Page 93 of Buckle Up, Buttercup

Petra leans over and snatches the spoon then shoves it between her lips. Amethyst eyes roll into her head as she chews happily.

“My gods, so delicious. I’ve never had potatoes before, but these are so gooooooood.”

Oz tsks. “Yeah, and that was the perfect bite, little girl. I was so ready to enjoy that. Didn’t they teach you manners in the…wherever you grew up?”

She snorts out a laugh. “Yeah, but I get the feeling our manners aren’t the same as haven manners. Either way, I’m the kid, so you’re always supposed to feed me first. That’s our rule.”

Lemon shoves the bowl of potato salad closer to Petra, who dives greedily in. She looks up at me with a smile. “So, we ready for the Mead Cute dance tonight?”

“Yes.” I slide a tray of turkey sandwiches over my island to them. “The decorations are up, downtown looks awesome, and when I worked a shift at the Bodice this morning, she was super nice to me. It’s been a great day so far.”

Lemon places her hand on mine. “Have you talked to your brother?”

I shake my head and pull my hand away, looking up at her. “We intended to celebrate his success tonight at Mead Cute, so it’s bittersweet. His failure feels like it’s our fault because we fought with him. It’s exactly what we were trying to avoid, ya know?”

Petra waves at my comm watch. “You’ve tried calling him, right?”

“Buncha times,” I admit. “He hasn’t answered.”

Oz smiles brightly. “Speaking of fun things, where’s Hadrian?”

“Practice,” Petra chirps. “Wanna hang with us until everything begins?”

For the next few hours, we just chill at my place, and it’s the first time in a long time I didn’t have anything else to do. Well, I did, but Hadrian encouraged me to relax before tonight’s festivities. I can’t say I’m great at relaxing, but I think I did a better-than-average job.

He’d be proud.

Now I’m standing in the middle of Main Street. Every business’s doors are flung wide open, and music from the end of the street echoes off stone and brick, bouncing around and filling the air.

Petra’s in the middle of Main, hovering a few feet off the ground as she dances with Oz. They’re cackling together like they’re best friends. Lemon left to find her mate, and I’m just waiting on Hadrian to be done.

As if I summoned him by thought, he drops out of the sky and lands in front of me with a seductive smile. Tucking his wings away, he shuffles the tips together. “Hey, little mate. You’re looking lovely this evening.”

I step forward until my upper body hits his. I’m not hiding him anymore. I never wanted to, but now I absolutely refuse to. Off to my right, I vaguely catalog Merit and Bryony watching us, but I don’t care about that either. Let them splash us across the cover of the Gulch Gossip. I’ll frame the article and put it in our living room whenever we move out to the ranch. Now that I think about it, we did offer them an interview and I know they’ll want to take Hadrian up on it.

Hadrian runs both hands up my back and into my hair. “May I have this dance, Bluebell Delia?”

Smiling, I sink against him and start swaying to the music. The world around us falls away as Hadrian looks at me like I’m the only female on earth. We start slowly, but as the songs change, Hadrian moves us masterfully between other couples, covering ground. He was always such a good dancer. Our bond is loose and sated, pleasantly warm like an inside hug.

But then the next song that comes on is slow, and we stop in front of the Bodice.

Hadrian jerks his head to the left. “You notice the flowers in her window?”

When I look where he gestured, my mouth drops open at seeing a giant bouquet of flowers in all shades of blue. “When did you drop those off? Those were not there this morning.”

He grins, one hand sliding to the crack of my ass. “Few minutes before I found you. I wanted to sweet-talk her for a few minutes, tell her how proud I am of the corner you two have turned. And then I saw you standing there, and I just had to watch you for a minute or two.”

“Creepy,” I say with a saucy smile. “So creepy.”

He laughs. “It’ll never be creepy for me to stare at how fucking beautiful you are. Did you relax earlier?” One of his dark brows lifts.

“I did!” I shout, slapping his chest. “Ask Lemon or Oz or Petra; they were there! We had breakfast at Betty’s to celebrate Ginger bonding to Oz. He’s officially got a pit hell now.”

“An official bonded pit hell,” he hedges, spinning me away from the Bodice and back into the center of the street. “Wow.”

Another slow song comes on, and we dance in time to the beat. Whispers surround us, accompanied by the stares of monsters I’ve known my whole life. But I find I don’t really care.

A hand taps on Hadrian’s shoulder, and we stop, turning in place.