Page 9 of Batty About You (Pine Ridge Universe #23)

“I’m sorry I never told you. I really didn’t know how to.”

I can’t stop staring at him. We walk over together, me still in sneakers, him with his head bowed and shoulders dragged down with the weight of his wings.

How could he tell me? I would have thought he was crazy.

But... Would I have thought that? My family believes in so many things that others don’t, like angels, demons, ghosts, and other things like La Llorona, the weeping woman.

We celebrated Día de los Muertos every year growing up, even though our celebrations got smaller and smaller as my parents became more “Americanized.”

“I’m sorry you couldn’t tell me. I wouldn’t have told you, either.”

“And now that you know... I know it can’t continue.” Bogdan tries to give me a brave smile, but it crumples down at the corners, and he blinks hard.

We’re walking with our arms linked, and I suddenly lock my arm so tight through his that his wing presses to my bare shoulders, and I have to hold back a shudder.

Leathery skin on skin.

Skin on skin.

This time the shudder is lower and smaller, a wave of desire I thought fear and shock would have killed.

I’m here with Bogdan. I love him, and my feelings haven’t changed. They’ve just gained new layers. I struggle to explain that in words, and finally go with, “I love you.”

He stops. “You do? Still?”

My head bounces hard in a nod. “I’ve loved you for so long. As a friend, and a confidant, and then with secret hope that you would be mine one day... I’m in love with you.” I look at his face, and I can see the shape of the man I know under the fur. “Mi novio,” I whisper.

“My love,” he whispers back. “We can go slow, okay? I’d wait another seven years for you to learn to like this side of me.”

“What is this side of you?” I pluck up the courage to ask what I dread. “Do you have to fly at night? Eat bugs? Make blood offerings or eat people?”

Bogdan looks shocked, and it’s comical.

And cute.

Oh, something is wrong with me, or love really is blind, because with his eyes as round as saucers and his mouth opened in shock, I think he looks like a startled teddy bear—and I’m so here for it.

“No! I don’t drink blood or worship evil entities.

I don’t do anything! Well, I stay inside and study.

I can’t go out like this.” He shrugs. “I mean, I can turn into a little bat and go out, but it’s not like I can talk to anyone, so why bother?

I’d rather stay inside, writing to you, or talking to you on the phone.

See, I can shift from bat to man-bat in the night, but not human.

And in the day, I’m human with limited power to shift.

Like a one-way street that’s controlled by the moon. ”

“So... you mean... All that changes is the way you look? Not what you do, or how you feel, or what you eat?”

“Nothing changes except my ability to run to Target and fit in my clothes. Oh, and driving at night sucks in my little car, but I’ve been thinking about getting a Jeep when I get my first job after college.

” Boggie rubs the back of his furry head with one hand, the wings stretching out like a brown sail behind his shoulder.

“Once I tell my family about this place—if it’s like the policeman said—I might look at the NYU campus here for my PA degree. ”

My heart quickens in delight. “We would be on campus together for a year!”

“I know! And I could be your new roommate! I mean, if we were together, we could live in your apartment near campus. I’d get a part-time job and pay half the bills, obviously. I’m not a freeloader.”

“I’ll be teaching full-time after next year. There are only a handful of schools here, and they only need one or two music teachers among them, so I’m not sure where I’ll end up going.”

“I hear there are teacher and medical shortages pretty much everywhere,” Bogdan says eagerly. “Wherever you go, I’d be willing to go.”

The conversation flows faster and faster, our hands clasping tighter and tighter.

This is my friend. My love. I can feel him under the fur and the strange face.

His heart is still mine.

And my heart is still his.

“Sorry. That was so presumptuous of me. We haven’t even had our first real date. But, I’m... I was thinking I could take you out tomorrow. Make a day of it? And if what the police officer said was true, m-maybe we could even go out to dinner?” he chokes out.

He looks so terrified by that prospect, the idea of people discovering his secret.

Oh, geez. I was the only person outside of his family he dared to tell, and I made it worse.

