“No, leave those there.”
She went for the rug and then the pillows and then the shirts. Each time I answered with another shake of my head.
“What can I take?”
“The butterfly nets and the cookie mix in a jar.” It was weird. I didn’t get it, but my dragon refused to allow me to put most of it away. He was iffy on the sponges.
When Sampson came in, I asked him, “How much for the lot of it?” I hadn’t planned on it, but out it came. What started as my dragon being weird turned into me needing the items.
“What? You want it all for resale?”
“No, my dragon insists.” At least with Sampson I could be open about the reason.
“Then it’ll cost a hug.”
“Excuse me?”
“It costs a hug and a thank-you.”
I stood there, staring.
“If you keep it up, it’s going to be a hug, a thank-you, and a hot meal.”
“You make no sense.” I hugged and thanked him. I probably had enough money, but free was better no matter the reason. Sampson was like the brother/uncle/father I grew up wishing I had.
“Let me help you pack up after you call your mate. Tell him to meet you when you get home. I don’t want to hear you unpacked this by yourself.”
“He’s gonna think I’ve lost my mind.” I wasn’t sure I hadn’t.
“No, he’s gonna think you’re nesting.”
Nesting? He said nesting… like with a clutch, but I could have sworn I felt them kick. Or maybe because there were multiples, that was the sensation I was getting when they moved to get into place. In any case, my dragon agreed it was nest time.
I called my mate and put him on speakerphone and started carrying out pillows and shoving them inside the vehicle. “Hey, I know you’re at the den, but can you come home?”
“Sure. Is everything okay? Do you need me to call the midwife?”
“Everything’s great, and I don’t need the midwife, but I’m bringing home a bunch of stuff from work.”
“Food?”
“You’ll see. It’s a surprise.”
When he greeted me as I climbed out of the truck and looked inside, he understood exactly what was going on. He bent down and kissed my belly. “You little ones are coming in eggs, aren’t ya? Well, we’re gonna go make a nest for you.” He kissed my belly again. “Please wait until it’s ready to come.”
“You don’t think that’s weird?”
“I would think it was weird if my mate was a bear or a cat. You’re a dragon. I sort of assumed there would be a nest in there somewhere.”
“You really accept me for exactly who I am.”
“I love you for exactly who you are.” He kissed my cheek and then insisted I wait inside while he unloaded everything.
Putting it together wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. It was like I had a plan without realizing it—laying things like the rugs down first, then the pillows and the blankets over all of that. The pillows formed almost a ring for the blankets to sit on and looked very nest-like, which sort of surprised me. I had seen other people’s nests. They looked nothing like this, but then again, they looked nothing like each other either.
“What’s with all the work shirts?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know, but we need them above the wall, the perimeter, almost as a set.” I went into our room,grabbed my mate’s sweats that he had worn yesterday, turned them inside out, and brought them to the nest.
