Page 48 of Moon Tamed

“Aloof and prone to scratch you in the face?” I muttered.

“Pretty much.”

“Is your dad worried you’ll react poorly to him dating again because of what happened to your mother?”

“Yep. I’ve even told him to find some woman so he stops bothering me all the time. I don’t think he’s going to believe me until I’m safely married to someone. Maybe if my dad threw women who liked the same things I do at me, I’d think about it. Instead? I get women like Sarai. I’ve mostly given up after the incident with Sarai. I was trying. I wasn’t trying to be an ass. She asked for a rabbit. I’m a Hunter. What did she expect?”

“Your wallet to magically open up and take her to a store, so she could have a soft, fluffy bunny. But you could sneak a bunny into her office at work with all its stuff and surprise her if you did want her a little less irritated at you.”

“And make her think I’m interested in trying a relationship with her again? No thanks.”

I stared at him. “I could get her a bunny, since I know what they actually are and what they eat, and I could put an apology card saying I’m sorry I called her a snoot after a long day battling with invoices.”

“Then she will think you want to be friends with her, Coraline.”

“So? She doesn’t seem like the kind to want to hang out with the temp, so I’m in no danger of her actually bothering me.”

Halting, Calden stared at me through narrowed eyes. “And you know what these bunnies need?”

As I’d considered pranking my parents with bunnies, I’d done sufficient research to keep the animals alive and happy. I’d ultimately decided they would be too much work for my parents to care for compared to the doves, who could be released without consequence. That my parents had opted to keep the birds would amuse me for the rest of my life. “I do, yes.”

“And you’d help me acquire the things for this bunny? And you’re really sure it’s not just a rabbit someone caught and kept for a while?”

“Sure, that’s not a problem. I’m a master at acquiring things for unexpected animal acquisitions. And no, bunnies are not rabbits that someone caught and kept for a while.”

Calden dug out his phone and sent a text. “I’m asking Dad if there are any bunnies up for adoption from Earth.”

“That would make that part of it easy.”

A moment later, Calden’s phone buzzed, and he snorted. “Apparently, we have more bunnies than we know what to do with, and the meat rabbits would murder them within days of release, so we’re feeding a bazillion bunnies. Breeding bunnies. That we can’t eat because they’re not meat rabbits.”

“Ask your dad if there are a group of bonded female bunnies that would be suitable for a single home.”

After he obeyed, he said, “This is not something I normally would do.”

“Of course not. She’s your ex. Nowhere in the ex handbook is a requirement to be anything more than basically cordial. I’m the same way with my exes, unless there was something obvious I fucked up.”

“Like bringing her the wrong type of rabbit?”

“Like that, yes.”

“Have you done anything nearly as spectacular as my failure to provide the right type of rabbit?” he asked in an amused tone.

I thought about it. “There was this one guy who just wanted sex without a relationship, and I did not get the memo. It wasn’t even good sex. Like, at least give me a good relationship, so the bad sex is worth it.”

Calden grimaced. “I try to avoid casual hookups, honestly. I tend to not have much interest unless there’s a relationship.”

I blinked. “Men who don’t want hookups like that actually exist?”

That got him laughing, and he nodded his head. “When I was fresh out of school, I dated a lot, but it quickly lost all appeal. Between the health checks women wanted before even dating, the worry about picking up a psycho, and the various ways women wanted to hunt my wallet, I gave up those ways for stability.”

“I gave up because I got bored,” I confessed. “The men who liked to read had no interest in reading with someone else in the picture, and not a single one of them ever suggested a date to the library or the bookstore.”

“Honestly, I hadn’t considered suggesting a date at the bookstore or a library.”

“It seems like the perfect date spot,” I confessed. “There are tasty treats at the bookstore, and there are books. I can sip a good drink and read a book at the bookstore. The library doesn’t have the drinks, but it does have the books.”

“You’re a book addict.”

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