26. Blaine
BLAINE
“He’s rude.” Henley had been grumbling that on repeat for the past five miles, so I wasn’t worried about responding any longer. “I’m going with he because men are just ruder with that kind of stuff. A woman would’ve come to say hello.”
I wasn’t sure if agreeing with him would make me sexist or smart. The internet hadn’t given me any advice on something like this, so I stayed quiet while he huffed and grumbled.
“I wasn’t threatening him and didn’t even have a weapon on me…
well…one that he could sense. The marbles are safe unless I throw them with intent and they hit something like the ground.
I didn’t even have a gun or knife. You’d be better than any knife, so I’m not worried about that.
He should’ve come to say hi. I’m very polite and easy to get along with. ”
My mate was insane and it might be time to do my best to tactfully point that out.
“We don’t know what he is.” Something about the shape under the water said male, so I wasn’t using that because of Henley’s logic. “I can’t think of anything that used to live around here that could breathe under water.”
There was no way holding his breath for half the length of the lake was reasonable, right?
“All the more reason for him to come up and introduce himself.” Grumbling again, Henley shook his head. “I was trying to be nice, damn it.”
He’d been stretched out on his stomach on the deck talking to whoever he thought was under the water, so while he’d been nice, I could see why a shy creature of some sort wouldn’t respond to him.
“He might have different cultural expectations?” When Henley went quiet, I couldn’t decide if I’d made things better or worse. This was a side of my mate I’d never seen, so it was a learning experience. “Why don’t we do some research about the different options?”
He perked up as we pulled up to a stoplight. “Yes. That’s a good idea.”
And I was safe.
“How should we start that process?” I honestly wasn’t sure because I’d never been in this situation before. “You’ve got a lot of good contacts online.”
That was still hard to wrap my mind around even though I’d seen it in action.
The online encyclopedias made sense but being able to instantaneously talk to people all over the world was mind-blowing. But Henley had gotten frustrated with me when I’d pointed out how dangerous the whole thing sounded.
“That’s a good start.” Focusing on the light as he waited for it to change, he nodded slowly in a way that was supposed to look normal.
It didn’t.
What could he be thinking?
“What would you suggest?” I’d missed something obvious. Was there another part of the internet he hadn’t shown me yet?
“I think that’s a great start.” His bright smile looked highly suspicious. “There has to be a list of water people somewhere.”
Water people?
“I think we need to figure out something else to call him. Water people sounds…odd.” He laughed, nodding, but it quickly faded back to his fake smile. “You know what else is odd?”
My clearly fake cheerful tone had him sighing. “My behavior?”
“I’m glad you got that right on the first try. I wouldn’t want to have to take away your reward later.” He liked being bribed and his glare had me trying not to laugh.
If he could be this dramatic, it couldn’t be that big of an issue.
“Okay, technically I’m still feeling fine. We’re starting there because that was the rule and I haven’t broken it.” He hadn’t broken it yet, but considering we’d only been out about two hours, a lot could change.
“That’s good to know.” But it didn’t give me any information. “What else?”
I wasn’t sure if he needed the prompt, but his groan and the way he slouched said it was probably a good idea.
“Um, well, one of my first thoughts was to ask the coven for information on the local…population, but then I realized that might not be a good thing to bring up.” He shot me a quick glare as the light changed to green. “So I wasn’t going to stress you out by mentioning it.”
He was so cute when he was grumpy.
“Thank you for doing your best to protect my feelings.” It was a reasonable issue to worry about for him. “I can see why that was uncomfortable for you, but it’s something I can’t avoid thinking about forever. That’s just not reasonable.”
Henley shrugged. “Um, I think avoiding uncomfortable things is perfectly reasonable. I like moving.”
Because his family was so…troubled…they should’ve been diagnosed with something, and I was pretty sure he moved so much to keep them from finding him.
He’d just been careful not to actually spell that out or say exactly what had caused him to run from them to begin with.
“If they didn’t have my stuff, I’d agree with you more.” It was my turn to sigh but that had him reaching over to take my hand. “I didn’t give Serena enough time to let me know exactly what they have but it seems like they kept what they thought would be important to me.”
