Page 49 of The Dragon's Captured Heart
“I’m glad. But I still had to tell you that.” I stopped talking to sniffle, despite everything I was doing to avoid it.
“Are you okay?”
I smiled, blinking away tears I didn’t want to shed. “I’ll be fine. It’s just that I’ve never experienced something like this.”
“Like what?”
“This,” I said, gesturing around. “This isn’t normal to me. I never had this.”
“I’m sorry,” he rumbled softly.
“You know, I hated you at first because I thought you’d stolen my family away from me,” I said bluntly.
“Oh.” Cal looked down, at a loss for words.
“I think I was wrong, though. What I had wasn’t a family. This,thisis a family, Cal. You’re very lucky.”
“I know,” he said under his breath. “I know. I’m glad you like them.”
“How could I not?” I asked before we were mobbed by people coming back for more food.
I dove into the madness as well, determined not to go hungry. I got separated from Callum as I did but ended up leaning against an exterior wall of the house, eating my burger and potato salad in peace, simply watching everyone else interact.
“So,” I heard come from the window above my head. “Madison seems nice, Cal. Do you like her? What’s she like?”
It was Baz asking the question. I smiled, listening intently for the answer.
I wished I hadn’t.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Madison
“What’s she like?” Cal’s voice drifted out in response.
“Yes, bro. Did you think you would get away with not being grilled at one point or another for showing up with a woman without telling any of us?”
Cal hadn’t told them I was coming? I paused my chewing. Why not? Unless he’d expected me to say no.
Which was what I should’ve done. I’d told myself that incessantly but never managed to scrounge up the spare courage necessary to actuallytellCal I wasn’t going. So, in the end, I’d come with him.
For a family that hadn’t been expecting me, though, there hadn’t been nearly as much of a commotion as—
As what? You would have expected from your family?
“I guess not,” Cal said, laughing in response, bringing my attention back.“Truthfully, I thought she was going to say no. I dunno.”
“What do you mean?”
“I guess, like, I wanted her to say no?”
“Why, she seems nice. What’s wrong with her?”
Cal laughed.“Nothing’s wrong with her, not really. She’s not a dragon, which is definitely not normal, but that hasn’t ever seemed to matter. Our family was never human-hating bigots, though I doubt anyone expected one of us to end up with one.”
“So, you and her are together?”Baz pressed.
There was a long pause.
