Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Now he was fucking with me, right?
“I’ll do my best to help.” Squeezing his hand, I gave up guessing and just focused on our date. “Come on, cutie. Food and then we’ll get distracted again.”
Kenzie’s eyes sparkled as he gave me a beaming smile and bounced on his toes. “That sounds like a wonderful plan, Daddy.”
Now all we had to do was run the gossip gauntlet and survive dinner.
Chapter 24
Kenzie
Daddy rolled his eyes every time someone walked past and smiled like they were excited to see us. His eyes were getting a very good workout and we hadn’t even gotten our food yet because a lot of people were very excited we’d come for dinner.
“Kenzie?” Daddy’s voice was super quiet as he glanced around the diner. “Does everyone in here…well, do they know?”
Oh, about dragons.
Daddy had very good dragon and mage radar, but it was harder to know when it came to the humans, so it was a really smart question. It also made sense why Daddy had been only a dragon could hear him quiet.
I was doing my best to not look too obvious as I glanced around the diner to check, but Mr. Kennedy was faster. “We’re all in the know, Mackenize. Tell your Daddy it’s fine to talk, but he needs to do it louder. Hamish doesn’t have his hearing aids in.”
Daddy seemed to be trying to decide if he was going to laugh or sigh but finally decided on just ignoring the shenanigans going on around us. “Alright, then I won’t worry about whispering.”
Yep, it would just frustrate everyone trying to eavesdrop.
“Sorry, Daddy.” I shrugged as he smiled and shook his head. “You’re very interesting.”
Half the room laughed and the other half coughed.
“They’re about as subtle as a ton of bricks…or maybe that gold that’s still missing.” Leaning back in the booth, Daddy cocked his head. “Tell me about hoards, cutie. They seem to be private but everyone knows about them. It also seems like some people’s are more obvious than others.”
Daddy was so smart.
“Yes.” Trying to decide where to start was difficult. “When a dragon goes through puberty, that’s when their hoard instincts come out and they spend time figuring out what makes them happy. Kind of like…well, Boyd said I can’t talk about body parts or sex stuff in the diner, but you understand.”
Daddy pinched his lips together as he nodded. He thought that was a silly rule too but he managed not to point it out. “That’s probably a good idea in general, but I know what you mean.”
“I’m glad. I didn’t want to be too subtle and be confusing.” That wouldn’t help. “And there’s really nothing wrong with bodies.”
But I wasn’t going to get distracted talking about penises.
“But hoards. Yes, once a dragon figures out what makes him or her happy, then they take time to decide how to collect their special treasures. Everyone knows about my toys, so I’ll use that as an example.” I didn’t see the point in hiding it because my hoard was the best.
“Thank you.” Daddy was very patient and just took a sip of his water as he listened.
“I wanted to learn how to fix my toys so I could take care of them, and I slowly learned that while I liked all toys, my dragon side especially likes old ones.” They were wonderful. “So I found different types to collect and I studied about them and I worked to learn how to fix lots of different kinds.”
Nodding slowly, Daddy thought for a moment and cocked his head. “So, a collection in a hoard can be all kinds of different things, right?”
“Yes.” What kinds had I heard about? “Um, I know a guy whose father was a dragon and his mother was a mage and he collects orchids. He’s got a big greenhouse. I know someone whose hoard is tools and she’s got all kinds. It’s amazing but they take up a lot of space. You know about Lorne and his sparkles, but everyone does, so that’s not a surprise.”
“Yeah, the watch problem.” Daddy shook his head. “That would’ve been hard to keep from everyone.”
“But you fixed that even before you knew about dragons. You were very brave.” And probably very confused.
“Thank you, cutie.” Daddy smiled as he reached out and squeezed my hand, getting awws from people around the room. “I like fixing problems.”
“You’re a wonderful fixer.” I almost got distracted talking about how many people Daddy had helped already, but he kept us on track.
“So some dragons collect hoards that are big…like cars?” The whole room went very quiet, and Daddy was amazing and pretended not to notice.
“Yes, Daddy.” Wait. Hoards. Daddy helper problems. Oh, Daddy was so smart. “The dragon who might collect something like cars would like special ones too. Like ambulances or armored trucks. Right, Mr. Emry?”