The angry little woman inside my head kicks my shins when I realize I also imprisoned my own boyfriend in a parrot cage after I hit him with my car!

“I would love to go out with you as much as you want, or stay in. Whatever you feel safer with. I’m—I’m sorry I dumped you in Pedro’s cage.

I’m sorry I hit you with my car. You might have had your own ‘dark secret,’ but I’m the crazy lady from the internet here.

I backed into you, knocked you out, and held you hostage. ”

To my surprise, he laughs, and it sounds exactly the same, warm and light, like summer sunshine, sinking into my bones. Utterly contagious.

“This is so not funny,” I tell him, laughing anyway.

“I know, but it’d make one heck of a story to tell our kids. ‘Listen, little Catalina—”

“Catalina?”

Bogdan shrugs as we cross the campus. Inside the student dorm, Monster Mash is blaring, and I can hear drunken giggles.

I’m so happy to be away from that, with someone who might look so different from me, but who feels the same where it counts.

“One time, I asked my mother if there was a Romanian version of your name, and she said Catalina was the closest thing, so in my head, I always call our daughter Catalina. You know, in my head.”

He doesn’t know it, but the more he talks, the closer I am to flinging him into the grass and starting in on that family right now.

“Creepy?” Boggie asks, hunching his shoulders so he can make himself smaller.

“Utterly adorable,” I correct.

“Oh. Well, then, we’ll say, ‘Listen, little Catalina, when Daddy went to Pine Ridge for the first time to propose to Mommy at the Halloween Ball, he was so nervous that he left two hours earlier than he should have and ended up flying all over the town—and right into Mommy’s car.

Mommy bravely rescued the little injured bat—”

“And locked Daddy up in an old parrot cage.” I let out a hoot of laughter. “Our poor baby! She’s going to be so confused.”

“Imagine her telling her friends at pre-school!”

“We have to stay in Pine Ridge so she can go to school with Officer Walsh’s kids. ‘My daddy had to turn into a rabbit and hop into my mommy’s lap.”

By now, we’re laughing so hard that we can’t straighten up, and my dress is dragging in the wet grass.

“I’m such a mess,” I wheeze, wiping my eyes.

“Lies. All lies. Most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. The only woman I’ve ever even glanced at in that special way, y’know? Captured my heart from that first letter, and that first school picture you sent... Zowee.”

“Who even says zowee?” I lean on him, but this time, I swivel to the front so my hands slide up his chest as my heart pounds like a timpani in the Symphony Fantastique. I’m touching him. His hands grip my elbows.

This kiss is long and slow and surprisingly smooth for two virgins who have never dated. Hell, maybe it’s actually clumsy, we can’t tell. We just can’t stop.

It’s so perfect, out under the moonlight, with White Pines just over ahead, some perfect backdrop to a first kiss. Our first real kiss, one that speaks of love and lust, not just the little peck I gave him to stop him from saying mean words about my very best friend.

When the kiss breaks, his eyes are glazed. “Wow.”

“Wow,” I echo.

“You kissed me. Even though I’m like this?” He puts his hand to his lips in awe. “I was going to tell you that we can wait to do anything physical until daylight, when I’m human.”

“That’s fine, if that’s what makes you comfortable,” I say quickly.

There’s silence. “I’ve never.”

“I know. Me, either.”

“I only wanted you.”

“Same.”

“I don’t care about the timing. I just want you to be happy,” he whispers.

Suddenly, I realize I don’t care about the timing, either. I just want it to be soon. “We’ll go with the flow. Is...” I swallow as my cheeks suddenly outshine the Jack-o-lanterns we can see lining the walkway of White Pines. “Are things different in this body?”

“Bigger and hairier. And I have wings. But they’re handy. Wanna see?”

“Okay.”

He wraps his arms around me and his wings cover me, making me instantly warm. “Ooh. That’s so nice. Like a leather jacket, but softer,” I sigh.

“You’ll always be warm at night if I’m with you, honey.”

I love how he calls me names like honey and sweetheart. Old-fashioned names, not like bae and shawty.

Our second kiss is even longer.