Page 51 of Orange Spell
Epilogue
Palmer hummed as heworked.It was cute, and Curran wasn’t the only one to think that.Deryn hadn’t been able to take his eyes off Palmer since he and Curran had walked into the infirmary for Curran’s checkup.
“Everything looks good,” Palmer murmured as he continued gently pressing on Curran’s stomach.“I talked to some of the healers, so I can tell that your egg is growing well.It shouldn’t be more than a few weeks.”
“So soon?”Curran asked, even though he’d known it would happen soon.Laying the egg wasn’t a lengthy process in a dragon’s reproduction.Waiting for the egg to hatch was.
Palmer smiled.“I hope you’re ready.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready, but there’s nothing I can do about that, is there?”
“I suppose there’s not.Do you need help with anything?I could ask a healer to step in instead of me.”
Curran shook his head.“I don’t want anyone else.”
“I’m touched, but I would understand.I’m human.”
“So?You take your job seriously.That’s all that matters, isn’t it?You’re going to make sure both me and the baby are okay.I don’t care if you’re human.”Curran was pretty sure that Deryn didn’t care, either.He was still looking at Palmer with heart-eyes.Curran wasn’t sure that Deryn had heard everything Palmer had said because he was so focused on staring at him.
It was fine.Deryn was here to support Curran, but Curran didn’t actually need anything from him.He just wanted Deryn to feel like he was part of what was happening.Now that Curran and Marlin were together and were building a family, Curran wouldn’t have as much time to dedicate to Deryn as he had before.He didn’t want his best friend to feel left behind, and Curran was more comfortable doing these visits with him than he was with his mothers.They always had a lot of questions and flustered Palmer.Deryn flustered Palmer, too, but in a different way.It was amusing to see.
Palmer smiled.“Well, then, I’ll be happy to follow you through the rest of your pregnancy,” he said.“But if I do anything wrong, please, let me know.”
“This is my first pregnancy.I wouldn’t know if you were doing anything wrong,” Curran pointed out.
That made Palmer frown, but not for long because Deryn stepped in.“I’ve seen a few pregnancies.I’ll force him to come see you if there’s anything odd about his, and I’ll tell you if you do something wrong.”
Palmer’s eyebrows did something complicated that Curran couldn’t read.“Have you been pregnant before?”he asked Deryn.
Deryn’s eyes widened, and he shook his head.“God, no.I have two siblings, and both of them have children.”
Palmer seemed relieved.He was smiling again, anyway.Those two needed to get their heads out of their asses and do something about the tension between them before Curran lost his patience and took things into his own hands.
“I see,” Palmer said.“And is that something you’ve been thinking about?Children, I mean.”
“Not for now.I want to focus on Curran.”
“But you’re not the baby’s father, right?”
