Chapter 39
thirty-nine
The Fall Festival
The Halloween decoration delighted so many customers, we nearly sold out of everything worth selling. To be frank, we’ve got a lot of books on our shelves that are just kind of okay. I should discount them, but there’s no time to run a sale…
The Fall Orchard Festival is almost here!
I’ve bought display racks we can easily travel with, a nice tablecloth, a table runner with our logo, and a few smaller dragons in the design of the one Bastian made for the front door.
We kept that after Halloween, of course.
Everyone loved it, me included. Bastian threw a little fit about so much of his magic remaining in the world in such a useless fashion, but I know he loved it too.
He’s proud of it, and happy it brings us all so much joy.
“Where’s the smut!” I yell from the dark hallway of sin.
“Packed,” Bastian yells back from somewhere in the shop.
“What box!”
“Boxes! In the back of your car already!”
I smile. He packed it all.
He doesn’t really approve of the smut—despite reading all of it—but he knows it sells well. Selling well means we can get new stories in. New stories fuel his magic. And the cycle goes round.
I grab my heavy-duty cardboard box and walk up the ramp to the historical fiction. There are a few gorgeous covers in here that I know we can offload easily. I pull them out and pack them in tight next to the sci-fi books.
“Is that it?” I ask no one in particular.
Bastian appears at the entrance to the office. “The only thing missing is the most beautiful woman in the realms.”
I laugh. “Wherever will we find her?”
He disappears with a bloop and then I feel his hands on my hips. “Found her.”
My cheeks burn as my shoulders climb up to my ears. “You’re silly.”
He tugs me against him, taking the weight of the box in one arm as he wraps me tightly in the other.
“You are if you think I’m wrong.”
“You’re wrong. I’m certain.”
“Oh? Please tell me then, who is more beautiful.”
I blow a raspberry. “About every actress in the world for starters.”
“Swine, all of them,” he retorts.
“Bast,” I scold, slapping his hand. “They are not.”
“They are.”
“How so?”
“If harm were to have to come to you, or all the actresses in the world, I would kill them myself to keep you safe.”
I want to roll my eyes but my pussy clenches instead. “That’s just ridiculous. You’ve been reading my smut.”
“I have,” he says as he nuzzles my neck. “It’s most informative.”
“I’m not the most beautiful woman in the realms.”
“You are to me,” he says.
It’s been months of his affection but still…no sex. It’s hard to believe him when we can’t even cross the last barrier to intimacy. How much time does a dragon need to prepare for sex?
“Caitlin,” he growls against my neck. “You are.”
I huff and lean back into him. “It’s hard to feel like I am when we haven’t…you know. Renee has asked and I’ve had to just shrug!”
“You won’t have to shrug for long. I’m almost finished,” he says, then plants a long, open-mouthed kiss on my neck.
A shiver runs down my spine, and I dig my nails into his arm. “Is that so?”
“It is,” he says. “I was hoping to invite you on a date after tonight’s festival.”
My stomach explodes with sparks. “Well, I’m not sure if I’ll be available…”
“You will be,” he says. “I will make certain of it.”
He disappears from under my hands and reappears on the main level at the hall. His tail swishes side to side as he walks away and I cover my mouth as I giggle.
Oscar gives me a purring meow as he jumps up on the railing. He’s in his natural form, a large, hulking black cat with piercing red eyes. I start at the sight of him, since he doesn’t wander around in his cat-sith form often, but then offer my hand. He bumps up into it with vigor.
“You okay to be here alone all day?” I ask.
“Bddrr,” he purrs through his nose.
It’s a deep, rumbling thing that strikes chords in my gut and makes me shiver. If I weren’t absolutely certain he loved me, I’d be a little afraid.
“Your fish is in the fridge on the second shelf. Please close it this time,” I say.
He looks up at me and pushes his whiskers forward as he mewls.
“I know it was you.”
“Meh meh maaah.”
He turns around and gives me his butt. I scratch the spot above his tail and he drops his upper body with another gravely purr.
“Seriously. Close the fridge.”
“Mah meeeh,” he meows in a way that feels like a teen wailing “I know.”
I walk down the ramp and grab my purse off the desk in the office.
“Be good!” I yell at Oscar, wherever he is.
A meow bounces off the walls before I close the door to the back. I lock it up tight, check the handle, then the protection spells. He’s safe there. Even if someone did break in, he would be the scariest thing in the shop.
“You ready?” Renee asks as she throws double horns and a screaming face.
“Never been more ready in my life!” I reply in a deep growl like her heavy metal music.
Drew laughs as he closes the tailgate to their truck. Thank goodness for them; we’re able to have a great big display at the fair instead of just a little table.
The drive to the tri-county fair is like a high-definition technicolor show. Orange, red, and gold explode on either side of the single-lane highway. As we wind deeper into the hills, the trees only get taller and more vibrant.
Bastian is quiet. His hand rests on my thigh, and ever so often, he idly strokes up and down. Every time my mind wanders to worry, he soothes me.
Signs posted on the roadside shout directions to the parking areas for the fair, and boast of its magnificence. Apples, pumpkins, and mugs of ale are anthropomorphized into cute mascots that tell arriving visitors to go to the shops for a treat before games and rides.
