27. Henley
HENLEY
“At what point will it be acceptable to start making money jokes and asking if I’m cute enough to be a kept man?” Walking around a rack of polo shirts that Blaine seemed to love, I couldn’t help poking him a bit to see where his mental state was.
He laughed as he studied a shirt I couldn’t decide was pink, purple, or something else entirely. “You’re definitely cute enough.”
“I do a pretty good job of making you happy too.” I picked up a blue shirt that looked more like something I could picture him in. “I even helped you pick out new shoes.”
Some kind of leather loafer-looking things that he said were much more appropriate than wearing sports shoes all the time.
He was going to need more closet space than I’d expected.
“You are a wonderful helper.” Shooting a smile that looked like he’d rather be kissing me, he pretended to study me. “I can’t decide if you’re a diamonds kind of kept man or if I should be looking at something with more color.”
That would be weird. “How about the expensive brownie mix when we get groceries? That stuff is obscenely priced but they’re so good.”
With my random finances, I’d learned very quickly not to splurge on stupid even if it felt like I had the money at the time. But Blaine had the money, and even just living on the interest he’d be fine if something happened to me.
It was a weight lifted off my shoulders I hadn’t realized was there, but it felt amazing nonetheless.
“I think that’s perfectly reasonable and I’d like to get some steaks to practice with the new grill.” Picking up a few different colors in what looked like a random burst, he walked back over to the stack of preppy casual shirts that probably had a more specific name.
Blaine would definitely know it, but thankfully he realized he didn’t want to torture me with fashion information. I could’ve debated different patterns of camouflage with him but that wasn’t his kind of shopping.
“Sure.” How was he basing his color selection? Was there a method to this? “Anything else you want?”
I was thinking of stuff he might want to grill but the way he shrugged and did his best to look innocent said we weren’t working off the same mental grocery list. “I’ve had thoughts.”
What kind of food would make him look that guilty?
“About something expensive? Lobster? I don’t know how to cook that.” Was there anything at the store even more expensive than that? “If you want a really expensive fancy steak we should just go out to dinner. I don’t think we’ve got the right stuff to cook some of those.”
At least, not according to what I’d seen on cooking shows.
Chuckling, he shook his head. “No, but those do sound good, so how about we do something like that tomorrow?”
“Sounds good. Groceries tonight and fancy tomorrow.” There had to be someplace good. “I’ll look up some places while you’re trying on clothes.”
No point in spending that kind of money and not getting great food.
“But if you weren’t imagining spending an obscene amount of money on dinner, what were you trying to look so innocent about?” His dramatic sigh made me want to laugh. “You did it a bit too well and it stood out. Try a different expression next time.”
“Brat.” He looked lighter, though, so I’d gladly claim the title. “I was actually thinking of something bigger.”
Bigger than dinner?
“Did you want to get some of the comics ordered online right away?” We could probably get them shipped to the coven’s house…Blaine’s house…whoever’s house before we wanted to leave. “I can get that magazine rack I showed you put up by the couch. It’s not going to be hard.”
Nope.
He looked even more guilty as he shook his head. “I was actually wondering how attached you were to the trailer.”
The trailer?
“The colors or something?” It was kind of old but they weren’t bad and Blaine didn’t seem to realize they were out of date. “Do you want a new bedspread? They’re not expensive.”
Something had him smiling and shaking his head. “You’re cute but picture this from a kept man’s perspective.”
A kept man’s perspective.
Oh.
Okay, I was slow but not stupid.
“I don’t think in those kinds of terms.” Blinking, I tried to think about how I felt. “You’re talking about getting a newer one, right? At least something a bit bigger?”
It worked when he didn’t have any stuff, but the trailer really was made for weekend trips, not two people living in it full time.
“Something slightly bigger was my first thought but I don’t know enough about modern trailers to know if a newer one would give us amenities you’d like to have or we’d need to have while traveling in it as our main home.” Whatever he saw on my face had him pausing.
“What?” I was still playing catch-up and wondering what he was thinking with that shirt.
