Page 32 of Arctic Panda's Secret Mate
Lurking behind a gallon of deep blue deck paint was a quart of white acrylic house paint, and a sample jar of brilliant red. A can with the label peeled off held a selection of small brushes. There was even a small stack of old newspapers to lay down.
“We need something to hang them with,” Haisley reminded him.
Tristan looked around skeptically and his eyes immediately fell on a roll of fishing line on one of the workbenches. “That will certainly work,” he said suspiciously.
But that wasn’t magic. It was a garage full of supplies. What they were looking for justhappenedto be there. It wasn’t even that much of a stretch. What garage in Alaska wouldn’t have a roll of fishing line and some old paint?
“I was thinking about something for scarves,” he said thoughtfully.
Haisley opened a few drawers in a tool box, rummaged through hand tools, lengths of wire, and air compressor fittings before closing them again. “Like yarn, maybe?”
“Or tinsel?”
“Pipe cleaners!” Haisley said in triumph.
The drawer she’d opened had little craft pompoms, double-sided sticky tape, a selection of drink umbrellas, and several half-used bags of pipe cleaners, including a selection of sparkly deep green and red strands that were clearly intended for Christmas decoration.
“That’s…perfect.” Tristan still wasn’t sure it was magic. He scooped up a few of the pompoms, too. “Do we need glue for these?”
“I have some inside,” Haisley assured him. “Never take what you don’t need. Do you think we could find tiny carrot noses?”
“I can’t imagine that even an enchanted garage has tiny carrots handy.”
Haisley was still opening drawers and rifling through stacks. “What about these?”
She had a box of miscellaneous wire nuts—including a selection of tiny orange ones that would only be good for 22 gauge wire. Tristan was not sure he’d ever seen any so small, and there wereexactlysix.
“See? Magic.” Haisley picked them out.
There was an empty cardboard box of just the right size on top of the toolbox, so Tristan put all of the supplies into it and followed Haisley back out into the snowy night.
“Don’t you need to lock it?” he asked, when she pulled it tight and started to walk away.
“No need,” Haisley said. “It will only let someone in if it likes them.”
Tristan remembered tugging on the door. He had a strong grip, and it haddefinitelybeen locked. “Have you ever thought about cleaning that place up and organizing it?” he asked cautiously. “Probably a good half of it could be hauled to the dump and it would be easier to find things.”
Haisley laughed. “Better men than you have tried. The first handyman that Mr. Barnum hired knocked down the door to get in and promptly fell through the floor and broke his hip. No one has even suggested it since then.” They were still under the eaves of the garage and Haisley patted the wall of the garage. “Don’t listen to the man!” she told it fondly. “I won’t let him clean you.”
The heater inside chose that moment to rattle to a stop.
28
HAISLEY
Haisley spread out the newspapers and Tristan went to work painting while she got the next batch of cookies out of the oven and sprinkled the chocolate shreds on while they were still warm. It was fun to watch him work. He got so studious, and didn’t seem to realize that he was sticking his tongue out in concentration.
The paint definitely fixed the unfortunate ‘poop’ problem. Tristan did two thick coats, brushed the hats in red, and wrapped them with pipe cleaner scarves. A craft pom pom was glued on the hats, an orange wire nut for the nose, and black dots were drawn on for eyes and smiles. The fishing wire was an invisible hanger.
“They are adorable,” Haisley crowed, settling each one in the basket of cookies as they were finished. “Oh, I smudged the hat, sorry. I didn’t realize it was still that wet.”
Tristan touched it up. “I could never have done this without you,” he said gratefully. “You saved Christmas.”
They were standing very close, and Haisley was hyper-aware of how nice his arms were, and how good he smelled. It was hard not to picture him naked again.
“You never explained that part about being a mate to me,” she reminded him. “And I should mention that if it’s some kind of breeding kink, I’m not really interested. I don’t mind other people’s kids, but I have no desire to be responsible for my own.” She wondered if she should be talking about kids before they’d even had sex or talked about dating.
“That’s fine!” Tristan said, sounding strangled. “I mean, it’s not. It kind of is. I’m doing a terrible job at this.” He took a deep breath and turned to look Haisley in the face. “Let me try this again, from the top.”
