Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

" E eep." It wasn't a word I ever expected to say. It was more of a sound, really. But when a warm hand caught my side and easily swept me back to my feet, it was the only possible reaction.

Of course that hand also belonged to the man who'd been avoiding me since I kissed him and cursed him, so that was a fun bonus.

"Hugo," I said.

He gave me a smile filled with warmth, which made my insides twist. I felt like I was trying to read a book only to find the pages out of order, the story making less sense the more I tried to piece it together.

"You know if you wanted to say hello, you could have come to the front door," he said. "Less chance of injury."

A dull ache spread through my limbs, the physical manifestation of the hurt he'd caused. Why would he say that to me?

I forced myself to take a slow, calming breath. "I tried that and you pretended you weren't home, so…."

His brows furrowed like he was the one who was confused.

"I wouldn't do that," he said.

"Except you did."

"When exactly do you think I pretended I wasn't home? It's only fair to give me context so I can properly defend myself."

"It's fine. Totally not necessary. I'm just dropping by with a warning."

He looked even more confused.

"Don't go outside," I said.

"We're both outside. Right now."

"Don't go out front, or anywhere else."

"Would you like to come inside for a cup of tea? We need to slow down and take a step back here to get on the same page."

Gaslighting wouldn't work on me. I rolled my eyes. "I know what I did to you was horrible."

"You've never done anything horrible to me. Unless it was you who told the new guy at the fire station that I love capers. He's been adding heaping piles to everything." A gentle, tentative smile played on his lips.

He thought he could joke this away? Pretend none of it happened?

"The kiss." I leaned closer and whispered, because there were definitely prying ears way too close for comfort with those librarians stalking the streets. "The thing that happened after."

Hugo blinked. A crease formed between his brows. "Honestly, I thought it was all a dream."

I nodded. That was familiar.

"Until it happened again," he said, "and I realized I could change into a?—"

I clapped my hand over his mouth.

His brows shot up and I could feel his cheeks pull into a smile.

"We need to go inside for this," I said. "My house. My girls are probably panicking right now, and they need to see that I'm not inside a vacuum."

Hugo gently removed my hand from his face. The contact, this whole interaction, left my heart beating erratically.

"Inside a vacuum…okay then," he said. "But if there's time for it, I'd like to grab my ladder."

I nodded.

He hurried to the shed and put a ladder over the fence.

I went over it first. Then he came right after.

We made it halfway across the yard before both girls were on top of us, throwing their arms around me, and clinging hard.

"Mama, I thought you were gone forever." Ivy dug her fingers into my hip.

My other shoulder felt wet, where Citra was saying nothing but was definitely crying. I bent my neck to kiss her on the head, and stopped just in time.

It hurt not to be able to kiss them. It hurt that what was going on with me was causing them distress. A whole lot of our current situation sucked.

I took a breath and ushered the girls toward the door, holding them to my sides. "You can't get rid of me that easily."

Citra snorted and rubbed her face.

When we got inside, Hugo locked the door behind us. Both girls turned to look at him.

"You shouldn't be outside either," Citra said.

"So I hear," Hugo said. "I think I'm going to need something good to wash down the rest of this story. How about you?"

Ivy said, "Hot chocolate."

"We don't have any," Citra said, her tears drying. "You drank it all, Ivy."

Ivy shrugged. "I like chocolate."

"Everyone likes chocolate," Citra said.

"Do you have any type of chocolate?" Hugo asked.

"We're a house of girls," I said. "Chocolate is required."

"All chocolate, no vegetables," Ivy beamed at Hugo.

"I didn't say that," I told her.

"Girl rule," she said.

"I like vegetables," Citra said.

"Then you're not a real girl," Ivy told her.

"You're going to get scurvy," Citra snapped. "Then you'll turn into a boy."

A horrified expression took over Ivy's face.

Citra flashed her a satisfied grin. "It's a pirate disease. That's why they all need hooks. Their hands fall off."

Ivy snapped back, "At least I'll get a parrot."

Usually, I'd find the bickering exhausting. Right now, though, I was grateful that at least something was normal.

"You're not going to turn into a boy, or lose any limbs," I said. "But to grow big and strong, it is important to eat a well-balanced diet."

Ivy ticked off her fingers. "White chocolate. Milk chocolate. Pink chocolate."

"Colors of chocolate don't count as a well-balanced diet," Citra said.

"No dark chocolate." Ivy wrinkled up her nose and took a seat at the table. "It tastes like dirt."

Citra sat beside her. "Chocolate won't make you tall. You'll stay shrimpy forever." Citra told Ivy.

