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)
Cooking did not seem to be Kenzie’s strong suit, so I wasn’t surprised when he released my hand and almost skipped over to the obviously handcrafted table. “Thank you for feeding me.”
“You’re welcome.” I could almost hear the way he wanted to call me Daddy, but he seemed to be restraining himself for the time being.
It probably wasn’t a bad idea to wait until after we’d had at least one date, but I wouldn’t have minded. There was just something about the cute little alien that said he was supposed to be mine. Mind control or alien pheromones, I wasn’t going to fight it.
“Any preferences?” Heading over to the fridge as he shrugged, I took that as a no and started exploring.
He was right…he did like cheese.
Kenzie had a lot of it, probably because it didn’t require cooking to enjoy it. In fact, most of the food in his fridge didn’t require a lot of cooking. He didn’t seem to have a thousand freezer meals, but there was a lot of salad stuff and luncheon meat.
Surprisingly, the only thing he had in abundance was a well-organized freezer full of cookies and brownies and even what seemed to be cake, wrapped up neatly and labeled.
“Do you like to bake, cutie?” Taking out some cheese and an apple, I glanced over at the table to see Kenzie giving me another sparkly smile. “I bet you are a wonderful baker.”
That got me happy wiggles and an ear-to-ear smile. “Yes, I’m really good at it.”
Creative with lots of rules…yeah, I could see that. “It all looks delicious.”
“I bring treats for playdate day.” He kept wiggling as he watched me explore his kitchen, being patient while I found a plate and a good knife to cut his snack.
“I bet everyone looks forward to them.” Since it didn’t seem like kinks were something anyone was deliberately hiding, I didn’t feel bad asking about the playdate at the VFW.
I’d never heard of a Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall that ended up hosting kink events, but nothing in this town would surprise me. “I’m picturing the guy who works at the garden center over by the highway and that quiet guy who works at the library.”
They were both human as far as I could tell but there was something about them that made me think they were at least open to the lifestyle. But the library guy was painfully shy and the plant guy was definitely into bad boys.
As I plated up the cheese and apple slices, I looked over to see Kenzie sitting there with his mouth open. “No?”
He blinked a few times before nodding and then shaking his head…so I just waited for the translation.
By the time I was bringing his snack over to the table in a matching plate and cup with cartoon dragons on it, he’d gotten over his surprise. “Alick is little too. He works at the plant nursery. But the shy man at the library…he’s little? I thought he was just afraid of everything.”
Well, he might’ve been afraid of the aliens in town too, but I thought it was more shyness instead of fear.
As I set his snack down, I moved around the table to sit across from him. “I think it’s more being shy and an introvert. He’s definitely not vanilla, but I can’t promise he’s little.”
I could probably make a good bet on him being into the cranky accountant but that wasn’t my business.
Frowning thoughtfully, Kenzie picked up a slice of cheese and an apple, stacking them up together. “We’ll have to go introduce ourselves then. He got here just before you did, I think? We had a hard time finding a librarian too.”
Because aliens didn’t like to read?
“Our last one retired and no one else seemed to want to sit inside and organize books all day.” Kenzie said that so seriously as he started in on his food that I couldn’t tell if that meant aliens liked being outside or didn’t understand why books were good…or maybe what a librarian did.
A mix of all of it?
Putting that issue off for the time being, I focused on what I did know. “He seems nice and I heard him politely decline a dinner invitation from a woman by explaining he was gay. So at the very least, we know that much.”
She’d been a sparkly alien too and hadn’t gotten offended. She also hadn’t been surprised, so I wasn’t sure she’d actually wanted to date him. I was guessing fact-finding mission, but I might’ve missed out on some cultural context.
“Lana.” Kenzie shook his head as he picked up another bite. “She’s kind of nosy and she likes to date everyone, but that’s just because she doesn’t like to pay for her own dinner. She asked me out.”
Yep, missing context.
And since she’d avoided asking me out, I was starting to think she was a dominant of some flavor looking for a sub…because Kenzie was almost sparkly-level gay.