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Seeing no strange cars showing up in the rearview mirror, Nolan breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled into Sky’s driveway and shut off the engine. After unbuckling his seat belt, he turned and poked Sky in the shoulder. “Hey, we’re at your place.”
The necromancer frowned and huffed. “Five more minutes,” he mumbled.
“Let me get you in the house, and I’ll go home so you can get some proper sleep.”
That got Sky to crack his eyes open, his frown growing even deeper on his adorable face. “That’s not what you’re supposed to say.”
It was becoming hard not to laugh, but Nolan persevered. “And what am I supposed to say?”
“That you’ll tuck me into bed and stay with me. We’ll nap and get up in the middle of the night for midnight pancakes.”
There was no stopping his chuckle this time. “Early morning muffins and midnight pancakes. I take it you love breakfast.”
Sky blinked, showing that he was more awake than he’d pretended. “I love all kinds of food, but right now, I find myself craving sweet things when I’m with you.”
“Because I’m so salty?”
Sky sat up in his chair, giggling. “I love it! That never occurred to me!”
“You’re crazy,” Nolan mumbled under his breath, but he still happily trailed behind Sky as he grabbed his bag and went into his house. The necromancer kicked off his shoes by a shoe stand in the hall and dropped his supply bag on a hallway table. He fixed them both some hot tea that was supposedly filled with “things to help cleanse them of vampire negativity.” As far as Nolan could taste, it included white tea, strawberry, and basil.
Their tea and a couple of cookies in hand, Sky ushered him into the living room, where Sky curled up in one corner of the sofa and Nolan relaxed in a chair.
“Do you mind if I ask…is being a necromancer your full-time job?”
Sky grinned broadly. “No, not even close. The pay is too unsteady. Sometimes I have a glut of jobs and have to turn people away. But mostly, it’s one or maybe two people a week. Sometimes only one a month. That doesn’t pay the bills.”
“Independently wealthy?”
The witch waggled his eyebrows. “If I said yes, would you go out on a date with me?”
“Nah. Had a rich ex. Never doing that again.”
“Then I’m perfect for you. I’m not rich at all. I might not even qualify as middle class!” Sky quickly argued, making Nolan snort.
“What you are is crazy.”
Sky held up one hand with his index finger and thumb about an inch apart. “Just a little, I swear. But no, I’m not independently wealthy or a trust-fund baby. I did inherit some money from Grammy when she passed away, but all of that went into rehabbing the house. My day job is designing greeting cards.”
“Really? Like designing how they look?”
“All of it,” Sky said with pride. “I write the messages on the inside, do the drawings and artwork on the inside and outside. I don’t do those fancy pop-up cards, though. I suck at those.”
“That’s…that’s kind of amazing. I’ve never met anyone who creates greeting cards.”
Sky’s gaze narrowed on him, and he took a sip of his tea from a delicate tea cup with a blue floral pattern. “Now, what about you? I know you’re like me and work from home, but I haven’t figured out what you do yet.”
“No guesses?”
“Telemarketer?”
Nolan hissed at him. “That’s mean.”
“What? When you stumble out of your house, you always have that ‘they sucked my soul out of my body’ look to you. Telemarketing seems like a soul-sucking job.”
“No, I’m not a telemarketer.”
“Tech support?”
Yeah, that sounded like another soul-sucking job.
“Nope.”
Sky put his teacup on the table and glared at him. “Tell me. I can’t guess.”
“I’m an author,” Nolan admitted.
“Huh. I didn’t know that was such a soul-sucking endeavor.”
“Only when I’m on a deadline.”
“Do you…like your job?”
Nolan chuckled and shoved a hand through his hair, pushing some of it from his forehead. “I do. I really do. I started out with a traditional publisher, but I moved to self-publishing because it gave me more control and paid better, but the problem is that I’m bad at taking breaks and set impossible schedules. When I’m close to finishing a book, I forget about basic things such as eating, sleeping, showering. Jen puts my deadlines on her calendar and often stops by to make sure that I’m still somewhat human.”
Sky grunted, a crease forming between his eyebrows. “When this mess is done, you’ll have to give me a copy of your deadline schedule, too. I’m right across the street. It’s much easier for me to check on you. I can bring you food and help you shower.”
A bark of laughter jumped from Nolan, and his body lurched forward as if trying to catch it. “I don’t need help showering. Just remembering.”
