21. Nothing Weird and Kinky Here

21

NOTHING WEIRD AND KINKY HERE

TERESA

" W hat the heeeeck happened to you?" Dawn asks, her jaw fully dropped.

Maybe it's because I'm half-dripping in the entryway of the house. Not just from the ocean water drenching my clothes.

"Hottie with the dog," I say, biting my lip to stop from grinning so hard. "I won."

It's hard to hold in, but I did, actually. I blew his whole world inside out, and while this stopped being vengeance a long time ago, I am still going to celebrate the fact.

"His dog?" she asks, eyeing Slugger in my arms.

I had to carry him, because otherwise Pacari might start changing again. He had another set of clothes in the cave, but I didn't have the fortune of a second set of clothes in the sex cave. Maybe I'll work on that—put a pin in that for later.

"Oh no, he's right—" I turn to look behind me.

Blinking, I survey the gravel road, the long plants that surround the property, the area around Dawn's little hybrid—Zephyr's car is gone. They must be out with some of the others. It might just be Dawn at the house.

"Pacari?" I call out.

"Yeah!" he calls back. "Be right there."

He stands up, his torso peaking up from behind the tall brown grass behind the white picket fence.

I tilt my head in confusion as he comes forward.

"You getting cold feet or something?" I joke.

He furrows his brow. "My feet are always cold."

I shake my head with a laugh. "What were you doing over there?"

"I felt a—I saw this," he says, holding up a necklace.

A locket, rather. Antique gold in the shape of a heart, dangling from a bow with a pearl mounted on the center of the heart. I take it from him and look it over, try to open it—but no luck. Maybe Dawn can figure out how to open it. In the meantime, I'm more concerned about the fact that Pacari was prancing around in the grass.

"You should check for ticks," I huff.

"What are ticks?" he asks .

I roll my eyes and bend low to check out his legs. He's wearing sandals, so I don't have to check his shoes. I shove Slugger and the necklace in his hands. He holds Slugger at a distance from the rest of him, just to be safe. Unfortunately, his hands still transform after a few moments.

"What do you mean ‘what are ticks?' You've never dealt with ticks, running around in the dark and all?"

"I don't think so," he mumbles.

"They're these annoying little parasites. Bloodsuckers."

"Ah, like your vampire myths," he says.

"Oh, but you know about vampires," I grumble, turning him so I can check everywhere.

"Kalixto and Cirro often share stories about human myths."

I raise an eyebrow. "Cirro is another friend?"

"Yes, you may meet him, but unlike Kalixto, he is perpetually shy and very grumpy."

"Maybe ticks don't like sea monster blood," I say quietly. "Lucky bastards."

"Uh," Dawn's voice from the entryway. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Hello," Pacari calls out, still holding Slugger at a distance above my head while I'm planted firmly between his legs.

I just finished looking around his shorts for any stowaways. Which meant my hands were planted firmly on his hips when she walked in on us. I let out a laugh. What a weird sight this had to be. Oh—Pacari's hands!

I stand up quickly and take the dog from him. He hides his hands behind his back before Dawn can see anything. We hope. She'll probably kill me if she finds out I'm now in love with a sea monster without giving her a heads up, but also, I'm still sorting through a few things and I still haven't seen his secret garden. Which I don't think is a euphemism, considering how frank we've been with each other so far.

"No, nothing weird and kinky here. We'll be doing plenty of that later," I say with a wink to Pacari.

He tenses for a moment, hardens his jaw. Storing all those pearls in his sifon must be driving him nuts. I wonder if it's like ben wa balls for yacunayi . And if he doesn't normally come, I wonder what's in store for him with all the unintended edging.

…Or maybe it is intended. Either way, I intend to make things very hard on him.

"What are you guys doing out here? Also, hello, Hottie-with-the-dog," Dawn says.

"Hello, Lady-With-the-Book," Pacari replies.

I snort before introducing them. When that's all over, I cut to the chase.

"Okay, we need to actually leave you with a few things—and also, wow, we just keep finding weird little mysteries. Are you having this luck too, or is that just us?" I ask.

Dawn's eyes go wide. "What did you find? We found some old love letters in the attic. Did you know the illustrious Nina Martinez was a lesbian?"

"Aww, Zephyr's not the first queer in their family, they must be so excited," I laugh.

"They're hunting down more information at the library right now."

"Ah, that explains why little miss Anelisa is with them, but not why you aren't."

Dawn looks a little embarrassed. "Well, for once, I slept in. And for two, I might have found something that's either a secret compartment or something and I didn't want to tell anyone else about it 'til I found out if it was real."

"Are you kidding me? Oh! Pacari! Show her what you found!" I exclaim, slapping him on the arm to nudge him on.

"Ah," he laughs, rubbing the spot, feigning like I actually hurt him.

"Oops, should I kiss it better?" I ask, fluttering my lashes.

"Please," he grins back.

Dawn rolls her eyes. "Can you save this for later? No offense. But you can't dangle a new mystery in my face like this."

"Her fault," Pacari says quickly. "Sorry. "

I hold in my laugh as he hands the necklace over. As soon as he has, I pull his arm towards me and kiss the spot where I hit him.

"There, you big baby."

"We should always kiss it better after we hurt each other," he says.

God, he's cute. "Yes, agreed."

He spins me and pulls me to his front before bending into my ear.

"I will kiss your ass better after all the times I slapped it earlier, but for the sake of your friend, I will wait."

"How did you find this?" Dawn asks, staring at it in fascination, completely oblivious to our flirting. Or at least pretending to be. It's hard to tell with her, sometimes.

"Over there," Pacari motions to the grass with his chin, not letting me go.

The feel of him at my back is very distracting. This was supposed to be a short pitstop, but I've made the mistake of starting up the mystery machine.

"Wait, but you had something else for me, too, right? You only just found this?"

"Ah yes, can you watch Slugger?" I ask, waving his paw at her.

Putting on a little baby dog voice, I add, "Take me away from these crazy people, look at me, I look like a drowned rat! "

Dawn sighs, brushing a stray strand of hair back behind her ear.

"Well, you are cute and you do look like you've been under attack. I hope you're a mystery-loving dog, because I have plans."

Slugger barks—in agreement? All three of us laugh.

"Okay, the dog is settled, can we go see your fancy garden now?" I beg.

"That's all the mysteries?" Dawn asks, almost saddened.

I throw my head up to the heavens and close my eyes. One track mind, this lady.

"Please let me tell you about it later, but there's apparently smuggler caves a little bit down the beach. Take good care of Slugger, love you! See you later!" I say quickly.

Before she can fully process, I grab Pacari and run around the side of the house to the trail to the beach.

"Wait! A smuggler cave? Teresa! TERESA!"