“We’re going to eat steak. Because somebody implied that if roasted by a Dragon, I might smell like grilled steak. I’m pretty sure that means that she wants a steak.”
“I always want steak. I am a true carnivore,” Cristie said.
“Same,” Kaiser said. “You ready?”
“I’m about to waste away. If you see a speck of dust floating by, it’s probably me, having been diminished to a speck of dust as I slowly starved to death,” Cristie said pitifully.
“Talk about being dramatic,” Kaiser said, turning her toward the front door. “Come on, let me feed you.”
“Y’all have fun!” Renata called after them.
“Drive safe!” Basilio said.
Minutes later Kaiser was back hoisting a thirty pound bag of prescription weight loss dog food over his shoulder. “Here’s Buster’s food.”
“Can you put it in the pantry?” Renata asked.
“Sure,” he answered. He set it down out of the way, then popped one of his claws out of the end of his finger and used it to cut a slit in the bag. “I opened it for you,” he announced. He turned around and took only two steps out of the pantry before he almost bumped into his father.
“What are you doing?” Basilio asked.
“Opening Buster’s new food?” Kaiser asked.
“No, with Cristie, what are you doing?”
“We’re going to eat. That’s it.”
“You know her mate is here.”
“Yeah, we kind of all just talked about it. But I knew before. We had a long talk while she checked Buster over. She’s hurting and needs somebody she can lean on. I’m not going to turn her away just because her mate is here. He shouldn’t have been a shit to her and she wouldn’t be so torn up about what to do.”
“I’m not asking you to turn your back on her. I’m asking you to stay out of the middle of it.”
“Being her friend is not getting in the middle of it any more than you and mom are.”
“How are we in the middle of it?” Basilio asked.
“Did you not just invite her to come here whenever she needs to get away?”
“That’s what family does. It’s not placing themselves in the position of looking like there might be more than a friendship so that her mate is discouraged and goes away.”
“I never, not once said that I’d do anything like that,” Kaiser said. “All I did was offer her my place to escape to, too. And dinner.”
“Kaiser, just be careful. She is your friend, your dear friend, and if you get in the middle, that friendship could be damaged if she decided to forgive him and accept him.”
“I’m not getting in the middle, and even if I did, it wouldn’t matter. We have a stronger friendship than that.”
“Son, you don’t understand the pull that finding your mate can have on you,” Basilio said.
“How do you know what I do and don’t know about finding a mate? What makes you think I haven’t found mine and had to look the other way? Will have to look the other way — for freaking years? You noticed Cristie is out of sorts, but did you notice I’m not right? No!”
Kaiser stepped around his father and started out of the kitchen.
“Have you met your mate?”
“Too many times,” Kaiser snapped.
“Kaiser! Come back here!” Basilio said.
