Page 42 of Meet Cute or Your Money Back

“Nah, you go,” Thatcher says, standing and starting to collect the plates. “I’ll take care of the dishes.”

“But—” I start.

“Really,” Thatcher interrupts, leaning in to whisper in my ear. “Besides, I’ve seen the havoc you can wreak on some stemware,” he teases.

I gasp and plant a hand on my hip. “Hey, come on! That server was standingwaytoo close to me!”

“Sure.” Thatcher sends me a wink as he brings the plates to the sink. Something about that cheeky grin and the easy way he teased me has my stomach flipping. Is Thatcher flirting with me?

“Come on!” Duke says, urgently tugging on my non-injured hand. He pulls me upstairs and toward an open door that sits at the end of the hallway and pushes it wider, Biscuit trotting happily behind us. Duke’s playroom is far cleaner than I would expect from a five-year-old, one of the results of having a military father, I assume.

I’m surrounded by knights of all shapes and sizes as well as more dragons than I can count. Stuffed animal dragons, Lego dragons, miniature figurines…they cover the room along with swords and shields and fake armor.

“Come on,” Duke whispers and shuts the door behind me and Biscuit. “I want to show you something.”

“What? What do you want to show me?” I lower down to sit on one of the bean bag chairs as Duke opens a trunk inthe corner of the room. Inside, he pulls out a false bottom and brings out what I can only describe as blueprints and some papers.

He runs back to me and lays them all out flat on the floor in front of us. There’s tons of maps and scribbles in messy crayon handwriting, something that sort of resembles a map of Charleston. Duke points at his hand-drawn map. “This is where we live,” he says. “And this is Daddy’s office.”

“Uh-huh.” I nod, initially trying to appease him. Until I realize… I don’t actually know where Thatcher’s office is. And of course, Duke would. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up as I lean over to have a closer look at his map. “This is very intricate.” I point at the café where we met. “This is where you and I met? Where Daddy got you those cookies, right?”

“Yes!” Duke says.

“And here’s the flower shop,” I say, triangulating the kid’s drawing of Main Street. I point at the messy building he drew which would be about a block and a half away from the café where we met. “Which means your dad’s office is over here above the bakery?”

“Yep!” Duke nods excitedly. “It always smells like bread in there.”

“So, why do you need a map of your city?”

“Daddy says everyone should always have a map of where they are. In case.”

“Got it.” I nod as if I understand anything in that lesson. I have a map at my disposal. It’s called Google Maps.

“Daddy doesn’t know this yet, but I heard him talking with Uncle Griff and Uncle Hunter about the Dragon that killed my mommy.”

My breath turns icy in my lungs. “A…dragon killed your mom?”

Duke nods. “They were talking really late one night and I overheard them. They’re trying to find the dragon and apparently they think he’s here in Charleston somewhere. I plan on slaying him with my Daddy. And if the dragon comes back for us, I want to set some booby traps to catch him. See, these are my lasers.”

He pulls out some arrows that he’s added tin foil to and a toy crossbow. “I plan on setting them up with motion sensors to shoot! I already put some in my tree outside!” He points out the window to where there’s a big winding tree.

“But what if Biscuit or I come over for an unexpected visit and you accidentally shoot us instead? Booby traps can be dangerous.”

“Well, so are dragons!” Duke exclaims through a whisper.

“Hmmm, you’re right about that,” I say. I’m not sure what killed Duke’s mother, but I don’t doubt that he misunderstood what Thatcher was talking about. There’s no way a dragon killed his mother. And to my knowledge, I don’t know any cars that are dragons…not like a Mustang or a Jaguar. “Promise me one thing, Duke,” I add after a thought. “Promise me you won’t try to take on this dragon solo. As you’ve said, they’re very dangerous.”

He contemplates this for a second before he nods. “You’re right. Unless I have no choice.”

“There’s always a choice. Get help before fighting the dragon. Me, your dad, your uncles…anyone.”

“Okay, I promise.”

I reach over and ruffle his hair. “Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me for a second, I need to use the bathroom.”

“Then you’ll come back and play?” he asks hopefully.

“I promise.”

---