Page 26 of Marcus-stiltskin

“You’re asking me to do very rude things,” I mutter, feeling weird about crawling on Marcus’s bed to retrieve the dog. Quickly, before I can change my mind, I kneel on the edge and reach for Freddie K.

“Is he demanding you carry him again?” Marcus voice asks from behind me. I jump at the sound, embarrassed at being caught.

“Yes. I’m sorry to just butt in, but he wouldn’t stop asking me to come get him.”

He chuckles softly. “Don’t feel bad. It’s not like I use the bed that much anyways. Sorry, my place doesn’t usually look like a frat house. The realtor and his son had to help me get this stuff in here. I only brought what we could fit in my truck. The movers have the rest.”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

I pick up Freddie K. and turn back to Marcus.

“Are you ready to get started?” he asks.

“Yes, but you could have just texted me and I would have come down.”

“It’s good to practice.”

We head back down the stairs in silence until we’re nearly at the ground floor. “Hey, what’s that?” I ask as we come face-to-face with a rectangular shaped indentation in the wall.

Marcus stops and looks at where I’m pointing. “Oh, it’s the baby box.”

“Baby box?”

He nods. “Yeah, it’s locked up now. The new fire station has one that’s active. You know, it lets moms give up their baby safely without legal consequences. They put the baby in the box and an alarm would sound so the firefighters would know to come and pick up the baby then take it to the hospital or call Child Protective Services, whichever was applicable depending on the condition of the child. We got a few calls back when I worked for CPS.”

“You worked for CPS?”

He looks back at me. “You sound surprised.”

I shake my head. “Just… isn’t that out of the frying pan into the fire in terms of stress?”

“From the Army?”

I nod.

He huffs a laugh. “Yeah, you’re right. It was. I got burned out quickly, seeing people hurt their kids and not being able to do much about it. That’s why I’m here. What about you? How did you end up dancing?”

I shake my head. “After I gave up on college, I worked the normal jobs for a while–fast food, retail, waiting tables. A friend worked as a dancer and she was working half the time I was for the same amount of money, so I auditioned and the rest is history.”

“Have you thought about what you’ll do when you can’t dance anymore?”

“You mean they won’t want me up there when I’m sixty?” I try to tease, but he just frowns.

“I’m serious, Sarah. What if you suddenly couldn’t dance anymore? What if it got dangerous?”

“Marcus, did Lugh set you up to do this? Is this an intervention?”

He shakes his head. “I’m just worried about you.”

This conversation is going nowhere. How many times have I heard the same lines from guys I’ve dated and Marcus and I aren’t even together. I try to keep the exasperation out of my voice. “I’m fine, Marcus. I came to help you today, not talk about my life choices. Can you just show me what you need me to do?”

We walk the rest of the way in silence out to the backyard. The Dvergar are long gone, and the yard is empty. I check both ways before I step out the door. Ramona is nowhere to be seen, but it doesn’t mean she isn’t waiting.

“Don’t worry, she keeps running off to the back pastures.”

“How did you–?”

He chuckles, “Ramona’s the reason you ended up in a pile of shit. I wouldn’t expect you to be too eager to see her anytime soon.”

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