Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
It helped enough that I knew I didn’t look scared answering the door. But it didn’t let me know what to say. “Hello.”
Well, at least it was polite.
Thankfully, Kenzie was never short on what to say. “Hello, Mr. Librarian, we’ve come to talk or play or eat.”
Alick seemed to be trying not to laugh as he took charge of the greeting. “Hi, Stefan. We just wanted to stop by and say hello. We know we’ve all met you in your official capacity, but we wanted to come say hi in the you’re dating Boyd capacity too.”
Lorne’s head was bobbing as he aimed a beaming smile at me. “And you don’t have to feed us unless you want to. We’ll also respect your safewords.”
Alick was quickly losing control of his giggles and was down to taking deep breaths.
I really didn’t blame him.
“I…” Oh, what was I supposed to say? “We could have a tea party?”
That might not have been the most logical thing to throw out there, but Lorne loved it. “That would be so much fun. Yes, let’s have a tea party.”
Kenzie just shot Alick a very self-satisfied look. “I knew he’d want to play.”
Oh dear.
Before Alick managed a good comeback, words just jumped out of my mouth. “I’m not little when I have a tea party but that’s okay.”
I needed to find where my brain had wandered off to.
“That is okay.” Kenzie looked very proud of me for some reason. “We’ll all do our best to stay big and talk. Then you can tell us why coloring and tea parties don’t make you little.”
I could?
Alick sighed. “We weren’t supposed to bug him about his little stuff.”
“I didn’t.” Kenzie shrugged. “He brought it up first, so that rule doesn’t apply anymore.”
It didn’t?
I had?
I wasn’t sure if it was having little friends or just having friends in general that was so complicated, but I was starting to remember why I liked my job. I didn’t have to talk to anyone about my personal life and most people didn’t stay very long.
They were definitely going to ask personal questions and stay for as long as they could get away with.
“I’m pretty sure that’s not what your Daddy would say.” Alick raised an eyebrow at Kenzie.
“Mr. Librarian likes me.” Kenzie gave me a sweet as sugar smile, which was kind of scary when I knew how devious he was. “You won’t tattle, will you?”
That was…
I was…
“Boyd will know something’s weird if I’m upset. I won’t have to tattle.” I decided being honest was my best bet since I didn’t lie very well, but Kenzie’s pout said he didn’t like that answer. “But I’m glad we’re going to have a tea party.”
That had Kenzie smiling again as he turned to Alick. “See? It’ll be fine.”
Of course it would.
“Please, come in.” I was going to have a tea party with three nosy littles, two of who happened to be dragons. What could go wrong?
****
How had I gotten myself into this situation?
“I…I don’t think I have an opinion on crayon brands.” Was I supposed to? “We don’t really have any at the library because kids have a tendency to color on everything if they’re not properly supervised.”
And there were a lot of kids running around unsupervised.
But knowing how hard they probably were to kill and how many nosy neighbors they had watching every move their kids made, I was starting to understand the interesting parenting styles I’d seen.
“Can you even be little if you don’t have an opinion on crayon brands?” Kenzie asked that so seriously I couldn’t tell if it was a joke or not.
So I turned to Alick. “Um, what do you think about crayons?”
He just snickered.
Not helpful at all.
His sense of humor was going to get me in trouble at some point.
So I turned to Lorne and picked up the plate of cookies, offering him the pretty tray of treats. “Would you like another cookie with your tea?”
Thankfully I’d found a nice vanilla black tea that was decaffeinated so I wouldn’t send everyone home jittery at bedtime.
I was pretty sure the deputy would not appreciate a sugared up and overcaffeinated Kenzie.
“Yes, please. Thank you.” Lorne still had his pinky up as he delicately took another cookie. “You are a wonderful host.”
“Thank you, Mr. Lorne.” That got another giggle out of him, but I tried to stay serious since that seemed to be the game.
Kenzie opened his mouth, but Alick reached out and shoved a cookie into it. “I’ll tattle if he won’t.”
Well, it seemed I had a knight in shining armor, but Kenzie shot him a very disgruntled glare. Alick didn’t seem worried about it, but I didn’t like seeing them argue. It was stressful. But not stressful enough to make me as chatty as Kenzie.
I could try to talk about it a bit, though.