"I like shrimp," Ivy said. "They're delicious."

Sure, this was my normal, but it wasn't Hugo's. I glanced over at him, expecting him to be poised to bolt. Instead, he was smiling. I didn't understand it, but it made me warm inside.

I opened the chocolate cabinet and pulled out a few bars.

"Do you have a pot? And some milk?" Hugo asked.

I procured those, too.

He started up the stove and stirred together the ingredients. I watched the way his muscles flexed and the contented expression on his face. There was nothing sexier than a man wanting to dote on my girls.

Then he wiped up a droplet of spilled milk on the stove, and I realized that a man who doted on my girls and cleaned was even hotter.

Except that was not what I was supposed to think about Hugo, not after he'd ghosted me for five days. He was a pretty face who wanted absolutely nothing to do with me, which was exactly what I was supposed to want. I had to contain my drool and my foolishly swooning heart.

The four of us sat down together for the best cups of hot chocolate on the planet.

"Mmm." Ivy smacked her lips together. "What's in this? Magic?"

"Chocolate and cinnamon," Hugo said, "which is basically magic."

Ivy chuckled and tipped her mug up to gulp it down.

"It is really good," Citra said, shifting in her seat. "Thanks."

"Glad you like it," Hugo said.

"Still, you shouldn't be over here," Citra said.

I tensed, hoping she wasn't going to say something nasty. I might have been mad at him, but he was being kind to my girls.

"It's not safe to leave the house in your condition," Citra said.

Oh. Right, that.

"The librarians are vacuuming up all the bunnies," Ivy said. "We're supposed to stay inside where it's locked up tight and stay away from the windows and not talk to strangers. Not talking to strangers is good advice in general. Except also sometimes strangers become your new best friend, so that can be tricky when you're not allowed to talk to them."

Hugo looked from Ivy to me. "You're hiding from librarians…because you're all rabbits?"

"No," Citra said. "Just Mom. And you."

"I see," Hugo said.

I wished I could see what he was thinking. His face was a mask as he looked at me.

The four of us sat there in a halo of silence and unasked questions.

Then Ivy slurped and ran her tongue along the edge of the mug.

I ripped my gaze from Hugo. "All right girls, time to brush teeth and head to bed."

"I'm not done my cocoa," Citra said.

"Take it with you," I said.

"Into the bathroom to brush my teeth?" she asked, as if that could actually be what I was saying.

"To your room, then brush when you're done," I said.

Citra twisted her lips. "I thought we weren't supposed to have dishes in our rooms."

"Special occasion," I said, trying to keep my voice even.

"I don't want to be alone," Ivy said.

"Stay together," I said. "In Citra's room."

"I want to be with you, Mama," Ivy said.

"I'll tell you what, after Hugo and I talk, all three of us girls can snuggle up for the night in my bed."

"Promise?" Ivy said, her eyes filled with delight.

"I promise."

"Come on, Ivy." Citra rose from her seat and started for the stairs. Then she stopped and told Hugo, "Don't get vacuumed up on your way home. You make Mom smile."

"I'll be safe. I promise," he said.

Ivy grabbed me and puckered her lips.

A moment of pure panic stole my breath away.

"Even if you won't kiss me, I'm still going to kiss you," she said. "In the air."

Then she blew me a kiss, and my lungs deflated.

"Thanks, Ivy," I said. "I love it."

I blew her a kiss back, then one to Citra. Citra gave me a half-smile, which was a pretty big deal coming from her.

Ivy grinned and ran after her sister. They headed upstairs together.

When I heard their footsteps stop and Citra's door shut, I turned back to Hugo. He still had that unreadable expression on his face.

If he wanted to clear the air and defend himself, I wanted to start at the beginning.

"I owe you an explanation," I said. "For what it's worth, I had no idea I was going to infect you or I never would have kissed you."

"Infected me with what?"

"Berpes?"

"The exercise?"

"Never mind," I said. "It started at the market that day when we officially met. I kissed a rabbit for a photo, and it was stupid, and when we got home, I turned into a rabbit. I thought it had all been a bizarre dream until I kissed you and turned you into a rabbit, too."

He was quiet a moment as if considering. It was torture.

Finally he said, "I'm glad you kissed me."

"You are? How could you be?"

"You're strong and loving and the most interesting person I've ever met, Daisy."

"I made you turn into a rabbit."

"That was disorienting the first time," he said in a soft voice.

"You've done it more than once since then."

"I can control it," he said. "It's fun."

"Right?" I laughed.

He smiled.

Everything felt easy with him, but I couldn't let go of the fact that he'd avoided me and then pretended not to be home when I came to visit. At the very least he should have had his sister tell me that he needed time. He shouldn't have had her lie to me.

