Page 23 of No Room at Dragon's Landing

“Wait, that was serious? I’m going to, like, be a chicken for a day?”

“No, you’re going to be a dragon for a day… I mean, you’re going to lay dragon eggs.” I was going to give Gertrude what for.

“You’re saying I’m going to lay eggs?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know if I can do that.” His voice quivered.

I cupped his cheek. “First of all, my love, you can do absolutely anything you put your mind to. And, second, you don’t really have a choice. They have to come out.”

“You did this to me. You put them in there.”

“I did. And, as I recall, you liked it.”

He glared at me. It probably hadn’t been my best response.

“Fine. Where are those cupcakes I bought? I need to travel to the land of denial while I eat all the frosting and then I’m goingto need all the facts and not from Gertrude. I can never tell if she’s kidding or not.”

“I promise you, I will only deliver facts.”

“And sugar.”

“Absolutely…and sugar.”

Chapter Sixteen

Boen

I loved our new home, the furniture fitting it perfectly. We could see the bed-and-breakfast but still feel like we had some privacy. And because it was such an enclosed space, I could scent my mate everywhere.

One thing I noticed about being pregnant was my sense of smell was amplified. While foods came and went as to what smelled good to me, my mate was a constant love. I wanted to roll around in it and, more than once, I looked up how to make perfume, as if there was a magical way to harness his scent. It had gotten to the point that I’d pulled one of his shirts out of the hamper just to hold it close to me and smell him when he was out fixing something and I couldn’t be by his side. In the early days of my pregnancy, I even put them on, but now I was far too large for that.

I opened the door to the nursery, the one I kept closed to hide that I hadn’t gotten it put together yet. I wasn’t sure how many cribs to get, but now that I knew that the egg thing hadn’t been Gertrude being flaky or silly or—I didn’t know what I was thinking—I really needed to. But that wasn’t why I was there. I felt the need to finally piece together all the items we bought.

When we moved in, I had my mate toss them in the nursery to get them out of the way, but also to kind of push it out of my mind. At the time, every single thing we bought made sense, but now it looked like I went on a drunken bender to a dragon festival and was about to have some serious buyer’s remorse. But when I opened the door, all the pieces fell into place.

I grabbed the rug and dragged it to our bedroom and straight into the walk-in closet. It didn’t fit perfectly, but the space was large enough that it did fit with little trouble. ThenI tossed all the hanging clothes on the bed and plopped all the shoes in the corner. Thankfully, neither one of us had a lot of clothing in there, so it didn’t take long. My mate had actually been surprised when I wanted a walk-in closet, but I had been adamant at the time.

Back then, I didn’t know why it mattered, but now I got it. I needed it for our nest. I needed a place that was safe and private but close to my mate and our bed. I didn’t need anybody looking in the window and seeing us, but I also needed the light. It was perfect.

Once I laid down that rug, having the space empty beside it, everything fell into place; the cushions, the blankets, everything had a place. I lined up the books on the shoe shelf closest to the opening. They fit perfectly.

My dad always read to me, and my favorite book had been blue. That was my only guess as to why those were my focuses at the time. I was going to read to our little ones even before they were born. I was going to be the best dad I could, and knowing that Cyrus was their other father, I was confident that we had this. I couldn’t think of a better man to be the father of my children.

Feeling accomplished, I grabbed the empty bags and tags and brought them out to the dumpster before heading inside the bed-and-breakfast to see if I could give anybody a hand. It was a slow but not a dead day. We had about an even number leaving as coming. It would be busy enough on the weekend, but midweek tended to be calm like this, and I appreciated it.

One of the things I loved about my job was that I could do it at any time. So, on days like this, when things got slow, my mate and I could sneak away and have a nice meal in town. Or, if it was busy, I could come in here and help. It was perfect.

“Have you seen my mate?”

Gertrude looked up from her knitting. “Think he’s in the basement, helping with laundry. Why? Do you need me to go get him?”

“No, I was going to offer to help, but stairs sound absolutely dreadful today. My back’s not doing the best.”

I didn’t tell her that I had just moved a rug. The blankets were not as big a deal, but the rug was probably not my best idea. I didn’t need the reprimand.

“Ah, it’s getting to be that time. Well, sit down and grab a ball of yarn. Let’s make some baby booties.”

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