Page 94 of The Flame Game

“I try.”

“Okay. I can do that, especially if I will be armed with coffee. Did we have a second Thermos in the SUV?”

“We have three, plus we have several travel mugs from the gift shop. They had a cindercorn one I got you, so I’ll get that filled for you.”

“Cindercorns are the best. But why are there so many cindercorn products now?”

“Well, several months ago, somebody dusted 120 Wall Street with some high-grade gorgon dust, and a cindercorn mare, the most beautiful to exist, consumed a ridiculous amount of enhanced napalm, reducing the building to rubble. Upon finishing her hard work, she rampaged where a bunch of reporters could record her through the shield. She chanted wonderfully amusing love songs to her favorite narcotic, becoming a media sensation. Of course, New York opted to encourage the love of cindercorns, so you are now famous and a beloved force of destruction.”

“Your sarcasm doesn’t need any work. I thought you should know this.”

He smiled. “Well, you asked.”

“I’m on designer purses, Sam!”

“As you should be. You’re the most beautiful of cindercorns, and you’re all mine. But I am not entirely selfish, so everyone should be able to admire your badass beauty.”

“You are something else.”

“Finish your sea bug roll while I order treats for the pets to go and take care of your coffee needs. I’m also going to order you another sea bug roll for the road, as I know full well you’re ignoring those last two bites because you don’t want me to think you’re still hungry despite having polished off everything else.”

Damn. I picked up the last token bite or two I’d left because he tended to keep feeding me until I couldn’t finish off my plate. “Better get me two,” I mumbled.

“I’ll get three so I can have one since watching you eat yours will make me hungry for more sea bugs, but I’ll give you half of mine because I can’t inhale food in quite the same quantity.”

“You’re the best husband.”

“You deserve the best.”

While I polished off every scrap from my plate and began the tedious work of convincing our pets they could finish their treats and bones in the SUV, after we put down a sheet to mitigate how much of a mess they made on the leather, my husband fetched the tools of coffee containment from our vehicle and ordered too much food to go, including the fries I’d drooled over but had skipped out on in favor of the healthier salads my husband liked.

I hid a twenty dollar bill partially under my plate, and then I repeated the process with my husband’s plate, making sure he didn’t catch me in the act of over-tipping, as he always tipped at the counter. Once I finished my naughty work of tipping extra, I gathered our pets’ leftovers into the cardboard containers the waitress had left for us and joined my husband while the animals did their best to trip me.

“It’ll be about ten minutes, my beautiful. Do you want to handle their walk while I finish in here?”

I nodded. “I’ll make sure the snow is out of their fur before setting up their travel palace.”

Walking the three pets involved a lot of leash dodging and untangling, and all three of them handled their business like champs, although I wished Avalanche didn’t insist on burying hers, which added to the complexity of properly disposing of their messes. I almost made it to the SUV when Quinn came out of the restaurant burdened with several bulging bags with the waitress following carrying a tray with our coffees. “So much coffee,” I breathed with wide eyes.

My husband laughed and kissed my cheek. “Try not to enter orbit drinking most of it. Retrieving you would take a lot of work.”

The waitress laughed. “While I was making your coffee, he told me about how you had rescued two of your pets!”

I recognized the signs of hero-worship, as I indulged in such behaviors at least once a day with my husband. At a loss of what to do about it, I picked up Avalanche and held her out. “If I could have rescued her mother, I would have. This is a very lucky kitten.”

Quinn opened the passenger side front door and put the bags on my seat before taking the tray from the waitress. “That is my wife’s way of saying you should hold the exotic kitten and make friends with her. Avalanche loves people, which is a good thing, as she won’t be a candidate for release back into the wild. Sunny was a gift from my relatives, although I have come to understand the gift is also a prank against her father.”

“We have the best families, and their feuds are cordial, hilarious, yet surprisingly intense.” Once the waitress had both hands free, I gave her Avalanche. “I found Blizzard in a dumpster outside of a police station, and he’s quite possibly the best husky puppy on Earth. He limits his protests to when we do something particularly heinous. We were late with his breakfast this morning.”

“That is particularly heinous,” she agreed, and she smiled, cuddling with Avalanche, who was happy to work her charms as usual. “I’m Bethany.”

“Bailey. He’s Sam.”

“He looks just like that police chief out of New York.”

“That’s because he is that police chief out of New York,” I replied, unable to contain my giggles. “He’s shockingly normal outside of work. He’s recently taken up the mantle of tour guide for me.”

Bethany’s eyes widened. “You’re her.”