Chapter 17

Alick

It was never a good thing when everyone met me after work, but I wasn't terribly worried since they just looked confused and not actually upset or guilty.

Maybe we wouldn't have to confess slightly illegal shenanigans to the sheriff?

That'd been awkward before but now that Kenzie's Daddy was his deputy, I could only see it getting weirder.

But no drama and no immediate confessions.

Had whatever they'd done been legal and just stupid?

Maybe…but it was hard to tell.

Lorne was even doing his best to look adorable and nonthreatening, so I didn't think he was going to mention how many bites it'd take to eat Grady.

"Hi, guys." Aiming for an innocent look that was much more believable than Lorne's, I frowned and made sure I looked confused with a dash of apology added in for good measure. "Did I forget we had plans? Finding my mate has been really distracting. Sorry."

Yep, much more believable.

They immediately looked guilty for making me upset.

"No." Kenzie gave Lorne and Stefan firm frowns. "I told you he'd worry."

Because he was manipulative and easily distracted, not stupid.

Lorne widened his eyes and looked sad. "Oh no. We wanted to come see you."

Bullshit.

But having Carrick around all the time meant Lorne was definitely working on upping his game. He even sighed and rocked back and forth like he was worried. "We're so happy for you that you got your mate."

Grateful that he hadn't said Daddy, I ushered them farther away from the front door of the nursery. "Come on. Let's go sit over there."

The heavy concrete table was supposed to remind customers that we could help them decorate their gardens, but it worked to have a quick chat at too.

When they were all seated around the round, slightly rough-feeling table, I gave them a wide-eyed smile. "He's great. He loves my house and was so impressed by your dad's woodwork, Kenzie, that he kept running his hands over it."

Daddy petted everything, but I wasn't going to word it that way.

Kenzie beamed and did a little happy dance in his seat. "That's wonderful. What did he think of your flower shelves?"

It'd taken him a really long time to remember not to talk about my playroom or my little side when I was working, so I was glad to see that'd stuck even after I'd found my Daddy.

"He loved them." Still not quite sure what was going on, I stayed focused on the happy, innocent bits so that I didn't accidentally make trouble for myself. "He was incredibly impressed and keeps talking about what an artist your father is."

It would've been a good distraction but Stefan cleared his throat and pushed them back on track. "Your mate is an artist too, right?"

Was he pushing the conversation back toward my mate or was he leading the conversation somewhere specific?

"Yes." Playing along, I shrugged. "We didn't talk too much about that yesterday—I'll have to do better about that—but we have plenty of time to talk about work. I showed him around, though, and he picked out a few places around the property that he said he'd like to work from."

Oh yes…that reminded me.

"Kenzie, I was thinking. I need to talk to your dad about building a little artist house thing. I don't know what to call it but Grady needs somewhere to work, and I don't think my house is big enough." It was cute but it wasn't creative artist with projects sized.

"Are you thinking something Craftsman or a cute summer fairy cottage kind of look?" Sitting up like he'd gotten a spark of an idea, his eyes widened. "Oh, it could be a small copy of your house. That would be so cute."

Getting completely wrapped up in the new topic, he ignored the sighs coming from Stefan and Lorne. "I also think a fairy or even fairy-tale kind of house could be cute toward the back of the property. But would he think that's too…creative?"

I shrugged. "He likes my house a lot and didn't mention anything being too creative looking. I think he'd be fine with anything that had pretty wood in it."

Creativewas Kenzie-speak for girly…but I was pretty sure Grady would be more focused on fancy floors than anything else. As long as we found old wood to use and a few things like that, I was pretty sure he'd let me do whatever I wanted.

Looking less conflicted, Kenzie nodded and brightened again. "Then let's have him look at a few styles and we'll make a list of what he needs. What does he actually do?"

I shrugged, telling myself not to feel bad that I couldn't answer the very reasonable question. "Um, he's got some small pictures he's done around the trailer and there were stacks of sketchbooks tucked into every nook and cranny."

It was cute.

"He talked about sculpting?" Was that helpful? I wasn't sure any longer. "We mostly talked about relationship stuff and family stuff. And, um, limits lists. Oh, his brother and his sister-in-law want to come meet me."

Lowering my voice, I leaned over the table. "She's a little too and I think she'd want to play with us, but would that be weird? I mean, they're his family."

Faces immediately frowned and heads tilted to the right. I managed not to laugh but it was hard. They were all so funny, but they were taking my question very seriously, so I was glad they were my friends.

"Well, it sounds like…Mr. Grady is close with his brother." Stefan's careful way of talking about Daddy was cute. "What do his parents think?"

That made me sad that time and I didn't even have to fake it. "They died in a small plane crash when he was younger. Some of the areas are so remote it's the only way to get in and out, but there were mechanical issues and they couldn't get out of the plane in time to shift."

