Page 67 of Falling in Love with A Tiny Bat

Watch me strangle him with the thigh-highs once I get them off…

I’m halfway through unzipping my shoes when I compute that thedreamy sweetscent flooding my nostrils isn’t a general sort of magical house scent. The open archway on my right leads into a comfortable dining room with a table covered in baked goods.

“Did we interrupt…a bake sale?” I ask, swatting Alexios’s hand away when he tries to balance me. Without his help, I jerk off my boots.

Brittny clasps her hands together in her skirt. “No…Ollie’s just…fun like this sometimes.”

Manic smile on point, Ollie sweeps in with a tray of peanut brittle. “Oh! Hey, guys. Help yourselves to anything. Dinner’s in the oven.”

“Anoven,” Brittny murmurs, covering her mouth with her fingertips. “We have five. I planned ahead. Wealsohave two dish washers. And since we don’t get constant signal here, our phones only end up in one of them once a week or so.”

“What an accomplishment.” Unleashing a sardonic smile, I swipe a pastry on my way into the lavish, messy kitchen with Ollie. I take a bite while I peruse the chaos. Raspberry filling. A lot of raspberry filling. Some of it gets stuck on my lip. For reasons unbeknownst to me, I picture Alexios tilting my face toward his, and—

I wipe the filling off with my thumb and shove my wicked thoughts into a hole. Then I bury them with mud. Then I plant thorns over top of them so they’ll be everyone’s problem until they’re a bigger problem. Because, as I know from my familiarity with trauma thus far, at one point or another…I do gotta unpack what I bury, fighting through thorns and all.

Does that mean I’ll learn from my mistakes and history?

Hilarious.

Ha ha.

No.

“What’s for dinner?” I ask. “Xios loves mushrooms.”

The slightly strangled sound leaving Alexios just then makes me feel so much better about myself.

That’s what he gets, for giving meimmoral thoughts.

Myimmoral thoughtsaren’t even remotely rational. Whocares that he hugged me and the close physical contact on my bed in the dead of night made mefeelbetterinstead ofworse?

It’s not a big deal.

It means nothing.

Feeling better and comforted was a normal response.

The only thing tripping me up is the fact I did not have a normal childhood, so close physical contact from the opposite sex has rarely been very comforting… Up until now, I’ve only managed to be comfortable with it from Wade. Big as that man is, he reminds me nothing of my father. And maybe it’s the dark skin, or the genuine smile, or the fact I rarely see him out of cosplay, but…yeah. Wade is a big, friendly bear. Alexios has already proven to be a man of mischief. Statistically, Alexios hugging me shouldn’t have been comfortable.

Or reassuring.

Or nice at all.

Even though…

I cut my gaze toward him while Ollie finishes checking on something in an oven.

Alexios…doesn’t remind me of my father at all either.

“Sorry, what did you just say?” Ollie lets an oven mitt he’s wearing vanish into the ether as he pops the oven closed and fixes a bright smile on me.

I open my mouth, but Alexios’s hand claps over it. “What’s for dinner?”

It’s a testament to my Christianity that I do not bite through my soulmate’s gloved hand. God better be proud of me. I’m not being asaintfor nothing.

“Spinach calzones. I wasn’t sure if either of you were vegetarian, since Pollux and Kass are. Hope that’s okay.” Ollie checks one ofsevenlittle bird-decorated egg timers. They are all on. All ticking. All different birds. The timer in his hand chimes, and he grins. “Perfect.”

Next thing I know, Ollie’s ushering us all into a beautiful parlor—possibly on account of the dining room table beingpreoccupied. He sits Alexios and I in the somewhatsmalllove seat together, presses a passing kiss to Brittny’s forehead, and says he’ll be back in a moment with the food.

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