Page 44 of Monsters, Vows, and Growls
He winked. “I just want to make sure I have time to knit booties.”
“You don’t knit.”
“I could.”
Ella snorted and disappeared into the kitchen, muttering something about locking the front door for the rest of the decade.
Dad leaned toward me, grinning. “I meant it, son. She’s the best thing that ever happened to you.”
“I know,” I said quietly. “Believe me. I know.”
But he wasn't done. "Don't fuck it up this time."
I winced. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Thorne growled low in my chest.Want to go, old man? I will toss you into the hydrangeas.
Stop it. He’s being… Henry.
He’s being a menace. And the booties comment was uncalled for.
“He means well,” I muttered under my breath.
He means to breed us like show ponies.
I rubbed my temples. “I don’t need this right now.”
“Are you talking to me or the bear?” dad asked, still chewing a jelly donut.
“Yes,” I said, just as the front door swung open again.
“Don’t even ask why; it wasn’t locked,” Carol called as she breezed in, wearing oversized sunglasses and yoga pants, with an energy that screamedI brought drama and sugar.
“Carol?” Ella peeked around the corner. “What are you?—”
“Donuts,” she announced, holding up a pink bakery box like a trophy. “Also, congratulations on being book-confirmed and engaged. I brought maple bacon and emotional damage.”
She breezed past my father, kissed him on the offered cheek, and dropped the donuts next to his already opened box. Ella froze.
“Seriously?” she said, glaring between the two boxes. “You guys realize I’m a chef, right? I can make donuts.”
Dad grinned. “Yeah, but yours have weird stuff like cardamom and sea salt. We wanted the trashy kind.”
Ella laughed and slapped him on the shoulder, "Alright, next time I'll make a batch oftrashydonuts, deal?"
"Uh, can you make the ones with that almond paste filling?" Carol asked around a large mouthful of raspberry donut.
"You meanbear claws?" Ella checked.
"Yeah, but the way you make them, big, huge," she stretched her hands out, reminding me of an angler fibbing about a caught fish, "with lots and lots of that almond filling! And lots and lots of icing."
Ella shook her head in mock disgust. "I have no idea where you put all those calories."
Carol grinned, "The only good perk about being a giant! You can eat to your heart's delight." She looked at dad, who had developed a small pouch after the chemo treatments that had saved his life. "Well, some of us can."
"Hey, don't mock the old man," Dad said, rubbing his slightly protruding stomach. "A near-death experience is a real appetite stimulator."
"I heard your appetite isn't the only thing that's been stimulated lately," Carol winked at him.