"I get that you needed time to digest what happened," I said, "I really do. But it sucked that after days of hoping you'd show up at our spot, I finally got the nerve to knock on your door, and Summer said you weren't there."

"I've been away at a training retreat, Daisy. I haven't been home since Sunday night. I just got back."

"That'd be a great excuse if it were true. But I saw you."

"I wasn't there, Daisy. Honestly."

His expression was so earnest. I wanted to believe him. "I saw you in the window, wearing a Dogwood Fire Department t-shirt. I knocked on the door. Summer acted squirrelly, said you weren't there, and closed the door as quick as she could."

His jaw tightened. "I don't have a department shirt."

I went back over the event in my head. When I saw him, his back was turned. Could it have been someone else?

"Summer had someone from my department over." He shook his head with disapproval.

"Like she's dating one of your underlings."

He nodded. "Behind my back. That has to be what happened."

It made sense. "You swear it wasn't you?"

"I swear."

Hugo curled his fingers around his mug. His gaze never left my face, not once. He was being open, and as far as I could tell, honest.

"After our kiss, I woke up in your house, naked," he said. "There was a guy who tried to talk to me."

"Davey," I said. Then to make sure we didn't end up with another misunderstanding between us. "My brother."

"When I got home, I had a message that I had to leave right away for a work training retreat. I wasn't sure what happened after the kiss. I wanted to call you in the morning. There wasn't service."

"A call would have been nice. I was worried you hated me."

"Daisy." He reached a hand across the table, stopping just short of mine.

Our knuckles brushed. I wasn't sure who leaned in that last inch, but when I didn't pull away, he laced his fingers in mine.

"I could never hate you," he said.

Okay, maybe hate was a strong word. But he could definitely reject me when he really got to know me. I'd heard my entire adult life that no good man would want a single mother who had a career, a woman who wouldn't put him as her top priority.

Not that I had a job anymore.

Either way, I wasn't going to pretend to be someone I wasn't. I was proud of my accomplishments, and grateful every day that I'd made the decision to adopt my girls. I loved them. Even if no man would want me, I liked who I was and the life I'd chosen for myself.

I said, "I'm a newly-unemployed neurotic control freak who will always put her daughters first."

Hugo gently squeezed my hand. "Sorry to hear about your job."

"Don't be. I'm done dealing with garbage behavior. I deserve better."

He smiled, which I didn't expect and was completely unprepared for. And he scooted closer, so my legs were between his. Our knees touched. Our hands were still touching.

This didn't feel like the rejection I'd been waiting for.

"You deserve the best," Hugo said. "You're a great mother, and anyone who expects you not to put your daughters first is an idiot."

Through the fog of my doubts, this fluttering in my chest felt like hope.

I said, "Yeah?"

"Absolutely."

"It's a wild and crazy life." Was I still looking to give him an out? It felt like I was trying to scare him away, but better to be honest than let down later.

He said, "I like your brand of wild and crazy."

He leaned closer. All the air whooshed out of the room, leaving a hot vortex that I seemed unable to escape. I inched forward, too.

I said, "My brother is a walking taser and my sister-in-law is a witch who turns into any animal she eats."

"Can't wait to meet them."

I chuckled. "How are you possible? You're too perfect."

"Perfect? No. I live with my little sister."

"I like your brand of wild and crazy, too," I said. "And I'd really like to kiss you, but that's known to lead to disaster. You might turn into a rabbit."

"I like being a rabbit." He brushed his hand over my cheek.

The contact sent sparks through my system. His eyes, always so soft and kind, transformed to something darker and more intense, like he felt the sparks, too.

"The magic police librarians might suck us up and take us away," I said.

"Then we'll have to stay inside together until it's safe."

Just until it was safe? Or after, too?

At some point we'd leaned in close enough that I could feel the warmth of his breath, smell the cinnamon and chocolate of the cocoa we'd shared. It really was a magical combination.

This time, I was the one to initiate. I pressed my lips to his and let a beat pass, then another, a small part of me still waiting for something bad to happen. Instead, something wonderful happened.

He kissed me back.

Each movement was a discovery. I deepened the kiss, wanting to know everything. We were sharing an entirely new kind of conversation. I could spend a lifetime talking wordlessly like this.

He offered a declaration of earnest affection, a quiet strength that said he wasn't only here for us as neighbors, for bonding with the girls over axes and cocoa, but for me during these stolen moments in between.

Neither of us turned into a rabbit, but I may have transformed from a skeptic into a full-blown romantic.