Page 57 of Nothing to Fear

She stripped, showered, and dressed so fast that her skin was still damp as she swiped on her makeup.

Hospitality was not something she ever liked to stretch. How would she explain to Darroch that she was in his room? The closet was a step too far. She didn’t dare venture in there, from the threshold she saw the line of jacket sleeves and had to turn away.

She stuffed her things back into her gym bag and got out of there fast. Take a right to the end of the hall, another right to the staircase Alice and her boys greeted the Intimates team from the first time they arrived for dinner.

The grand front door was tempting. She could run out, run away. Would she make it out? Probably. Would she make it all the way down the driveway? The thing was a mile long. Ducking in and out of trees, hiding from passing vehicles would be more than a little ridiculous.

Oh, but that meant seeking people out. It would only be polite. Sneaking out the morning after was less than classy.

Decision made, she tried to remember the way to the dining room.

Taking her time didn’t stop the inevitable. She crept through the house and opened the dining room door slowly. The memory of the long table brought trepidation. How many people would be—

One.

The little guy, sitting with his back to her concentrating on something. Breakfast with Buoy turned out to be a private affair. When she closed the door, he twisted his little body around to see who’d joined him.

Odd that she’d be intimidated by a five-year-old.

“Sav-Na.” Aww, what a cutie pie. “Want to color with me?”

She went closer. He wasn’t sitting, he was propped on the chair on his knees, a thick cushion beneath him.

“Careful you don’t fall, honey.” His weight was on his arms against the table as he scribbled furiously. She pushed inhis chair a little more; it didn’t slow him down. “What are you coloring?” She sat next to him, and he leaned back to turn his paper her way. “Wow, is that a dragon?”

He pushed it aside to spread the blank ones out. “You want a lion or an oc-too-puss.”

That was just how he said it, so cute. “You pick one.”

He pushed the octopus picture to her and his tin of pencils over to between them.

“Which color?”

Buoy picked out a red one for her. “Red’s my best color.”

“Mine too,” she said, coloring the picture. “Have you had breakfast? Do you want food?”

The spread had clearly been picked over, maybe by a pack of hungry gannets, but there were still pastries and pitchers of juice. No coffee though, hmm. She was late to the party. Had that made her the topic of conversation?

“What’s your favorite animal?” Buoy asked, distracting her from the lack of caffeine.

“Tiger.”

“Yeah?” he asked and stopped coloring to narrow his eyes at her. “Do you like pussy cats?”

“I do.”

He went back to coloring. “Mommy said we can’t get a pussy cat.”

“Well, it might get lost, this is a big house.”

His pencil paused on the paper and then kept going. “We could get a doggy. A big doggy won’t get lost. Boa never gets lost.”

Boa? A friend’s dog, maybe? “Are you home all day to pick up after it? Big dog means big poop.”

The pencil stopped again. This time, rather than just keep going, he craned his little head around to blink at her. Was that abad word? Had she said something wrong? Great, corrupt a kid, her new special talent.

“Are you marrying my brother, Sav-Na?”

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