Squeezing my hand, his stress levels went down as he didn’t have to ignore the elephant in the room any longer.
Well, elephant in the pickup.
“As we were leaving, one of the guys mentioned something about stuff basically being under a spell that sounded like stasis?” Stroking his fingers over mine, Henley’s body relaxed as we drove down the beautiful back roads.
“No matter how much they saved, we can always put stuff in a storage facility if they can’t keep it any longer. ”
They really hadn’t said where it was or how long they could store it, so at the very least we needed more information.
“Ideally, I’d like to have any family photos that were saved and any of the genealogy paperwork that my mother worked on.” Hmm. “Everything is online now. You showed me how that worked on your phone, but can I take physical photos and papers and put them in your phone?”
It sounded logical and ridiculous at the same time, but I was still glad when Henley nodded like it was a reasonable suggestion.
“We can make sure the originals are safe but we can also have them scanned by a special piece of equipment and the image of them saved online so we can access them anywhere. There are easier ways to do it but that will get us the best results.”
“I think that sounds like a good plan.” I’d never thought about how to keep things like that safe. When I’d thought about the future it’d been related to my mate and buying my own house. Things like that. The important parts of my life had drastically changed, though.
“There are a few ways we can do it depending on how much there is.” He glanced over again as he squeezed my hand. “But that means we have to talk to the coven.”
Unfortunately.
“We’d have to do that eventually.” Because I needed to know about my financial situation as well. I couldn’t let Henley handle that forever for a variety of reasons. “This just gives me a push to get it done.”
He smiled, shaking his head. “You realize this sounds like you wouldn’t do it for yourself but my being nosy changes things.”
“Of course.” I ignored his scoff. “We’ve decided that’s how our relationship is going to work.”
“I thought we’d decided to be healthier than that?” He had to try not to laugh when I gave him a skeptical look. “Fine. Unhealthy but happy it is.”
Sounded good to me…and so did getting a snack.
“Something that would make me very happy is a snack.” I had to resist the urge to reach over and poke his stomach. “I think you’d like that too.”
His embarrassed groan was adorable. “You can hear my stomach.”
It wasn’t a question but I nodded anyway. “Yep, and I’m pretty sure you’re thirsty as well.”
That was just a logical deduction but he sucked in a breath and shot me a curious look. “Magic is weird.”
Magic was amazing…it’d given me a mate.
****
“Remember, if we decide we want to leave for any reason, one of us will look at the other and frown then say we really should get going to finish our errands.” Gripping the wheel too hard considering the truck was parked, Henley nodded firmly.
“Being polite doesn’t mean we have to be trapped there. ”
I’d agreed with him the first two times he’d given me this lecture, so I changed tactics as I reached over and ran my hand over his head. “And we don’t owe them anything just because they solved a problem they helped create.”
That was more for Henley than me, because I was more inclined to feel like they’d gone above and beyond to handle the problem, but he wasn’t so open-minded about it.
“We’ll be polite but not pushovers.” Leaning into my touch, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “And we really do need to go get some groceries and more clothes for you, so that’s not lying.”
My fascinating mate had already switched into planning mode and was ready to start wandering. That meant getting me ready to travel as well as getting the trailer ready to go. “I would appreciate something less…”
I couldn’t think of a nice way to say sloppy but he found that funny. “You’re so cute. Yes. We’ll find something more structured for you. I’m thinking business casual but we’ll see what you like best.”
I’d like anything that wasn’t sweatpants or pajamas. The jeans were something I could deal with but not all the time. Luckily for me, my mate understood my needs even if he could spend the entire day in pajamas without feeling off.
“I’m sure we’ll find good options.” It couldn’t get worse. “And you said you wanted cookies, so we need to remember that at the grocery store.”
Henley grinned as a blush crept over his face. “We probably shouldn’t. We need the room for stuff that makes meals.”
Rolling my eyes got a giggle from him. “I can eat cookies for a meal.”
He tried to frown at me, but he was feeling a bit too silly for that. “You need healthier meals than cookies.”
“And you need fun things like dessert.” Treats made him happy, so we were going to get treats. “We can’t drive around the country without something yummy waiting for us at the end of the day. It’s just not logical.”