Page 26 of Magic and Mayhem

“A brownie.” He answered without thinking about it, giving me a full-body wiggle as he turned to focus on me. “I’m such a good brownie baker, Daddy. Honest. I don’t even need a box.”

Wait.

“You can make those without a box mix?” Had I ever seen anyone do that before?

Kenzie giggled, cuddling into me and hiding his face against my shoulder as I shut the freezer door. “Daddy.”

As he giggled, I pretended to be offended and huffed. “I can make homemade macaroni and cheese, so should you be giggling?”

His head popped up and he was back to giving me hisyou’re amazinglook. “Without burning it or making it explode?”

Did he have electricity problems too?

“Sweetheart, do you make the microwave explode?” Thankfully, he realized that was a reasonable question and shook his head seriously.

“No, Daddy.” He kissed my cheek, distracted from the giggles. “I’m earthy, not explody.”

He seemed to think that was a very logical explanation, so I just nodded. “I’m glad.”

That seemed safer…especially when I realized how many power tools he used on a regular basis.

Explody?

Nope.

Not going to ask until our third date.

“How about you show me your playroom and then we’ll have dessert?” Kissing his head again, I tried to decide how the rest of the evening should go. “We could watch a show with it or a movie?”

It wasn’t late, even for a little, but I wasn’t sure what he’d like since we hadn’t gotten around to talking about that kind of thing yet.

“Pete’s Dragon, Daddy.” Kenzie nearly bounced he was so excited. “Toys and brownies and dragons.”

Well, it seemed like we had a plan.

Ignoring the wayexplodykept playing over and over in the back of my head, I gave his forehead one last kiss and relaxed my hold on him. “So where did you hide your playroom?”

I meant it in the silliest sense ofwhere are we going, but he laughed like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. “Daddy reads minds. Best human ever.”

Ignoring the human bit since he didn’t seem to realize he’d said it, I tickled his sides and made him laugh even harder. “Silly boys who laugh at their Daddy get tortured.”

He patted my chest, wiggling as he laughed. Nothing in his reactions said my touch was unwelcome, but I was careful and didn’t let it go on too long.

When I stopped teasing him and he flopped against me, letting out soft giggles, I kissed his head. “Playroom, silly goose. I don’t know where I’m going.”

He huffed as he straightened, frowning as only a little can do. “I not a goose, Daddy. I adragon. Roar.”

“Excuse me.” Nodding, I took the answer seriously. “Nogooseshere.”

That got more giggles from him as his eyes went sparkly again. “I big, smart, pretty dragon, Daddy.”

“You are undoubtedly the prettiest dragon ever.” Kissing his nose made him smile and wrinkle his face up. “And I already know you’re smart. That wouldn’t change even when you’re a dragon.”

No matter what kind of alien he was.

Form didn’t matter for things like intelligence…but sexy times was something we were going to have to talk about eventually.

Puffing his chest up, he roared again, then giggled as he took my hand and started pulling me through the house and back toward what looked like a bookshelf at the back of his living room. “I a dragon with my secret hoard, Daddy. Shh. Gonna show you.”

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