Her Mane Men (Paranormal Dating Agency Kindle World)(11)

“Of her,” he corrected, bringing me back to the conversation at hand. “She’s built quite a reputation for herself.”

“I hadn’t heard of her until Roxanne got paired up with Barry but didn’t pay much attention until the gift certificate thing.” And, even afterward, my Google search came up with pretty much squat. Whatever circle she was quasi-famous in, was one I didn’t travel in.

“I’m glad your friend was so thoughtful.” He poured what smelled like my favorite tea. The man had thought of everything.

“Or Roxanne is a buttinski.” She was, but with a heart of gold, so it never bothered me—much.

“Or that.”

We sat there, watching as the sun finished rising, enjoying our scones in the noise of the awakening city. People thought sunrise was only worth paying attention to in the country, where you could watch Mother Nature awake in all her glory, and that was beautiful. But there was something to be said for watching the concrete jungle awakening as well. It had its own unique beauty.

“So, tell me about your job,” Curtis asked as I popped the last bite of scone into my mouth.

“Boring,” I mumbled as I took a sip of tea to wash it all down. “Basically, I’m glorified customer service.” Or, more accurately, I listened to and read emails from people bitching to me all day about things I had zero control over. My accounting degree was wasted on appeasing clients or telling them to reset their machines, but it was in my field.

“It doesn’t sound like much fun.” It wasn’t.

“It’s how I met Roxanne, so there is that.” That had been the best part of the gig, to be sure. Not the long hours during crunch time for no pay thanks to “salary,” not the ogling pervy boss, and certainly not the dismal leave program. It was decent paying, though, and in a city with overpriced apartments being the norm, that was good enough.

“So basically, ‘the best job ever’?” Yeah, he spent more than just a couple of seconds on the phone with Roxanne, if he knew our inside joke about my job complete with air quotes. I slid my chair closer to his because why the heck not, and he wrapped his arm around me, pulling me in closer. A girl could get used to that.

“You seem more relaxed, today,” I observed. He was still serious-ish, but nothing like Saturday. I liked both sides of him, but seeing him like this, with me, felt special somehow.

“I am.”

“I’m glad. Saturday was—it just was.” There were no words I could pull to accurately describe it. It was magical yet terrifying yet comforting, all wrapped into a bundle of surrealism. It was a night I’d never forget.

“It really was,” he agreed. “We were so nervous as we waited for you to arrive, wondering who would walk through the door. We’d seen your picture, and you’d chatted with Parker briefly, but that didn’t tell us much.”

“At least you knew there was only one person coming.” I nestled in close as I recalled that initial moment when it clicked that they were both there—for me—at the same time.

“Fair enough. More tea?” He leaned forward, grabbing the pot, expecting my answer to be in the affirmative, which it was, so score one for Curtis.

“Please.”

He re-filled my tea before pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“You know, I thought I was going to leave there and get home and panic or come to my senses or something. I kept waiting for it to come, but it didn’t.”

“I’m not sure what to make of that confession.” He set his cup down, his eyes glued to mine.

Fair enough. It was far more babble than I’d intended.

“Just that this still feels like the right path for me even if it makes no sense on any rational level.” I leaned forward just enough to take a sip of tea, but not enough to leave his warmth.

“By rational, you mean societally speaking?”

“Yeah, that. Which is dumb, I know. But it is so embedded. Doesn’t it bother you at all?”

“Not so much. My closest friend in elementary school was born to a triad.” Wait? What? “And he wasn’t the only one at school. I guess it was just more normal where I grew up?”

It so was not the norm where I grew up. Goodness, if it weren’t for reality television which made it seem like the worst idea ever and a few romance novels I happened upon, the idea of a triad never would’ve crossed my mind.

“Is it even legal?” Who were his friend’s parents when it came to the school etc.? Did it matter?

“To marry, no.” That was what I thought. Why did that sting so badly? We hadn’t even gotten past solo dates yet. Talk about getting ahead of myself. “Not for all three to marry, but to live as a family, sure.”

“Is that what you want? A family?” Something about sitting side by side and not face to face had my words slipping out faster than I could control them. Not that I wanted to move. I was content to stay here in his arms until work time.

“Someday, sure.”

“Me, too, but a real one. One who lives together.” In other words, not the crap I thought the norm as a child.

“You’re not talking about the surrogacy misunderstanding, are you?” Damn, that was such a low point of my conclusion jumping.

“No. My family was less than functional while I was growing up.” A cheating, sometimes-present, always-drunk dad was far from the description of perfection, not that my enabling mother was much better. For a long time, I blamed her lack of mothering on her gift, but I’d long since realized that was just an excuse. Ghosts visiting you doesn’t make you a craptastic mother who all but ignores your kid; being a horrible human does.