Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Nodding, I ignored the smiles Alick and Grady sent us and kissed Paxton’s cheek as he pulled back. “Yes.”
“Good.” Paxton settled back against the booth and smiled like he hadn’t done anything cute at all.
His adorable entertainment distracted the two other guys and they finally sighed again. Grady seemed to be taking responsibility for his part of the chaos. “Okay, I think that might’ve been me, but it was a vague question the other day about what Alick’s favorite stuffed animals were. It’s not cultural in any sense of the word, though.”
I wanted to be grateful for that, but I was mostly confused.
“I really don’t want to know what they think you’re doing with stuffed animals.” Paxton’s wide-eyed response said his mind was trying to fill in the blanks and it was frightening.
“Don’t look that up online.” Kissing his head, I turned back to Alick and Grady, who were trying not to laugh.
“I’m not looking that up either, but at least you’re forewarned about the whole thing?” I was probably being a smart-ass but Alick just leaned back and seemed to be trying to decide if he was going to sigh or laugh. “So…you wanted to hike up to the portal?”
Both sets of eyes turned right to Paxton.
He was trying to look boring and just waved. “Hi. I know about that stuff.”
Rolling my eyes brought their attention back to me. “Because he found bugs that teleport.”
Paxton reached over and poked me as he frowned, clearly waiting for me to finish my statement correctly.
“And he’s my mate.” Giving him a bright, innocent smile, I kissed his cheek. “He’s a violent little bug but he’s mine.”
And he was wonderfully dramatic too because he flopped back in the booth and decided to get back at me the best way possible. “Miss Nancy, they’re being mean to me and they said naughty things.”
Ugh.
That was definitely cheating.
Chapter 19
Paxton
“That went. That was.” Stopping the ridiculous flood of half sentences, I took a breath. “That went well, right?”
Daddy was trying not to laugh, but he smiled like I was cute. “Yes, it went very well. Alick liked talking to you because he kept smiling at you and chatting. Grady didn’t think you were annoying because he didn’t frown at you like he usually does everyone.”
I was probably on Team Grady when it came to the locals.
“They were very nice. They asked a few inappropriate questions but stopped before it got uncomfortable, and they didn’t get weird about the mate thing.” Or the me knowing about dragons thing.
That’d been kind of funny, though.
“Did you see their faces when you told them I knew?” People usually looked at me like that when I said something confusing about my job, not because I knew about dragons.
Daddy laughed and nodded. “I think they were expecting a bigger freak-out.”
“I don’t know why.” People were so strange. “You’re biological creatures who process energy differently. You’re not ghosts.”
I had questions, but I was going to be patient about them and hopefully not make Daddy feel like he was one of my beetles.
Snickering, Daddy shook his head as we finally pulled back up in front of his house. “Come walk with me.”
That seemed to mean he had questions too, but Daddy looked like he was going to be very Daddy and quiz me, not inspect me.
I’d have rather had inspections.
“Alright.” I didn’t worry about sighing because Daddy did it all the time.
He pinched his lips together and pretended to look frustrated, but he was having too hard a time not smiling. “So excited to walk with your mate.”
Now it was my turn to try to look frustrated at him. “That was not an I want to be romantic with my mate request to walk. That was an I have questions and you’re going to start answering them request.”
Honestly, I was surprised we’d gotten this far with him being patient.
Daddy had chattered about his family and his job and just everything in general. I even knew that his brother who had moved to Raleigh had pissed off everyone else for moving so far away, and I knew his mother was highly upset that she’d agreed to go on a trip right before Fraser had met me.
Daddy had already started preparing me for the chaos that would descend when she got back from their vacation. The best part was that she was blaming his father and had decided it was somehow his fault. Daddy wasn’t worried, though, since it seemed to be just how they operated.
It wasn’t a surprise given the rest of the town.
“You’re so smart.” Daddy leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I’m glad you understand. Let’s go wander a bit. Some of the trails intersect by the back of my place, so we don’t have to worry about rushing.”
Great.
“Thank you, Daddy.” My sigh had his eyes twinkling and I decided I could ask about that since it was question and answer time. “Do your eyes do that on their own?”