I’m surprised when she cuddles against me, but I welcome it just the same. “It was so much fun. We had a projector movie night and snacks. We went to the trampoline park. I had pizza while I was there. They let me stay up late.”
I giggle. “Sounds like a great time.”
She leans against me. “I stink, though.”
“Ah,” I murmur as I rub her arm. “I remember when my scent first emerged. It smells weird, doesn’t it?”
“You don’t smell weird. You smell like awesome cinnamon rolls. I smell like flowers and chewing gum.”
I can’t help but be amused. “I didn’t always smell like this.”
She looks up at me with those round eyes of hers. “You didn’t?”
I shake my head. “When my scent first emerged, I smelled like burnt brown sugar and those red hot candies.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Ew. Those hurt my mouth.”
“Exactly,” I say as I boop her nose with my free hand. “Your scent is only just emerging. That means your glands at the crook of your neck are only just now beginning to grow. Your scent will change and morph a few times between now and the time they’re done growing.”
She seems almost relieved. “Good. I don’t want to smell like my dad after he mows the grass.”
That makes me laugh.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Eli says, easing the door open and studying the two of us. “I think I hear too much fun going on in this room.”
“Oh, no! It’s the fun police! Hide!” Amber exclaims.
Before she throws the comforter over her head.
It only makes me laugh more as Eli thumbs over his shoulder. “Stew’s got another half hour, and then it’ll be ready to eat.”
“We got any dessert for after dinner?” I ask.
Eli leans against the doorway, crossing his lean arms across his chest. “I’ve got chocolate chunk ice cream in the freezer, but that’s about it.”
“Mmm,” I say as I peek under the comforter at Amber. “You know what goes good with chocolate chunk ice cream?”
“What?” her and Eli ask in unison.
I smile. “Cheese Danish roll-ups. Wanna help me make them?”
Amber throws the comforter off us. “Yeah! Let’s go!”
She takes my hand, tugging me out of bed and into the kitchen. I watch the way Eli gravitates back to the stew pot, picking up the lid to give everything a good stir. It lets loose a lovely smell that has my stomach growling, and when he peeks over at me, I can’t help but blush under his attention.
“What do we need first?” Amber asks.
I turn my attention to her before I open the fridge. “Let’s see what you guys have in here.”
“What do you need?” Amber asks as she slides her head underneath me, threading beneath my arm so she can look in the fridge as well. “I can help you find things.”
“We need a block of cream cheese, some sort of dough to roll it up in, some white sugar, some butter?—”
Amber reaches in and pulls out a container of crescent rolls. “Will these work?”
I smile as I take them from her. “These are perfect. Let’s get everything else we need.”
After gathering our hoard of supplies, we set up shop at the little kitchen island. We roll out the crescent rolls before making our cream cheese mixture, and I throw together a rudimentary piping bag with a Ziploc bag that has the corner cut off it.
