Page 71 of Magic and Mayhem

“No, Daddy.” Kenzie responded so easily I knew he wasn’t just trying to make me feel better. “I’ll burn more calories when I’m bigger, but that’s it. I might get tired if I went back and forth a lot, but I’ll be fine.”

Okay, I’d need to give him a few snack reminders throughout the day and probably make sure he had more food at lunch…and possibly an earlier bedtime. I could do that.

“Alright.” Smiling and hopefully not looking like it was forced, I made an exaggerated motion to set my cup down. “All set.”

He grinned like he thought I was ridiculous. “Thank you, Daddy.”

Before I could think of another way to tease him or a silly comeback, he scrunched his face up and there was a flash of light like all his sparkling went off at once.

And then there was a fucking dragon.

Kenzie was a fucking dragon…subtle ridges around his head and even a pair of wings tucked close to his body.

Kenzie was a dragon.

I knew he’d said it several times and all his friends had said it. Hell, it’d even sounded logical at a certain point, but the reality didn’t set in until I saw a small, probably two-foot-long, perfectly sculpted dragon sitting on the lawn where Kenzie had just stood.

Putting the coffee down had definitely been a good idea.

I really should’ve asked more questions.

Kenzie the dragon stayed so still I almost wanted to poke him and see if he was real, but after a few long moments, his tail swung back and forth. In any form, Kenzie could only stay still for so long and soon he was shifting from side to side, probably doing his best not to jump around.

“You’re a dragon.” It was stupid but it was the first thing that came to mind. “You’re a dragon.”

Yep, still not any smarter.

I did better when I imagined hearing an echo of Kenzie’s giggles in my head, though.

Yep, those eyes were definitely smiling at me, but since he hadn’t mentioned anything about being telepathic, I just took a deep breath and moved down one step on the stairs to get closer. “You’re a beautiful dragon, Kenzie.”

Mostly blue like the sky, his coloring seemed to subtly shift in the light as he moved, and I could almost imagine him in the air, blending in as he swept through the clouds. His wings seemed to get darker at the tips, but I wasn’t sure if it was still blue or closer to a green color. It was hard to tell without getting closer but going up to him just to figure out his coloring sounded rude on some level.

If I wouldn’t do it to a person, I probably shouldn’t do it to Kenzie the dragonseemed like good logic, but I knew I’d have to come back to that when I was thinking more clearly. “You’re right. I think you’re very pretty, cutie.”

His whole body wiggled, such a Kenzie move I had to laugh. “You’re being very good too.”

That got more excited shimmies from the small dragon and I found myself shaking my head. “Silly dragon.”

That had him rolling over on the ground and I could’ve sworn there was more laughter floating around at the edges of my mind.

He looked like a silly puppy, adorable and slightly off-balance as he rolled and bounced. “Look at you.”

Kenzie finally seemed to accept that I wasn’t going to panic and spread his wings to show off before slowly inching closer. As he approached the bottom of the stairs, he stopped and cocked his head, clearly trying to make something obvious.

“Do I want you to come closer?” He nodded, an exaggerated motion so there was no doubt about what he meant. “No, you stay there and let me come down.”

One step at a time, I slowly made my way toward my adorable and surprisingly patient dragon. “You know, I’m really glad we’re doing this on our own. I can just imagine your friends giggling and grumbling. This is much easier.”

Kenzie puffed up, doing another cute wiggle like he was excited or glad we’d made the right call, so I responded like he’d agreed with me. “This is much more relaxing and I don’t have to worry about them helpfully sharing all over town how I reacted.”

His entire body shook and I knew he was laughing at me again. “Yeah, this town has nothing to do but gossip most of the time, and the story would’ve been too good to keep to themselves. I have no doubt that we’re already the talk of the diner this morning.”

More wiggles said he knew I was right and found it hilarious.

“But you’re going to get to tell them your Daddy was brave and confident and didn’t even spill his coffee because you’re the cutest dragon ever.” Well, he was the only one I’d ever seen, but I wasn’t going to point that out.

I was too busy reminding myself how confident I was as I finally got within inches of Kenzie.

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