"Oh." Sighs echoed around the table but it was Kenzie who reached out to take my hand. "That's terrible. We're sorry."

"It's okay. He's had time to get over it and he wasn't upset when he told me about it." It would've never occurred to me that dragons could get trapped in a plane and not be able to get out. "But his brother is really supportive because he's a Daddy too, and they have some aunts and cousins, but they're not as close as they used to be."

They seemed to be mostly in Montana still, so that made sense.

"He likes this area, though, and he's happy to stay here." Was that what they'd been worrying about? "I just need to make sure the house has space for his work too."

Or he'd be miserable.

And bored.

"There might be studio space he can rent in town." Stefan frowned. "Aren't there a few empty storefronts in that shopping kind of area on the outskirts of town? The artisty one, not the one with all the medical offices."

"That's a good idea. I'll make sure he knows about those. We'll have to go drive by those this weekend when I don't have to work. Right now, if he leaves the property, he can't find his way back." I looked at Lorne. "Oh, did Carrick fix that?"

Daddy hadn't actually mentioned what had happened when the other Daddies had invaded. He'd just mentioned them being ridiculous and that he'd told him that he wasn't afraid to tattle if they drove him nuts.

That threat actually seemed to have worked because they hadn't stayed long and he'd texted later that he'd gotten a lot of work done.

"Yes." Lorne looked pleased at being able to tell me that. "He can now leave the property and find it again and the plan is to fix the wonky spell. Daddy even said the council is going to try to figure out a way to improve the bad reviews."

That was good to hear.

"Great." It hadn't affected my work yet, but the families that owned rental properties were going batshit crazy. "He was frustrated that he couldn't run errands."

He'd wanted to make me dinner but my kitchen was slightly bare.

For fuck knew what reason, that had the three crazy littles all looking at each other and Stefan sighed. He was clearly it for whatever they were going to talk about, but I was stumped. "He seems to have a lot of time on his hands. Daddies are…well, they're difficult to live with when they're bored."

"They get creative." Kenzie frowned like Talon had done something ridiculous.

"And easily frustrated." Lorne was shaking his head like it'd been a traumatic experience.

"They need the structure of a career and friends." Stefan was still the voice for the trio and I was glad because I knew he'd eventually get to the point…the other two could ramble for hours and be convinced the conversation had been wonderfully enlightening.

"He has a career. He's an artist." When they just blinked, I kept going. "He sells stuff and everything. Honest. It's not just in his head. He paid for the trailer with cash and will be really glad when he can go buy groceries. He'll probably end up doing that tomorrow while I'm at work because he's going to surprise me with a special dinner. He wants to do date nights."

I didn't confess about the soup night because I didn't want to traumatize Kenzie.

That at least got smiles from everyone before Lorne and Kenzie looked at Stefan again. I wasn't sure why we hadn't made progress, but I tried to look relaxed and not accidentally come across as guilty and distract the three worriers.

Stefan didn't mind being my interrogator and sat straighter, so he was clearly worried about me. It was cute…but confusing…and his words didn't help. "We're glad he wants to do something special for you, but he's…well…he doesn't seem to understand much about being a dragon."

Giving me a dramatic pause, Stefan started up again when it was clear I didn't understand the problem. "We wanted to make sure he knew how he was supposed to treat his mate…and that he knew how to do stuff like shift and fly. He's…he comes across as very human."

Hmm.

"I'm willing to debate the coming across as human thing, but I have to agree that he doesn't understand much about their history." Or any of it, really. "He likes flying, though. He talked about that, and he was fairly confident that the compulsion was related to a mate bond, and he didn't freak out about that. He has to get props for that."

Big ones.

As heads nodded, I tried to decide how to make them less worried.

"The areas they moved to were very isolated for a long time and he was born before the internet, guys. Can you imagine trying to learn about what was going on with other dragons around the world by mailing letters?" I couldn't.

But I'd been reading up on the groups that'd traveled west when I could take a break, and I'd come up with some ideas about what had gone wrong.

Eyes widened around the table and it looked like even Stefan hadn't thought about that. His head cocked again and he went into librarian mode. "If that group of settlers didn't keep good records or things like diaries, I can understand why a lot of their history was lost. They'd fill in the gaps with what was logical and just keep going."

It was my turn to nod. "And for a guy who'd finally gotten internet and all the fun stuff that came with that, history would not be what he searched for first."

"Porn." Kenzie's head bobbed like that was perfectly understandable. "I wasn't interested in our history until I had to answer Talon's questions. He had so many."

Kenzie hadn't been interested in anything outside of work or mischief, so that wasn't a surprise.

