After a fast hug, I ran upstairs and took the world’s fastest shower, then threw some clothes in a bag and was out the door before fifteen more minutes had passed. My truck flew down the road, back to Kara.
Back to my girl.
We spent the day around her house. She’d started doing some cleaning while I was gone, hair pulled up in an adorable messy bun. “Hey,” I called over the sound of the vacuum.
Kara jumped in surprise and whirled around. “Rico!” she exclaimed. “I figured you wouldn’t be back until this evening for our date.”
Embarrassment colored my face. I hadn’t realized she’d expected me to stay home. “I’m sorry. I can come back?”
The drone of the vacuum cut off. Kara laughed. “No, silly, you’re welcome here. But I will probably put you to work.”
Those were the best words she could’ve said. It had to mean something that she was so comfortable with me in her home that she’d make me clean it with her, right?
I volunteered to scrub the bathroom. It was cleaner than my own at the manor since I’d been spending all my time away. I hadn’t had a moment to wipe it down. I eyed the tub, wondering if it would fit the both of us comfortably. Shaking that distracting thought from my head, I forced myself to focus on my task. It was hard, in more than one way.
We spent the rest of the day neatening and dusting, wiping, and teasing one another. It brought an increasingly familiar satisfaction with it, to have that level of comfort and familiarity with her. We’d planned to picnic up the trail for dinner. She took a quick shower while I made sandwiches and put them in her backpack cooler.
As we walked up the trail, enjoying the sights and sounds of the woods, we talked about this and that. And I found a way to bring up the subject. A fox screeched in the woods, sounding very much like a woman’s scream. I recognized it as a sound I’d heard many times while flying, but Kara was surprised. “What was that?” she exclaimed. “It sounded like someone in trouble!”
“It’s okay.” I put my hands on her shoulders. “It’s a fox.”
Kara’s shoulders slumped. “Are you sure?” She peered around my shoulders. “Will a fox hurt us?”
I chuckled and took her hand, leading her along. “You haven’t spent much time in the woods?”
“Not really.” She looked at me out of the corner of her eyes. “I always mean to. That’s why I owned these hiking boots and that backpack. But I never seem to get around to it.”
“Do you like it?” I asked.
She nodded vigorously. “I do. This is great, actually.”
That was good since I spent an extraordinary amount of time in these very woods. By now I knew all the best trails, the best views. We weren’t on Kingston land at the moment, so I didn’t have to worry about running into a wolf or dragon and having to force the explanation before I was prepared, but we were getting close. I could smell it.
I narrowed my eyes and wiggled my fingers at her. “Maybe we’ll run into a werewolf,” I said in an ominous voice.
Kara burst out laughing. “I wish!”
I’d been hoping she’d say that. When we’d cleaned her house, I’d been dusting her bedroom and took a look at her bookshelf. The books were mainly about paranormal creatures, a mix of romance and fantasy. Vampires, werewolves… even some about dragon shifters.
I really wanted to read those books and see how much they got right, but I didn’t want to get caught reading those books. The guys would never let me hear the end of it.
She looked at me suspiciously, her eyes glinting playfully. “Did you see my books?”
I burst out laughing and pulled her close with my arm around her shoulders. “Maybe.”
“Well, you might as well know, I’d love to have a shifter for a husband. If we run into a werewolf in these woods, you might just lose me to him.”
Valor growled deep in my chest. Kara was so close to me there was no way she couldn’t hear it. “Maybe you could pick a different shifter,” I suggested. “Dragons sound way cooler.”
Kara sighed wistfully. “I know you’re going to think I’m silly. But dragons are my favorite.”
Valor’s emotions changed from jealousy to preening. If he’d been shifted, he would’ve pranced up the trail. Hell, I felt like joining him.
Maybe Valor was right. She might take it well, knowing I turned into a dragon. But still, I didn’t want to completely freak her out. “Do you think there are real paranormal beings out there?” I asked cautiously.
She didn’t answer right away, but she straightened up and continued up the trail. Walking with my arm around her and her face pressed against my chest had been awkward, but I missed having her close. Damn, I had it bad.
“I think the world is too big. The universe is too vast. So while I would love to give it an absolute yes, I think probably no. More than likely, we’re the only ones here. But I don’t discount the possibility. There are too many mysteries in this world to give that question a hard no.”
As the sun sank behind the trees, she looked up at me in curiosity. “Do you believe in the paranormal?”
A trail was coming up that would take us onto Kingston land. I’d chosen this particular path intentionally so that if it went well, I could move over to Kingston land and maybe shift for her. “I do think it’s real,” I replied seriously. “I believe in it all. Ghosts, shifters, angels and demons, the whole shebang.”
I’d never seen creatures such as those, but maybe they’d never seen a being like me, either. There was no reason to think they didn’t exist and every reason to think they did. Like she’d said, there were too many
