Page 98 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
“Chaos knows I ordered extra food on purpose.” I bit my lip. “I thought he was going to tell me to take it back.” I was glad he didn’t let his pride get the better of him.
Win sent me a soft smile. “I’m glad he didn’t.” He nodded toward my truck. “You guys ready to get out of here?”
I glanced at the mansion, happy I’d already locked up and wouldn’t have to come back for a few days. “Yeah… yeah, I am.”
I drove them back to Winter’s house, and Lyric hopped out of the car, and made me roll down my window as they said, “I know you two probably want to hang out alone or whatever, but I just wanted to make sure you know that you’re both welcome to come to the cookout with me. It’s at my cousin’s house, and she always tells me to bring friends or whatever.”
I sent them a smile. “Thank you for the invitation, but I’m not sure I’m up for that tonight. I’m wiped out.”
“No worries.” They sighed. “I wanted to kiss your cheek, but your truck is ginormous and I can’t reach you all the way up there. So, here.” They kissed their fingers, then placed them on my cheek, making me laugh.
“Thanks. I was hoping you’d put your spit on me before you left.”
They snorted and winked. “You wish. Seriously, though, let’s hang out next weekend. All three of us, yeah? I’ll make you guys some dinner, and you can meet my cat. Win told me you love animals.”
The invitation surprised me, but it made my heart feel warm. “That sounds nice.”
“Good. You in, Win?”
“You know it.” Winter placed his hand on my thigh as he leaned closer to talk to Lyric. “I don’t think I’m going to make it to the cookout either, but thank you anyway.”
Lyric smirked at him and waved him off. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I figured. Have fun with lover boy.” They shot us another wink, turned on their heel, and waved over their shoulder as they sauntered to their car.
After they pulled away, Winter asked, “I understand if you’re not up for company tonight, but if you are, I’d love to havedinner with you. Um… Goliath’s been alone a lot this weekend, so maybe you could come to mine?”
I definitely wasn’t ready to say goodbye to him, even if I was exhausted. “What if you bring him over? Odin loves other animals, and you said Goliath likes cats, so…”
He smiled widely. “Perfect.” He pressed a slow kiss to my lips. “I want to shower, but I’ll bring him over soon.”
“How about an hour? I want to shower too.”
“Sounds good, sweetheart.” He gave me one last kiss before hopping out. “See you soon.”
I watched the handsome man walk up to his front door, wave at me, and slip inside before I drove Sola and me the short distance to my house.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Winter
As soon as Miles opened his door, I leaned in to kiss him. I wanted to deepen the kiss and not come up for air for a few hours, but since I had Goliath with me, I didn’t think that was a good idea. He loved cats, and Odin loved dogs, but that didn’t necessarily mean they’d love each other. I couldn’t let us get properly distracted until we knew the two of them would be okay together.
“Hey,” Miles said with a smile before giving Goliath a good pet. “Hey, sweet boy, wanna meet my cat and familiar?”
Goliath licked his face in response, and Miles laughed, then gestured us inside.
Sola was on her perch in the living room, and she trilled a greeting to me, so I said, “Hey, Sola.” She trilled again, and it sounded like a question. “This is Goliath.”
She let out a clicking sound, then soared across the room and landed on the sofa’s armrest. Goliath leaned in to sniff her, and the firebird calmly let him. After a few seconds, Goliath licked her belly, and she squawked in indignation, chirped at him, then jumped into the air to fly back to her perch.
When I turned back to Miles, he was smiling and holding Odin in his arms. “She likes him, she just doesn’t want to seem too eager.”
That made me snort as I petted the cat. “Hey, cutie pie.”
Goliath whined and sat on his haunches, clearly eager to meet the cat.
“How should we do this?” Miles asked.
“Why don’t you let them sniff each other while you’re holding him. If they’re okay, I’ll get Goliath to lay down and you can put Odin down on the ground, but I’ll keep Goliath on the leash so I can pull him out of the way if need be.”
