“Or you and Beryl could go to our place. Just don’t use our bed,” Eran offered.
“Nope. I’m okay,” I said.
Eran narrowed his eyes on me as if he was psychoanalyzing me. I hated it when he did that. Sure, he technically went to school to be a therapist, but he was my best friend, and I didn’t want his feedback on a loop.
“What?” I asked, against my better judgement.
“Do you not like him or are you living someone else’s anxieties?” Eran asked. “You don’t have to answer me. It’s just something you need to think about for yourself. We’ll stay another night, but then I’ll be out of clothes and probably kitten formula. So, we’ll go home tomorrow. I’m not that far away if you need help.”
“Thanks, Eran,” I said as Jondi popped up out of one of Eran’s diaper bags in his otter form.
He raced out of the bag and grabbed ahold of my pants leg before climbing up me. I held him in my arm as if he was a newborn and he turned his rock this way and that, admiring it.
“What do you want for dinner?” I asked him and he made a little fluid motion with his hand. He wanted what he wanted for dinner most nights: Fish.
“What else?” I asked him.
He shook his head and made the little motion again.
“Well, I’ll figure something out,” I laughed as someone knocked on the door.
Every head turned towards the door. I almost handed Jondi off to Eran for safekeeping, but we all knew who it was. Beryl must’ve either properly woken up or finished going home to takea shower. Only when I stepped closer to the door it wasn’t Beryl’s scent that greeted me, but his mother’s. When I peeked out the peephole, she held a green kiddie pool in one hand and a stack of pizzas in the other.
“Is she really my grandma now?” Jondi asked.
“I think so, baby,” I nodded and unlocked the door.
Chapter 13
Beryl
The Guardians of Glitter Bomb Territory
By the time I washed the pond out of my crevices, Mum had already taken off. No one was happy that I showed up looking as if I planned a lifestyle change of becoming a pond monster, but luckily Nashen didn’t follow through on his threat to hose me off in the backyard.
Under the hot water my mind reeled. Jade wasn’t exactly hot and cold, but he had a way of walking away while I was in the dirt. It was almost as if he had blinders on when Jondi was around. Not that I begrudged him wanting to take care of his kid, but he didn’t even tell me what he was going to do or what he wanted me to do. Maybe I should’ve followed him inside, but I didn’t want to spend the rest of the day or however long I was there damp and itchy. Sure, some dragons lived underwater foreons to take their naps without being water dragons, but I didn’t like leaving my scales wet. The sensation just felt like a recipe for scale rot.
So, I took the extra time to ensure I was dry and exfoliated and not going to wake up with some weird rash the next day. The alpha gene only went so far to take care of skin irritants. Then as loathe as I was to admit it, I got stuck in front of the mirror for a while. I’d spent a lot of time on vacation with Sermon and Gaia over the last few years and wasn’t sure if skipping the gym was working in my favor. Deciding what to wear was another hurdle because I wanted to look nice but not like I was trying too hard. Also, it needed to be kid-friendly and something I didn’t care about getting destroyed. I hadn’t brought much with me when we left for the island, and we hadn’t stopped by the house to pick anything else up.
“This is why we need to start carrying more stuff,”my dragon said.“Traveling light is for small creatures. We are not small.”
The scaley guy wasn’t wrong but right now his advice did nothing to right the situation. In the end, I settled on jeans and a band t-shirt from one concert or another. It was a steely blue and the color always looked good on me.
It wasn’t until I was downstairs that I discovered Mum had gone over without telling me she even planned to. Bree was lounging on the sofa with her bare feet up on a pillow. Her billowy yellow dress hung off her legs in every direction as if it might eat her later if she wasn’t careful.
“She’s gone over to see if she can help,” Bree yawned, looking up from her book. “Took a kiddie pool. I’m surprised the drone got it here so quickly.”
I swallowed down a groan because this had next to nothing to do with Bree. Mum had always been headstrong and charged into situations. The last thing I needed was for Jade to think I needed my ‘mummy’ crashing into our relationship to make it work.
“She means well. Besides, she already knew Jade. He’s new to you, not her. I’m surprised you never met him before.”
“I don’t think I have,” I said, pausing when I almost turned to leave. “Maybe before his first heat but all the lions sort of blended together whenever we visited GGB. I’ve never paid much attention to kids except for Sermon and Gaia’s. Speaking of, where are they?”
“Downtown for a drag show,” Bree said. “Now, go on. Go figure out life. I want to read.”
I left Bree to her book and headed over to Jade’s. Canton Valley Farm came to life in the evenings. Almost every house I walked by had kids playing outside or people sitting on the porch. Everyone waved or said hello. They all knew who I was not just from my mum or our previous visits to the GGB but because the lions had tackled me. I had never wanted to be invisible so badly. No one said anything cross but that was almost worse. Teasing I could handle but whatever feelings were behind those kind looks almost felt like pity.
I stood on Jade’s porch for several long minutes, wishing I would’ve grabbed flowers or something. Coming empty handed felt wrong.
