Chapter 3
ADRIAN
Luca's house was never quiet. If it wasn't her making noise by exercising her favorite hobby—playing the drums—it was her little daughter. At barely two years old, Mara had become quite the whirlwind. The girl ran toward me as soon as I stepped through the door.
"Mara up!" She reached her arms out to me and I picked her up.
"She's supposed to be sleeping, but I can't keep her down," Luca said, almost apologetic.
"I don't mind." I patted the soft brown hair on Mara's head. "Hey there."
She laughed at me. And then she pulled at my hair.
"Mara, don't." Luca took her daughter from me. "C'mon, nap time." She turned to me. "Wait in the living room, okay? I'll be back in a moment."
Since I knew my way around, I did as I was told and took seat on the large, plushy couch in the living room.
Luca and her husband Greg lived in a nice house.
I loved my friend, but I was a little jealous of her, too.
All the things I'd wanted, a good partner and a child, had seemed to come so easy to her.
I pulled the questionnaire out of my pocket and spread it out on the low coffee table.
What if this was my last shot at the life I'd always dreamed of? As unlikely as that seemed.
"Is that it?" Luca asked, pointing at the piece of paper when she came back.
"Yeah."
Luca grabbed it and eyed it critically, looking at the few items I'd already filled in.
"You've only been with one guy?"
I looked at my hands. "I used to think one was enough."
"Oh, Adrian."
I knew when she used that tone of voice it meant she thought I needed to grow up a little.
"I'm not going to lie about it," I muttered. "I don't want to get the job because I cheated, I want…" Words failed me. Saying what was really on my mind was too embarrassing.
"What do you want?" Luca sat next to me and put one arm around me in her I'm-you-best-friend-and-you-can-talk-to-me gesture.
"If I'm going to have a baby with someone, I want them to know me and love me anyway." Was that too much to ask? I didn't want to think so, but it felt odd to say, considering the circumstances. "Maybe I shouldn't do this. Not with a stranger." After all, that was never what I'd wanted.
"Hey. Chin up." Luca squeezed my shoulder.
"You could at least go meet this guy. Check him out.
If he's horrible, get out. You're not signing away your soul here.
You're only filling in an application. And you're right, we're not going to lie in it.
" She smiled at me. "If this dragon isn't a complete idiot, he'll love everything about you as soon as he meets you. "
Her smile was contagious, even if I didn't have as much confidence as she did.
She looked at the paper again.
"Your favorite movie is Pitch Perfect?"
I felt my cheeks heat up. "I'm not changing it, remember? I like singing, so what?"
One of the things I wanted to do with my kids when I had them? Sing along to stupid Disney movies.
"You're cute, Adrian." She got up. "You know what we're going to do?
We're going to answer all these stupid questions, and then we're going to take a killer picture of you to round it up.
" I thought her eyes gleamed, but it could have been a trick of the light.
"I wanted to make my husband wear a sexy cop costume last Halloween, but it didn't fit him. I believe you're small enough, though."
I raised my eyebrows at her. "You want me to put on a sexy cop costume?"
"Please? You'd look so hot in that uniform."
She wasn't salivating, but she was close. "Luca!"
"Do you want a baby or not?"
Damn it, but I did. "How is that going to get me a baby?"
"You gotta show off what you got."
"It won't look professional."
"We'll do two pictures then. C'mon, it'll be fun. You don't want to get with someone who doesn't have a sense of humor, do you?"
I swallowed. "Okay, fine."
Little did I know that her sexy cop uniform didn't include a shirt, or anything else covering my chest area, for that matter. I bore it and smiled for the camera, thinking of a possible future I could only imagine in daydreams. No one could say I didn't give it my best shot.
Look at me, Mr. Dragon. I want to have your baby. Our baby.
"Mail for you," my brother said when he came home from work a few days later.
"Really?" I rarely ever got mail. Hell, most people didn't know I was bunking with my brother, which had made it even more of a rare thing recently.
"Yeah. I guess it's from that job thing you applied for."
"Oh." I took the red envelope he handed me with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
That couldn't be anything good. They couldn't possibly be considering me after the lackluster application I sent, although Luca kept reassuring me the pictures had turned out well.
To hell with that. I'd only applied to shut my brother up, anyway.
"Aren't you going to open it?" he asked.
"Don't hurry me. Don't you want me to get dinner ready?" I longed to get back into the kitchen. I could always lose myself between pots and pans.
"No. Open it. I'm curious." A wide grin spread all over my brother's face. "I want to know if the dude wants to knock you up. I could be an uncle, you know?"
I made a face at him.
"Seriously," he went on. "I told Mom, and she's excited at the prospect of grandkids, too."
Oh for heaven's sake.
"I only filled out an application. Why did you have to tell Mom?
" Really, this pissed me off a little. I'd told my mother when I'd been trying to conceive with Rory, and she'd been nothing but patronizing about it.
If she was excited now, it was only because dragons were known to be rich.
She wouldn't care that the money didn't matter to me in all of this.
Shaking my head, I ripped the envelope open. I let my eyes fly over the lines before they could get blurry.
We are happy to inform you that we are taking your application into serious consideration. Please call us at the number below to schedule a personal interview.
What? I almost dropped the piece of paper to the floor.
"What did they say?" my brother asked. "Did you get it?"
"They want to have an interview," I stammered, still staring at the letter. "They're taking me into consideration."
"That's great, isn't it? Just you wait, I'll be an uncle after all. Knew you had to be good for something, pretty boy." He patted me on the back. "Now go get dinner ready."
Dinner, right. I folded the letter away and tried to gather myself, not sure why I was suddenly feeling hopeful at the thought of having a strange man's baby.
I'd always wanted to have babies as soon as I'd found out my body was capable of creating life, and it had been hard when nothing Rory and I tried actually made it happen.
Maybe that was messing with my judgment.
Or maybe I was simply getting desperate, but damn, I wanted a baby, and this was a chance. An actual chance. I had to take it.
After dinner, I called the number given in the letter.
Some official from the Dragonfang family told me to be in a coffee shop tomorrow afternoon where I'd be able to make the dragon's—Tyrel's—acquaintance as he wanted to meet all his potential partners himself.
I pretended like that thought didn't make me nervous and agreed to meet there.
And then I called Luca.
"I have an interview," I said as soon as she answered the phone.
"Oh God!" She squeed a little bit. "About the baby thing, right? Man, I can't wait for you to have your own little one. Mine's driving me crazy, though." She laughed, although her laughter sounded a bit tired.
"Yeah," I said. "But nothing's sure yet." Still, her genuine happiness for me warmed my heart. "Thanks again for your help taking the picture."
"I'm sure it knocked him out of his socks. You're a looker, Adrian, believe me. He'd be happy to have you."
"I don't know about that." I sighed. "I'm meeting him tomorrow. What if he hates me? What if he's an ass? I feel like I'm getting my hopes up way too high for a simple interview. I don't even know how many other people they're considering."
"I'm sure it'll be fine, honey. He'll take a look at you and forget about all the others. And if he doesn't, he doesn't deserve you anyway." She said the last line in her protective big-sister tone of voice.
"Thanks," I said. "I just… I don't know. I've been so down after Rory that I don't know if I'm making the right choices here."
"You'll be fine, honey," she said again. "You're going to that interview tomorrow and then you'll know. You can still quit after. Don't worry too much. You'll only get wrinkly."
"You're right. Sorry for bothering you with all this."
But even after I hung up the phone, I couldn't stop worrying.
I didn't sleep at all that night.