Page 20 of Hidden By the Gargoyle

Heat hit my cheeks and I cleared my throat, trying to clear away my embarrassment as well.

“Poppy, can we stop talking about this? It’s embarrassing.”

That stopped her laughter. In fact, she was beginning to look a bit pissed off. “Why is it embarrassing?”

“Because I told him that he wouldn’t even know I was in the bed and draped myself over his back like a human blanket in the middle of the night!” I snapped. “It’s bad enough that he’s stuck all but babysitting me until Sommerton is caught and contained, but he doesn’t need me all over him in my sleep too!”

Her anger vanished at my words and her face softened. “Ally, I am positive he doesn’t view it as babysitting so much as taking care of you. He cares for you a great deal. In fact, I think he would have insisted on protecting you even if no one asked him to do it.”

“I just—” I stopped speaking and shook my head again. Yet he had been asked. He hadn’t volunteered. It wasn’t the same.

Though I never talked about it, I was fairly certain that Minerva and some of my other friends knew about my crush on Dax. Poppy being one of them since her sense of smell was so keen.

“Have you told him how you feel yet?” she asked.

“About what?”

“Him. How you feel about him.”

Another head shake. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready to talk to him about how I felt about him. Especially since he wouldn’t return my feelings. Or do anything about it even if he did.

That wasn’t Dax. He wouldn’t consider it honorable.

Poppy sighed. “Why not?”

I looked away from her patient eyes. They saw entirely too much. “You know why.”

“How do you know what he feels for you if you don’t share or ask?” she pointed out.

“Because of the way he treats me,” I answered.

“You mean how he let you use his body as your pillow last night? What part of that says he doesn’t feel anything for you?” she asked.

I frowned at her. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Think about it for a second, Ally. You’ve known Dax for nearly sixteen years. Does he strike you as the type of man who would let you essentially lie on top of him if he didn’t want anything to do with you in that way?”

My kneejerk reaction was to tell her that, yes, Dax would let me do it. Then, I realized that he would letmedo it and I was confident in that. But I couldn’t see him allowing Minerva or even Poppy to do something like that.

“Exactly,” she crowed, smiling at me.

“It’s just that—” I stopped and cleared my throat. “He’s never even looked at me in a way that seemed romantic or even like a man looking at a woman.”

“How do you know?” she asked. “When you are in the room with him, it’s almost as if you’re trying to build a wall around yourself so that it’s not obvious that you notice every move he makes.”

My face grew hot again and I cursed my fair skin because I knew I was blushing.

Before I could ask her if she’d seen anything from him, she waved a hand at me. “He’s coming back.”

I saved my work and shut my laptop. There was no way I was getting any work done after that phone call.

The door opened and Dax came in, my phone still in his hand and miraculously in one piece.

“Get your stuff together,” he said to me. “Your aunt is on her way here now and she’s going to meet us at the cabin.”

I nodded and shoved my laptop in my backpack. When I got to my feet, Poppy was already around the desk, waiting on me. She gave me another hug.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said. “Stay safe.”

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