Page 54 of Just A Little Magic

His shoulders were like rocks beneath my hands. Without much thought, I began to gently knead them. Owen stayed stiff but made no attempt to pull away. With a little urging, he leaned back against my chest, allowing me to wrap my arms around his shoulders.

“Tell me what’s going on?”

“I-I-I…” Owen blew out a frustrated breath before he continued, “I just don’t want to lose you. What if it doesn’t work? What if we’re not compatible? What if it’s weird and awkward, and we can’t come back from it?”

The rising panic in Owen’s voice was palatable. I hugged him tighter and ducked my head to nuzzle his neck.

“Babe, I won’t let you lose me. That’s all there is to it. Iknow what I want, and I’ve known for a long damn time. No fucking way will I give you up because of a few bumps.”

“You barely know this side of me.” Owen snorted. “A night or two is hardly enough time for you to decide.”

I turned Owen around in my arms and kissed his nose. “Bold of you to think I haven’t been paying attention to you or what you like. I know you well enough to know that you are hangry. And Hangry Owen is not Nice Owen.” I quirked my eyebrow, waiting for the gesture I knew was coming.

Owen, always the sweetheart, extended his oh-so-elegant middle finger at me. “I’m not hangry.”

“Only a hangry person would deny it. Let’s get food in you before you try to do something drastic.”

“Such as?”

“Cook something yourself?”

“Ew, no. It’s not that bad.”

“Let’s go, babe. We’ll even get dessert.”

That was enough to get Owen marching out the door like a man on a mission. When he heard my chuckling from behind, he raised his nose and extended his finger back into the air.

That’s my boy.

“All right, guys, here’s your chowders. Do you need more water for your tea?”

Our server, Jasper, was new but already great at his job. The kitchen had mentioned how much smoother service ran when he was on shift. He might be getting a promotion and a raise soon. Right now, I had more pressing concerns than the staffing at Stone and Vine. I needed some understanding from Owen’s perspective, and we needed to establish some ground rules.

“Thanks, Jasper. I think we are good with our tea,” I said after a confirming nod from Owen. “You’re busy inside. No need to check on us. If we need anything, we’ll come in and get it ourselves.”

Jasper nodded and returned to the restaurant’s interior. Since Owen and I were eating in the unopened beer garden, we had privacy to get some things out on the table. Just because he’d agreed to a month last night didn’t mean he was still down for it. Obviously, something was weighing on his mind. Hell, something had been bothering him about his little self since I met him.

“Babe, let’s eat before we talk about anything else.” In what I hoped would become a habit, I unrolled his utensils from his napkin. I handed him the napkin and put the spoon in his steaming clam chowder bread bowl. “Cold chowder is good for no one.”

“Yeah, okay,” Owen agreed, but with his distracted gaze looking around the garden, I knew his agreement would evaporate in two point five seconds. “I wish we could’ve finished it for Oktoberfest, but I don’t think it will happen.”

“I double-checked with Quinn, and there’s no way his crew can make it happen. He said you have Tye tied up at Gabe and Rory’s house.”

Owen tried to look innocent, but it was a lost cause with the twinkle in his eyes. He was enamored with our friends’ historic Victorian.

“Maybe I pushed for a few extra jobs to be done before they came back over here, but it’s for a good cause, so it’s fine.”

“A good cause?”

“Well, you know how Rory decided to leave teaching, right?” I nodded. “He needed an office, and he couldn’t have one without a library or shelves. Where would he put his reference materials?”

“Doesn’t he write fantasy?”

“He’ll still have reference materials. He blends actual history with mythology. Have you read any of it?”

“Not yet. Have you?”

“Yes, it was part of my payment that I got sneak peeks.”

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