Well Played (Well Met #2)(88)

“Okay. Finish cinching up your boobs and have a great time.” Emily shook her head. “Better you than me.”

With a laugh, we disconnected the call, and then I did a quick check of the Kilts’ business email account. I sighed in relief at the shipping notification waiting for me there. I hadn’t ordered enough tank tops, and it was unseasonably warm, even for Florida in February. But now we’d be restocked by next weekend.

“Everything okay?” Daniel reached for his coffee, blowing across the top for absolutely no reason since all that milk made it practically room-temperature.

“Yep, we’re good,” I said as he took his first sip of coffee and closed his eyes in pleasure. That was one of my favorites of his smiles: that reaction as the caffeine hit his system. It was a sleepy, small smile, and it was all mine.

“Perfect.” He sighed and leaned against the counter, downing half the mug in another gulp. “Marry me.”

He said that almost every morning while we had our coffee. One of these days I was going to say yes. But today I reached for his hand and he tangled our fingers together. One last moment of peace and quiet before the chaos of the day.

I glanced up at the clock on the microwave. We really did need to get going. “Ready to herd cats?”

Daniel nodded and tossed back the last of his coffee before putting the mug in the sink. “I’ll get the baby.” But he stopped to give me one more lingering, coffee-flavored, good-morning kiss, pressing me against the counter and making me wish we didn’t have to be somewhere really, really soon.

I finished my own coffee and washed out our mugs, leaving them out to dry. Tonight I’d put them back in the cabinet, and we’d do it all over again tomorrow. I laced up my bodice loosely and strapped the wide leather belt around my waist. Everything was loose for now; I still had to ride in the truck to the festival site, and I wasn’t doing that in a tight costume. Daniel’s voice, a low and indistinct murmur, floated back from the sleeping compartment, and my heart swelled. Sometimes I still couldn’t believe he was mine. That this whole life was mine.

I heard a zip, and I turned to see Daniel make his way back to the front of the RV, cat carrier slung over his shoulder by the strap. I bent down.

“You okay in there, Benedick?”

The sound of his name woke him up, and the fat tuxedo cat stretched with a squeak.

Daniel chuckled. “I don’t think he even woke up while I was putting him in there.”

“Of course not,” I said. “He’s a professional.”

Benedick loved life on the road. After finding Daniel at the Maryland Ren Fest, it hadn’t taken me long to go home, quit my job, and pack up my things to meet back up with him to start our life together. I’d brought Benedick with me on a trial basis, hoping he could cope but also resigned to bringing him back to stay with my parents when I went to live on the road for good. To my shock he turned out to be a cat that was born to travel. He slept most of the time as we traveled from place to place, and the first time I tentatively put a harness on him, he took to it immediately. So we rolled with it. At the next Faire I bought him a little pair of dragon’s wings, and he became our little leashed dragon-cat mascot. He hung out with me during the day while I tended the merch booth, chasing bugs and butterflies when he wasn’t napping in the sun, and our audiences seemed to love him. I’d already sketched out a couple different logos with a little dragon-Benedick on them to sell in the future alongside the official band merchandise.

Now, the three of us got in Daniel’s truck. I secured the cat carrier in between us while Daniel called his cousins.

“Please tell me you’re awake.”

Dex’s laugh came through the speakerphone. “Dude, we’re already here, where are you?”

“On the way.” He handed me the phone before clicking his seatbelt and starting the truck. “And don’t forget, we get the hotel room next weekend.”

“Oh, finally.” I let my head fall back against the headrest in imagined bliss. I loved the little RV, but there was something to be said for a long, hot shower in a real bathroom, and starfishing on a king-size bed.

“Yeah, yeah,” Dex said. “We’ll make the switch during the week. We still have to flip for it to see who has to give up the room. I’ll try to make Freddy do it, though. You know how staying in the RV throws me off my game. Chicks don’t dig ’em.”

“God forbid we throw you off your game,” Daniel said dryly. Dex was who he was: the same manwhore he’d always been. But he and I had settled into an okay relationship, and sometimes I genuinely forgot that we’d slept together once upon a time. It was a different Stacey who had done that.

“Hey,” I interjected. “I dig it just fine.”

Dex’s snort was loud and clear despite the cell phone connection. “You don’t count.”

I gasped and turned to Daniel, my mouth hanging open in mock outrage, but he just laughed. “Okay, we’re turning in now. See you in a few.” I disconnected the call as the truck bumped over the field where the entertainers parked. After setting the brake, Daniel came around to open my door and help me jump down—trucks like this weren’t built for shorter people, and my mobility was already a little limited in this outfit.

“You all set if I run on ahead?”