Page 16 of Overbooked at Dragon's Landing

“Hey, Barbara!” I waved.

She hopped off her contraption. “I was wondering when you’d be coming by.”

“Yeah,” I said. There wasn’t really an answer to give.

She cut her gaze to the cat, who was standing by my foot. “I see that Lion has found you.”

“Lion? Was that my grandma’s cat?”

“Oh, Lion is sort of a neighborhood cat. We all kind of feed him, but your grams was Lion’s human.”

That was interesting and also made sense. Cats were 100 percent like that, but also, it told me that Barbara didn’t know my grams was a dragon. Or maybe she did and didn’t know if the others with me did.

“So, he comes with the house? Normally, I mean.” Not that I even attempted to stop him when he followed me in before.

“Yeah, pretty much. Are you gonna be sticking around here?” She went straight to the point.

That hadn’t been my plan. But now that I was back, it sort of felt right. “Today, I’m just trying to figure out what to do next.” It was the truth.

“Well, if you need anything, you know where to find me. And if you want something like this beauty”—she hit the side of her vehicle—“my grandson has been tinkering with creating new things out of old, and he made this for me. He has a sculpture in that contest, too.”

“We are going to see it tomorrow.” For our date day.

“It’s impressive. He saw how much metal ended up on the scrap heap and thought it was ridiculous. And now he’s an artist.” She beamed. “I thought it was pretty wonderful. Be sure to let him know.”

“I will. And if I need something like that”—I gestured at her vehicle, unsure what to even call it—“I’ll be sure to let you know.”

She nodded. “See you later.” Then, she climbed back inside and drove off.

“She’s interesting,” Craig said, wrapping his arms around my waist and leaning in to me.

“Yeah. Barb’s pretty great.”

“Can I say something without you thinking it’s weird?” Craig looked up at me, his eyes wide.

“Well, I can’t guarantee I won’t think it’s weird, but I happen to like weird, so it works.”

He chuckled. “This house, being here—it kind of feels like home. Does it feel that way to you?”

I shook my head. “No.” I glanced at him then at Ralph. “You and Craig do.”

“You feel like home, too.” Ralph joined our hug.

We were home.

Chapter Twelve

Trace

We were going on a date like we were a bunch of humans. But then again, one of my mates was human, and it was his birthday, and coming here—seeing the dragons—was his present. Of course, we were going to check them out. And while I’d never been one to date, now that I had mates, I was quickly seeing how different my tune would’ve been had I known them years ago.

We got up early, got ready, and hurried to get breakfast downstairs before wandering into town. But despite getting there before the festival actually began, the parking was a nightmare. We ended up having to walk nearly a mile to get to the center of the activity, but that was okay. I was holding both my mates’ hands and listening to them try to convince each other that they didn’t snore.

Spoiler alert: they both did.

I did, too. We were identical in that way. In all others? While we had a lot in common, there was so much about each of my mates that made them uniquely them. I loved it.

Their argument was fun banter and a joy to hear, but it also gave me a nagging insecurity. What if I never got that way with them? What if it was always them and me? They hadn’t done anything overt to make me feel that way. In fact, if anything, they tended to make me the focal point of everything. But still, it was a concern of mine that was pretty close to the surface. I didn’t love it. I was gonna have to talk to them about it, but not now.

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