We had very different views on clothes…but he seemed to have better taste than me, so I was just going to learn and try not to be a pain in the ass.
Unless he started taking away my T-shirts.
But based on how he was watching me, I might’ve ended up as a pain in the ass for other reasons. “Explain what you’re thinking, please.”
We weren’t thinking the same things.
Nodding slowly, he kept his steady gaze on my face. “I don’t know how people see financial discussions these days but before this would’ve been a difficult topic.”
Oh.
“Um, I think this goes back to strange upbringing.” How would the men I’d dated react about this?
Badly. “Yeah, other couples would be weird about this and families would fight about it. Money is still a weird topic. We talk about relationships and all kinds of stuff related to that but not about finances.”
Looking less like I was a bomb about to unexpectedly go off, he reached over and squeezed my hand quickly before letting it go. I had to fight not to smile and dance around like a kid. I knew it was a big step for him.
Knowing it was legal and really grasping that on a personal level were two very different things.
“In my family we worked to fund projects, so I don’t think I grew up seeing it the same way.
” How could I explain this? “We worked on a farm one time for about three months to afford a trip up to Alaska because they heard about strange stuff going on in one of the national parks up there. Once we took the trip we were broke again, so I think that’s when my dad did logging for six months…
or it might’ve been fishing? I don’t remember. I was little.”
And we did it a lot, so the dates and locations kind of ran together.
“When I wanted to…let’s call it go out on my own, I took a few jobs doing different things. My family knew I wanted my own trailer, so no one thought it was odd.” Until I’d left in the middle of the night. “So I just see your money as something to tease you about but I don’t feel weird about it.”
Maybe I would with someone else but not Blaine.
He was my mate.
“I think that makes sense but I’m going to be weird about it.” His own idiosyncrasies seemed to frustrate him to no end because he walked away from the shirts and started glaring at dress pants.
Ones that looked way too fancy for everyday clothes even if they were everyday clothes.
I spent way too much time in pajamas.
“We’re going to run into this stuff.” We were literally from two different times, not to mention cultures and species. “We talk about it and we figure out what went wrong or where we need to compromise.”
A smile finally peeked out of my adorable mate. “You’re very logical. I appreciate that.”
“Just remember this feeling when my family shows up or I do something ridiculous because it’s a leftover issue from childhood.
” I ran into weird shit about myself on a regular basis, so we’d find something else fun eventually.
“That’s when you need to keep that appreciate-me-thing right at the front of your mind. ”
His grin said he wasn’t surprised.
“I will. The fact that you’re my mate will help with that too.”
Yay for being mates.
It would hopefully save his sanity in the long run.
****
“My mate?” Blaine’s tone was carefully neutral but the way he was studying the side mirror on the truck was not.
“Ugh. What?” Had I cut someone off? That little red car had been a dick first. “I wasn’t the problem with that souped-up monstrosity.”
His cocked head said that didn’t make any sense.
“The little red car that was acting so aggressively because he has something to prove.” Like a small dick.
Everyone made truck jokes but more people needed to take a second look at the men driving those weirdly souped-up cars that were like five bucks to begin with.
“No.” Trying not to chuckle, he shook his head. “I was going to ask if you thought we were being followed.”
“Oh.” I’d been hoping he wouldn’t notice that. “It’s possible but I was hoping if I just drove around in circles a few times I’d realize I was being paranoid.”
Blaine was still trying to keep a straight face and failing badly. “I never realized being paranoid was something we were striving for.”
“Life is weird sometimes.” Weirder than people realized. “Thank you for noticing what was going on, though. It’s not a skill that most people learn.”
Most drivers weren’t paying enough attention to the things that really mattered…like being followed and the weird shit that peeked out of the trees on the side of the road on a regular basis.
That was so distracting.
“I’m not used to being the passenger all the time, so it’s given me something to do.” He held up a hand as I started to apologize again. “I understand. The coven is working on my documentation, so we’ll get it handled eventually.”
I wasn’t going to try to explain to a regular cop why my partner wasn’t in any database but it was fine because he had a driver’s license seventy years ago.
Nope.
Not doing that.