Page 81 of Been There Dragon That
“Mom, you just got here. Could you hold off on the arranging-my-life talk for a few minutes?” They were almost back to Mystery. She’d had to bargain hard with Wrath to let her go get her parents by herself. A smug smile tugged at her mouth. Though, in her opinion, offering to let him have his way with her every night for a week sounded like a win to her. She had to find a way to excuse herself by seven p.m. each night. That’d been the harder end of that deal.
“I’m trying to make sure you’re not making rash choices. Don’t you agree with me, dear?” Her mother poked her father in the back, trying to get the silent man to jump into the conversation with her and back her up.
“I would like to meet the man that convinced our daughter to leave Texas before I make any assessment on my daughter’s state of mind.”
Her mother huffed and turned to look out the window.
“It is beautiful up here, dear, I could see why it would be easy to fall in love with this place. Even if they do have a lot of snow.” Her father’s voice was calm and warm, and Rylee appreciated that he wasn’t letting her mother’s worry color his opinion. “You said you made friends, too. I’m looking forward to meeting them.”
“I want you to be safe, sweetheart.” Rylee met her mom’s gaze in the rearview mirror for a second before putting her focus wholly back on the road.
A person couldn’t be too careful in Mystery, what with all the lions chasing moose. “I am safe. I’ve never felt safer than when I’m with Wrath.”
“Who names their child, Wrath?” Her mother mumbled under her breath.
“I for one think it sounds like a name from a romance novel. Is he from a romance novel you’re editing, Rylee?” Ayla grinned from the back seat next to her mother. Unlike her parents, Ayla knewexactlywhat was happening today.
Rylee couldn’t help the laugh. The truth paralleled fiction quite too closely in this instance. “Wrath is quite real, Ayla. Thank you very much.”
She pulled off the main road and parked at the Gas & Go. Her 4Runner needed more gas, and she wanted to see how Owen was doing.
While preparing for Leif’s funeral, he and Ava had found out that their friend had left them everything. The gas station. The mechanic shop. And the junkyard.
Today was the first day they’d opened the gas station since the funeral. “I’ll be right back. Dad, do you mind putting in the gas? I need to check on a friend.”
“Of course, hon.” He got out of the car, and Rylee hurried into the store.
The bell jingled, and she looked toward the register. There was a young man she didn’t recognize behind the counter, maybe nineteen or twenty. “Is Owen or Ava here?”
“In the back.”
“Rylee,” Owen’s voice echoed from the back room. The big burly mountain of a man appeared a few seconds later. His wife, Tara was right behind him.
The small woman ran to Rylee and hugged her. “You’re back!”
“I was only gone one night.”
Tara rolled her eyes. “For these men, one night away from us is like a month. I swear, all I’ve heard is how grumpy your man has been over the last twenty-four hours.”
Owen slid an arm around Tara’s waist and pulled her halfway up his body in a hug. “That’s why you’re never allowed to leave me. Who knows what I might do.”
Tara laughed and elbowed Owen. “Put me down, you barbarian.”
“Other than that, everything was good?” Rylee asked, not willing to admit she’d been a bundle of crazy being away from Wrath too.
“Everything is ready! Dawn and Tor went up to Fairfield to get the judge. He’ll be waiting at the sheriff’s office at noon. So you don’t have long. Are your parents excited?”
Rylee rolled her neck to the right and then the left, cracking several nervous vertebrae. “I—”
“Rylee.” Her name came out of Tara’s mouth like a scolding whisper.
“I wanted the drive to be pleasant. It’s four hours in the car with them. I’m about to let them know.”
“That you’re marrying Wrath in two hours,” Tara said, her tone dry and amused. “You really should.”
Rylee huffed out a long breath. “I’m going to tell them.”
“Tell us what?” Her mother’s voice sent tendrils of ice through her veins.
