“It's a militant waterfowl with a score to settle.”
The mallard lunged, and Rook yelped—an undignified sound that I was absolutely gonna bring up later—and jumped to the side. His ice cream cone wobbled dangerously in his hand, and I watched in slow motion as a scoop of vanilla toppled off the cone and hit the ground with a wet splat.
The ducks descended on it like piranhas.
“There goes your boring ice cream,” I said, still laughing hard enough that my ribs hurt.
“I'm glad you find this funny.”
“I find this hilarious. You just got robbed by a duck.”
“He didn't rob me. I dropped it.”
“Because he intimidated you into dropping it. That's robbery.” I took another lick of my lavender honey. “Also, I can't believe a duck made you drop your cone. I've done way more aggressive things with my mouth and you held it together fine.”
“Soren, I swear to God?—”
“What? I'm just saying you've got good stamina usually. Must be the stress of the day.”
Rook grabbed my arm and pulled me close enough that I could see the heat in his eyes. “You're not gonna be able to walk straight if you keep this up.”
“Is that a threat or a promise?”
“Both.”
“Well then. Guess I better keep going.”
He groaned and let go of me, scrubbing a hand over his face like I was killing him. “You're gonna be the death of me.”
“What a way to go, though.”
We made it another twenty feet before the ducks lost interest and waddled off to terrorize some other poor soul. Rook was scowling at his now half-empty cone, and I was wiping tears from my eyes because I couldn't stop laughing.
“You're the worst,” he said, but there was warmth in his voice that took the edge off.
“I'm the best. Admit it.”
“You're a menace.”
I bumped my shoulder against his. “A menace you're stuck with.”
“Unfortunately.”
“You love it.”
He looked at me then, and his expression shifted into that soft, unguarded thing that made my chest tight. “Yeah. I do.”
I had to look away before I did something stupid like cry about how much I loved this ridiculous man.
“So,” I said, aiming for casual and probably missing. “You gonna finish that cone, or should we let the duck militia have the rest?”
“I'm finishing it. They've taken enough from me today.”
“That's what she said.”
“Soren.”
“Sorry, couldn't help it. The setup was too perfect.”
