Page 13 of To Spark a Dragon's Love
“Excuse me.” Lucan ambled past, carrying a banana to my little entrepreneur—or future world dictator. I wasn’t sure where we were heading.
“Kieran said we can have chocolate.” Harper eyed the banana with distrust.
“You need to eat lunch first,” I said, but no one seemed to hear me.
Except Ember. “She already ate. Kieran’s coming back with dessert.”
I felt like a specimen under a microscope as she watched me with that intense gaze.
“Where’s my brother?” Lucan handed off the fruit. His eyes dropped to the mark on my neck.
I resisted the urge to cover it. That’s what they all wanted, right? To see this tattoo pop up. To know the guardian had a mate.
Surprise, not surprise.
Here I am. Sorry I wasn’t good enough for him to stick around.
“Yeah, Mommy, where is the new dragon?” Harper asked.
“He’s got a lot of work to do.” I hated lying to her, but it wasn’t totally a lie. It dawned on me that I had to tell my daughter that I was gettingbonded,or whatever they called it, to a strange male. I debated on keeping her out of it altogether, but she’d figure it out. My girl was smart.
I squatted so I was at eye-level. “Listen, honey. You know how Ember and Kieran had a ceremony? Well, Mommy is going to have one too.”
“I know.” Harper rolled her eyes. “You’re going to get all tied up with the new dragon.”
“Tied up?” I glanced at Riley and Ember, wondering what they’d told her.
“You know, with the ribbon around your arm,” Harper explained.
“Oh, that. Yep.” I nodded as I stood. If that was all she expected, I could live with it. Like Malachy said… I shouldn’t be expecting much else anyway.
There was no use telling my daughter there was something more when there wasn’t anything between us.
“You didn’t want to bother him?” Riley was looking at me funny. I squirmed as Ember’s stare intensified, crossing her arms as she waited for the answer.
This wasn’t one of the times I needed to hear their lecture. They kept telling me I had to take what I wanted, but this wasn’t the right situation.
“He’s busy,” I said, wincing when Riley opened her mouth.
“There’s a lot of details involved with planning the ceremony.” Lucan groaned as he ran a hand through his hair.
If he wasn’t the spitting image of his brother, and wasn’t mated to one of my best friends, I would’ve kissed him for the save.
“So many details,” I lied my ass off. I had no clue what this all involved.
I took a step back when I saw the look on Ember’s face, seeing the wheels in her head turning. She wasn’t going to let this go.
“About the ceremony…” Riley grimaced. Lucan shook his head, but she continued anyway, “Would it be horrible if we did a double date type thing? I don’t want to ruin your special day, but I really, really don’t want to plan my own.”
“No, it’s fine,” I rushed out, a little too quickly to not be suspicious. I covered the slip-up with a genuine smile, one that Ember’s shrewd gaze couldn’t see through. If I was focused on Riley’s happiness, I could breeze through the ceremony and then deal with whatever came next.
One step at a time.
Everything would be okay.
“I’d love to share the day with you,” I said honestly. “I know how much you dislike parties. It’d be easier if we could have a joint one.”
“I’ll talk to Malachy.” Lucan smiled at Riley.
