Page 8 of Magic and Mayhem

“Come on.” He was still smiling, so I must’ve been very subtle about wanting to keep him. “Food for Kenzie the cutie.”

Yay, nickname time.

That was one step closer to being able to call him Daddy. Everyone knew that.

“I’m very cute.” And wasn’t driving him crazy at all yet, so that was amazing.

“And you’re very smart because you can fix all those toys and you taught yourself to sew. I bet you know how to do lots of things.” Daddy didn’t seem to be teasing even though he started swinging my hand to get my wiggles out.

“I like fixing things, and once I stopped stabbing myself, I liked sewing.” It was just dangerous. “My teddies are going to look very nice when they’re done. Then I’ll be able to fix other things and put them in my online shop too.”

“And an online entrepreneur.” Daddy looked genuinely impressed, not like he was just being nice. “See, that’s very grown-up.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not always grown-up.” I didn’t want him to think I didn’t need him. “I like being little.”

I liked it a lot.

Daddy chuckled as we walked up on the back porch. “I had a feeling you’d say that.”

Because he was smart.

He was also very polite because he stopped at the door and waited for me to open it since it was my house. He even took a deep breath to help him be patient. “Yes, we’re going inside.”

Daddy even liked helping me remember the plan.

“Yes, for a snack.” And I wasn’t going to get distracted by toys or books or projects. “And you’re going to help me pick out dinner.”

Oh.

As I took him into the kitchen, showing off my pretty cabinets with a bit of a ta-da gesture, I remembered something important. “Are you going to stay for dinner or are we picking something I can cook?”

Because those were very different plans.

I was a really good grown-up in a lot of ways…just not with everything in the kitchen.

Chapter 3

Talon

Well, I hadn’t been eaten by an alien or beamed up by one…so maybe the house was safe?

That was probably still up for debate, but the one thing I could easily acknowledge was how beautiful it was. With high ceilings and incredible woodworking everywhere I turned, the house was breathtaking no matter what kind of creature Kenzie was.

He definitely wasn’t human.

His sparkly eyes as he talked about his toys made that obvious, but he was a sweet, excitable little who wasn’t shy in the slightest.

Now, he was doing his best to keep his species to himself, but I couldn’t hold that against him. If I couldn’t decide how to ask what he was, then how was he supposed to know when to mention he wasn’t human?

Relationships were always complicated, but I liked the fact that, so far, our only issue seemed to be species-related.

“This is beautiful, cutie.” Focusing on the room was easier than everything else now that I was fairly certain nothing deadly was going to happen. “The details are incredible.”

Kenzie beamed, his eyes going sparkly again. “I had help but it turned out so good. My father made the cabinets.”

“Everything is breathtaking.” Including him…glowing eyes and all.

And I was really glad to see that the eye thing wasn’t just when they were angry.

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