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“It’s alright. I’ll stay out of the blast radius.” He was so cheerful and so nosy, I was really starting to regret all the glass in the door even though it was beautiful. It just carried sound too well and left no privacy at all. “Daddy promised me lasagna for dinner again if you don’t call him and complain. So you have to be nice.”
I just snorted.
“I’m not sure Boyd’s as excited about you getting lasagna as you are.” Alick was trying not to laugh, which I didn’t appreciate, but I was grateful that he was at least trying to corral the crazy. “Just promise Boyd that we won’t be too nosy and we’ll take no for an answer if he doesn’t want to talk.”
“But I don’t want to lie.” The confused tone in Kenzie’s voice almost had my head crashing into the desk. “That’s not nice. I’m a good boy.”
Lorne was no help.
He was just giggling and watching all the drama unfold, probably not realizing I could see him in the reflection of my computer monitor.
“Fine.” Saving my work, I stretched and cracked my neck, taking my sweet time getting up. “You have five minutes, and if you piss me off, no lasagna for you. I’ll tell your Daddy you were pitching a fit.”
That got a shocked inhale from Kenzie as his eyes widened in horror and giggles from the other two troublemakers. “You wouldn’t.”
There were times that I liked working so close to the main street in town and times that it drove me nuts. It’d been entirely too easy for them to randomly concoct this scene and to come find me.
“I would.” And Kenzie knew it because he immediately switched to pouting. But I needed a break and I could see Alick was genuinely curious, so I opened the door and ignored the giggler and the drama queen.
Alick wanted to laugh, but he was more interested in information and not making me any more nuts. “We were aiming for a good break time for you. If you need to get something done, please let us know.”
They didn’t usually come crashing in when I was working, so I shook my head. “No, this is a fine time. I was actually getting ready to shift gears, so this is perfect.”
Not a lie, even if my goal was to go have lunch with Stefan soon.
“Tell us.” Lorne was nearly bouncing, causing the sequin shirt he was wearing to catch the light like a disco ball. “We were so patient. We didn’t even call last night.”
Okay, I had to give them that.
“Come on in.” Shaking my head as they all bounced in like we were heading to Disney World, I gestured toward the couch on one wall. “Sit so Lorne’s shirt doesn’t blind me.”
Of course, he had to twirl. “It’s wonderful, isn’t it? I found it at the thrift shop in the city when I went to do a big grocery haul. I’m boycotting anyone who would use spells against their customers.”
That wasn’t a bad idea considering the spell in question had been aimed at him…but he hadn’t been manipulated at the grocery store, so I wasn’t sure why he thought he had to avoid it.
“It’s very you.” I finally had to chuckle as he twirled again. “Sit down, disco boy.”
He obeyed, crashing into Alick and nearly landing on his lap. “I’m so cute.”
And confident.
“So is the librarian.” Alick’s teasing tone had the other two laughing again. “He was also seen wearing a big smile as he went into work this morning.”
Rolling my eyes only set them off again. “What were you doing stalking the library? Dragons above, don’t tell me the busybodies are already talking about him.”
Alick shook his head, still grinning. “No, I was headed across town early and just happened to time it right. So far, very little gossip, but that will change if you have lunch with him again this week.”
Kenzie finally stopped his drama long enough to agree with Alick, his head going up and down like one of those ridiculous dolls with the wobbly heads. “Yes, Daddy and I got asked about it when we were getting dessert on Saturday afternoon. Everyone was asking why you’d gone over there.”
Before I could groan or demand to know what they’d told the nosy diners, Kenzie volunteered that information. “But Daddy and I just reminded them that you worked with the council on the library stuff and it was probably about that. Then Mr. Kennedy told everyone that the council thought Mr. Librarian needed more help. So that kept everyone distracted trying to decide who should help Mr. Librarian.”
Laugh or grumble that it wasn’t up to them to decide?
Alick chuckled. “Evidently, Talon had to step in and keep several people from coming to blows because the mages have claimed the librarian for themselves?”
As I wondered about that, Lorne piped up. “Are we calling dibs on humans now? How does that work? I think you need to come out as dating him so the dragons can have him. He’s clearly a dragon-side human, not a mage one. That would be silly. He’s too nice for them.”
Most of that wasn’t reasonable enough to respond to even if I agreed with it.