"We'll teach him and get him up to date." Stefan liked that idea because he was nearly bouncing on the bench. "We'll show him the diaries and some of the historical documents and then we'll take a hike up to the portal. I haven't seen it yet."

"That's because the hike is a pain in the ass." Even with magical assistance the trail got overgrown and disappeared faster than any other one on the mountain. Kenzie's father had said one time that it was like the woods themselves wanted to hide it for us.

That was great and all, but it made it difficult to get back up there.

"It'll be fun." Lorne wasn't worried, but he was probably planning on making his Daddy carry him. "I have sparkly new hiking boots I want to try out."

Stefan looked curious enough to ask him where the hell he'd found shoes like that, but luckily Kenzie saved us from a fashion adventure reenactment. "What about the friends issue?"

Lorne and Stefan sighed and nodded, but I looked so confused that Kenzie had to explain. "If he doesn't make friends, he might leave and you're his mate, so you'd go with him. He's a dragon. They need people."

Oh.

I wasn't worried, but I could see how they would be.

Even Stefan looked concerned, so someone had made a very convincing argument.

"First, he said he knew I wouldn't be happy anywhere else. He listed off my job and my house and even you guys as reasons why he knew he'd be staying here." Logic was important but I knew from their skeptical looks that it wouldn't be enough.

So I pulled out the big guns.

"And you're forgetting he's part mage. They're cranky." Yep, I knew I was playing into stereotypes and it made me a bad person, but I wasn't going to try to reason with them. "I'd worry if he was too happy, honestly. Mages make trouble when they're happy."

Ours did, at least.

"Oh." Their voices sounded like they were echoing around me since they all said it at the same time.

"Yeah. Mages are…well, he thinks dragon genetics are stronger but that mage crankiness seems like it goes through several generations just fine." Shrugging as I watched them grasp the crazy logic, I kept going. "And creative types? He's an artist. Kenzie, think of your work but turn the creativity and obsessiveness up to ten."

Lorne winced before Kenzie could even think about pouting. "That sounds frustrating. I've worked with people like that. They're…they're unpleasant and not sweet like our Kenzie is."

Thank the dragons above.

Kenzie pulled back his lower lip and sat straighter and even Stefan seemed to think it was a reasonable response. "I dated an artist one time. I'm very glad Boyd is logical."

That was one way to describe him.

"I'm sure he'll make friends eventually." But how? I needed something else. "Oh, Kenzie, he seemed to like Talon. He was very impressed by your Daddy's threats."

Dragons were weird.

Kenzie beamed, proving me right. "I'm so glad. Daddy looked very fierce when he said it."

The shiver that escaped the naughty dragon said he'd thoroughly enjoyed seeing his human mate going all angry dragon on my mate.

It shouldn't have been cute, but it was.

"He really did." There was no point in denying it when agreeing meant I could change the subject faster and not have to hear what kind of role-playing Kenzie had talked his Daddy into. "He'll find friends and get settled quickly…especially if he has a studio. That will make him feel very settled."

And promising that would move my project higher on Kenzie's dad's list.

"Oh, that's a good idea." The wheels in Kenzie's head started to turn, but that was always dangerous. Shit. He frowned. "But I had a thought…Stefan doesn't think it's an issue but Lorne isn't sure."

Stefan actually rolled his eyes, showing exactly what he thought of the problem, but Lorne sighed and gave a little shrug.

What else had Kenzie decided to worry about?

"I'm sure we can tackle the problem right away. We're smart and Grady is very nice." Especially once he'd gotten a good night's sleep and could stop driving around all the time. "What is the problem?"

Fidgeting, Kenzie sighed and took a few seconds to decide to confess his fears. "Well, I looked at the map because I didn't know where his White House town was."

"Whitehorse." The locals around us got confused enough without someone thinking Grady used to be the president.

"Oh yes." Distracting him was important but not really a good idea, so I tried to be patient when he had to get back on track and the sighs started again. "Well, does Santa need him to pull his sleigh? Reindeer don't fly. Everyone knows that, but will Santa have enough dragons to pull the sleigh if Grady doesn't go back in the winter?"

I was starting to see why Stefan had rolled his eyes.

"It's a small town." Kenzie was rubbing his hands together and worrying at his lower lip. "There can't be an overabundance of dragons without daytime jobs."

Huh?

Santa's reindeer were all self-employed?

Nope. I wasn't going to ask.

"Yes. He'll have plenty." Fuck it. "That was not his job, so we don't have to worry about it."

Worst came to worst, I could just tell him Daddy's brother had to be back before winter and that would fix a lot.

Hmm.

Someone was going to have to call Talon.

Not it.

Nope, this was definitely a job for Stefan.

I was starting to see why Daddy didn't want to have a lot of friends…they were hard work.