Page 12 of Bearly Yours
I pulled away so that I could breathe and patted his back in thanks before scooping up my water jug. I was touched by his hug, but I needed to gently kick him out so I could get to work. Roarke would be here before I knew it.
“Yeah, observant like a savant. I feel sorry for your wife and children when you find your mate. Your children will never get away with anything.”
He smiled wistfully as I tried to nudge him gently toward the front door. “Ah, but my mate will be the best loved mate in the world.”
“Yeah, yeah, lover-boy. Thank you for stopping by. Go away, please. I need to work.”
I gently pushed him out the door and followed him out. After he tousled my hair and headed back in the direction of the Clan lodge, I unlocked the padlock on my shop roll-up door and pushed it all the way up so it was out of my way for the day, and so that it would let in the maximum amount of light and fresh air. Some of my paints and stains could get pretty toxic if you worked with them in an enclosed area with no ventilation, even sometimes with a mask on.
I was currently working on a massive ocean coffee table for Roarke. It was a table made of wood at the legs and base, and then had an epoxy resin on the top that was made to look like an ocean with several different shades of blues and white. They were gorgeous but very tricky. I was still working on the Blue Mahoe wood base and legs. I hadn’t even gotten to mixing the epoxy and resin yet.
I hung up my coat and worked through the morning, taking water breaks as needed. My full mask respirator, eye protection goggles, and noise canceling earphones make my face sticky and hot, even with the icy breeze coming in from the roll-up door, but I ignored it and continued working, shaping the table legs with my lathe and shaving and shaping tools. After I got a table leg just right, I looked up, feeling someone watching me.
Roarke was leaning against my back wall with his arms folded across his massive chest. The moment my eyes found his, his inscrutable expression turned into an easy smile that made my heart skip a beatevery single time.
I shut my lathe off and put my hand tools away, taking off all of my headgear and looping it on the hooks where it went.Roarke came over and gently took the mini blower out of my hands, and I closed my eyes as he blew all of the wood shavings and sawdust off of me. I didn’t like tracking it into my house, and we’d done this song and dance so many times we both know it by heart.
When I was all wood-shavings free, he helped me grab the roll-up door and closed it. I usually had to jump a little to reach the pull-down rope. I really needed to add more rope to the bottom of it to make it long enough for me. The rope had frayed and broken, so it was shorter than usual now. I blamed Roarke and his dragon strength.
We still hadn’t greeted each other when I climbed into the shower, leaving Roarke to bring in the bags of groceries he always brought with him. My dragon bought me groceries, brought them to my house, and made enough ready-made meals for us during the week so he and I wouldn’t starve, and all under the guise that he didn’t like to cook during the week.
I didn’t know what I was going to do with him. Kiss him, was what I wanted to do; be loved by him was second on my imaginary to-do list. I think everyone deserved a Roarke in their lives. And if you couldn’t have them for your mate, a best friend was nice too. Just so long as he stayed.
Getting out of the shower, I toweled off and found comfy sweats and another tee shirt to throw on, both in robin’s egg blue. My tee shirt saidI enjoy romantic walks through the hardware store. I’d just gotten it in through the Moonhaven Post—which was magically sent here to our Moonhaven Cove Post office, or trucked in by paranormals.
Roarke, who was chopping vegetables at my island, and using the cutting board that had Yoda on it and said “Emrie, cook you must, or hungry you will be,” read my tee shirt. He looked like he wanted to smile, but didn’t. His earlier smile might be the only one I got today.
I was always greedy for his smiles. The ones that lit up his eyes, and made his whole face come alive.
“No remarks on my tee shirt?” I said, gulping down some ice-cold water from my jug and sighing onto the stool. I tried to help sometimes, but Roarke had once gently told me, after I’d set fire to my saute pan, cut my finger deep enough to need stitches, and made my toaster spontaneously combust, that I could help by sitting at the island and talking to him so that he wasn’t lonely. It was amazing that a girl who could make furniture and build houses without issues was so very awful in the kitchen.
So, I was helping by not helping, and I was completely okay with it.
“My only remark is that Ialsoenjoy long walks through the hardware store.” He dumped the vegetables he’d been chopping into a huge wok, adding different oils and seasonings and then letting them simmer.
I wanted to accuse him of being a big flirt, but I knew he wasn’t. And he would get that unreadable look in his eyes that always made me want to re-examine my life choices, so I didn’t say anything.
“How was work?” The sleeve of his white tee shirt slid up his arm, and I saw a river and forest on his bicep. I’d never seen Roarke without his shirt off, but he was really secretive about the rest of his tattoo, so of course by now I was so dying of curiosity that I kinda wanted to yank his shirt off.
For science, of course.
I eyed the river and trees that peeked out and pondered what the rest of it could be, and why he was so secretive about it, then I pulled my mind back to Roarke and work. He was facing away from me, so I couldn’t read his expression, but he was unusually quiet today.
“You okay, big guy?”
He nodded, stirring the vegetables in the wok, and then moving to another prep area, layering a handful of ingredients into a baking dish for what looked like lasagna. Another workstation had all the fixings for a chef’s salad, and still another pot had what smelled like white bean chili with the little green peppers that he knew I loved. His hands moved effortlessly from chopping to stirring to seasoning, and I could tell he did it all without needing to think about it. It was just rote for him.
“Lyonel came byFlametoday.”
I froze. He had? Whhyy? That was...not at all smart of him. I winced. “What happened?”
Roarke shrugged. “I threw him out.” He eyed me, and I could see the flames in his eyes were stoked high. I was almost afraid to ask.
“And?”
He slid the lasagna into my pre-heated oven and set the timer. “And he broke his arm.”
“Hebroke it, oryoubroke it?” I pressed.