My stomach is light with anticipation as we drive around to the back for vendor load-in. Little peeks of Ferris wheels, giant metal slides, and bungee trampolines appear through gaps in the brush, only adding to my excitement. I’ve never been to a fair like this!
The road opens to a large dirt lot where vendors of all kinds are unloading their vehicles.
I see jars of honey, spices, jerky, and more heading toward the food court.
Clothing, trinkets, and paintings are flowing to the market just beside it.
People love to shop and munch—and I’m all for it!
I just hope no one splashes any of our books with cider.
I’ll have to have a “You stain it, you buy it” policy.
I find us a good spot to park and Drew pulls up beside us. We load the bookshelves onto the dollies first and find our spot in the market. It’s a great location right across from the opening to the food market. We really couldn’t have asked for a better spot.
A chill breeze hits us around noon, but the bookshelves act as good windbreaks.
We create a half-circle design with the shelves to prevent inaccessible corners, or places people might get trapped, and then set up the checkout booth off to the side.
Our canopy covers the shelves and the checkout with waterproof siding to make sure that, no matter the weather, we can stay open.
We put down a few colorful rugs and a runner leading out toward the food court to help draw people in.
Finally, just twenty minutes to the Thursday opening at five, the shelves are loaded, my lockbox is stocked with change, and we’re ready to sell. Renee and Drew agreed to take shifts with us so we could all enjoy the fair—and get potty breaks.
Drew and Bastian take the first shift, since we don’t think it’ll be too busy, so Renee and I can enjoy a bit of hot cider to warm up. I insist on buying for all her help, and she finally concedes.
“You know,” I start as we walk the food court.
“I don’t know,” Renee says before I can go on.
I chuckle, grateful for the interruption that eases the tension in my gut.
It shouldn’t be hard to say this, yet somehow it feels like dredging up a stone from my stomach.
As if there’s a chest of secrets buried under years of sediment at the bottom of the lake.
I’ve hauled it up, and now I need to open it for her to see…
What if she doesn’t like what’s inside?
“Cait?” she prompts me, a line of concern wrinkling her perfectly dolled up face.
I clear my throat. “Sorry, I feel awkward for saying it, but I want you to know. Your friendship isn’t something I expected, but I do so dearly treasure it.”
Renee stops perusing and turns to me, her face screwed up in a teary smile. “Same to you.”
I give a wry laugh. “Oh yes, the bookshop people always calling for your help.”
She shoves my arm. “We love helping. And it’s not as if you’re taking advantage of us. We didn’t have any friends up here before you. It was just always work, and each other. Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband, but I’ve been in desperate need of girl time.”
“Yeah, me too. I wasn’t really ever good at making friends in Cali, either,” I say. “I had a lot of business acquaintances, some were rivals really, but never friends.”
Renee nods as she loops arms with me. “I get that, too. Why is it always so hard to connect on a deeper level?”
“I think I wasn’t in the right headspace. I was so bogged down with landing the next deal, getting the promotion, wowing the bosses…everyone was either competition or an obstacle. I lost sight of the things I needed for me. The things that would truly make a life worth living.”
“Well, it also doesn’t help when bitches named Patricia steal your work,” Renee says with a quirked eyebrow.
I sigh. “True. But honestly, I should’ve asked for her help, included her from the beginning. I’d gotten so obsessed with that project that I’d stopped doing the things I loved. I thought for sure it would get me the promotion, when I didn’t even know if I was being considered for it.”
Renee rubs my arm compassionately. “You definitely were.”
“I’m glad I didn’t get it,” I say with a bright smile to assuage her concern. “While I would do things differently now, I’m glad I didn’t then. Those choices led me here, so it’s hard to call them mistakes.”
“We’re all glad you’re here, too. Bastian probably most of all since you saved him from eternal lizarddom,” she says, then makes a silly reptilian face, pulling her lips wide as she crosses her eyes and sticks out her tongue.
We laugh, our warm, cidery breath fogging in the fall air.
Suddenly, Renee’s expression changes, concern furrowing her brow. I glance over my shoulder, catching librarian glasses and a crooked nose before I’m jostled hard. He grabs my arm with a firm grip on my bag.
“Quiet,” comes the groaning voice I’ve heard in my nightmares. “Not a fuss from you or I torch the book—don’t play dumb, I know what’s in your bag. I could see its magical signature a mile away with my head up my ass.”
Renee glares daggers at the man behind us. “I thought something smelled like shit.”
“Ha, ha,” the hunter wheezes and I hear the snap of an opening blade. “And don’t even think about brushing that brand on your chest.”
Renee’s anger gains a sheen of fear.
“Sounds like my cat did a number on your voice box,” I say, trying to keep my confidence as he steers us away from the market.
“Don’t you worry,” he grunts. “I’ve got a little spot for him on my mantle.”
“You touch that cat and I’ll take your balls,” I snarl.
“You’re so spirited!” he exclaims with a smarmy tone. “I might keep you when this is all over.”
“People will look for us,” Renee growls out.
“Oh, sugar, I’m countin’ on it.”
Icy dread wraps around my heart as the hunter leans forward, smirking at me.
“You’re dragon bait.”