Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
And mouths dropped open.
They were all so dramatic…and way too easy to fuck with.
The deputy recovered first and nodded. “Yes, you’re an alien. From what I understand, you came from another planet through a stargate—yes, like the TV show—and it was open for a very long time, so there was a lot of cross contamination of the DNA and evolutionary shit. So maybe you’re half alien? There’s not enough research on that, honestly.”
I was starting to like him best even if he had threatened to have his mate eat me.
Chapter 17
Alick
It was never a good thing when everyone met me after work, but I wasn’t terribly worried since they just looked confused and not actually upset or guilty.
Maybe we wouldn’t have to confess slightly illegal shenanigans to the sheriff?
That’d been awkward before but now that Kenzie’s Daddy was his deputy, I could only see it getting weirder.
But no drama and no immediate confessions.
Had whatever they’d done been legal and just stupid?
Maybe…but it was hard to tell.
Lorne was even doing his best to look adorable and nonthreatening, so I didn’t think he was going to mention how many bites it’d take to eat Grady.
“Hi, guys.” Aiming for an innocent look that was much more believable than Lorne’s, I frowned and made sure I looked confused with a dash of apology added in for good measure. “Did I forget we had plans? Finding my mate has been really distracting. Sorry.”
Yep, much more believable.
They immediately looked guilty for making me upset.
“No.” Kenzie gave Lorne and Stefan firm frowns. “I told you he’d worry.”
Because he was manipulative and easily distracted, not stupid.
Lorne widened his eyes and looked sad. “Oh no. We wanted to come see you.”
Bullshit.
But having Carrick around all the time meant Lorne was definitely working on upping his game. He even sighed and rocked back and forth like he was worried. “We’re so happy for you that you got your mate.”
Grateful that he hadn’t said Daddy, I ushered them farther away from the front door of the nursery. “Come on. Let’s go sit over there.”
The heavy concrete table was supposed to remind customers that we could help them decorate their gardens, but it worked to have a quick chat at too.
When they were all seated around the round, slightly rough-feeling table, I gave them a wide-eyed smile. “He’s great. He loves my house and was so impressed by your dad’s woodwork, Kenzie, that he kept running his hands over it.”
Daddy petted everything, but I wasn’t going to word it that way.
Kenzie beamed and did a little happy dance in his seat. “That’s wonderful. What did he think of your flower shelves?”
It’d taken him a really long time to remember not to talk about my playroom or my little side when I was working, so I was glad to see that’d stuck even after I’d found my Daddy.
“He loved them.” Still not quite sure what was going on, I stayed focused on the happy, innocent bits so that I didn’t accidentally make trouble for myself. “He was incredibly impressed and keeps talking about what an artist your father is.”
It would’ve been a good distraction but Stefan cleared his throat and pushed them back on track. “Your mate is an artist too, right?”
Was he pushing the conversation back toward my mate or was he leading the conversation somewhere specific?
“Yes.” Playing along, I shrugged. “We didn’t talk too much about that yesterday—I’ll have to do better about that—but we have plenty of time to talk about work. I showed him around, though, and he picked out a few places around the property that he said he’d like to work from.”
Oh yes…that reminded me.
“Kenzie, I was thinking. I need to talk to your dad about building a little artist house thing. I don’t know what to call it but Grady needs somewhere to work, and I don’t think my house is big enough.” It was cute but it wasn’t creative artist with projects sized.
“Are you thinking something Craftsman or a cute summer fairy cottage kind of look?” Sitting up like he’d gotten a spark of an idea, his eyes widened. “Oh, it could be a small copy of your house. That would be so cute.”
Getting completely wrapped up in the new topic, he ignored the sighs coming from Stefan and Lorne. “I also think a fairy or even fairy-tale kind of house could be cute toward the back of the property. But would he think that’s too…creative?”
I shrugged. “He likes my house a lot and didn’t mention anything being too creative looking. I think he’d be fine with anything that had pretty wood in it.”
Creative was Kenzie-speak for girly…but I was pretty sure Grady would be more focused on fancy floors than anything else. As long as we found old wood to use and a few things like that, I was pretty sure he’d let me do whatever I wanted.