmer outside than she thought, but for now, he was going to do his best to try to preserve the illusion.
Tomorrow,he told himself firmly, as the heat hit him like a wall.I’ll explain everything to her tomorrow.
