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CHAPTER 10

MAHK

I paced the parking lot of Tanner’s work, the bouquet of flowers in my hand. The woman at the flower shop had said that roses were popular for wooing a romantic interest, but when I’d looked at them, they didn't seem right. The roses were beautiful, but they were too uniform and monotone for my Tanner. He was all explosive color and wild edges. Nothing about him or his life was neat and monotone, and I wanted my first gift to him to demonstrate this.

So twenty minutes later, the nice woman at the shop had helped me design my own bouquet, and then I was on my way. Now that I was here, I was having doubts. The research I’d done said flowers were a good gift in the beginning stages of wooing, but what if I’d gotten it wrong? Tanner had never mentioned liking flowers and had none around his home. Maybe he disliked them. Or maybe he was allergic. That was another thing I’d learned during my research: humans could have sensitivities to certain things and it could make them sick. The more I learned about my mate’s species, the more terrified I was. How were they so prone to vulnerability?

Anyway, maybe this was a bad idea. Tanner hadn’t seen me yet, he was busy talking to the other cashier who was taking over, so I could easily hide these before he saw them. I did not want to make him upset by presenting him a gift he couldn’t even enjoy.

I was looking for a place to place them when the bells on the door chimed.

“Mahk?” I turned, trying to hide the bouquet behind my back, but it was too late. Tanner found them.

He met me where I stood in the cracked lot and smiled crookedly. “Whatchu got there, little stalker?”

I felt like maybe little stalker was an insult, but I was anything but insulted. It made my heart skip a beat when he called me that with that teasing but sweet lilt to his tone.

Tanner raised an eyebrow and waited. Knowing he wouldn’t give up until I showed him, I pulled the flowers from behind my back and handed them to him.

“The internet said flowers were a good way to woo a romantic interest,” I explained. “The woman at the flower shop suggested roses, but they didn’t feel right.”

Tanner looked a little awestruck, and my nerves were starting to get the better of me. Before I could rip them out of his hands and run away, my mate leaned down and lightly brushed his lips against mine. It was nothing like the kiss from that first night Tanner had found out about me, but it was the first time he’d kiss me at all in the five days that had passed. My lips tingled with the sensation, and I found myself leaning forward, silently begging for more.

“Thank you, sweetheart. You’re right. Roses aren’t really my thing. But these, I love. It’s like a rainbow.”

I knew my mate would love them! I brimmed with pride from knowing I’d pleased Tanner and at how well I already knew my mate.

“Let’s run by the house so I can put these in water, and then we’ll head over to the school.”

I nodded and then started to hum happily to myself when his free hand entwined with mine.

From what I’d read in my research, this wasn’t a traditional date, but when Tanner had asked me to come to his brother’s baseball game with him, that had seemed more significant than any dinner and movie that the Google had said was standard. I wouldn’t be hiding in the shadows. I would be sitting directly next to Tanner and his sisters while they watched their brother play in something called the playoffs. For Tanner, whose family was more important to him than anything, I couldn’t help but feel a thrill at being invited.

He didn’t live far from the convenience store, so soon we were standing in the overgrown lawn of his home. I wondered about that. The rest of the houses in the neighborhood had neatly trimmed grass with pretty, colorful flowers. I wanted to ask Tanner why his was not like that but didn’t know how.

I hesitated on the gravel pathway that led up to the faded porch. Did he want me to come inside?

He seemed to understand my hesitation and tugged only my hand. “Come on in. You don’t have to wait here like a creeper.”

I didn’t know what a creeper was but was too excited to care. It was my first time being invited inside Tanner’s home, and while I’d seen most of it through the windows, it felt different entering

The front door led directly to a living area. It was clean but worn. An old carpet with clear tread marks from overwear and slightly faded stains covered the space. The sofa was large and looked more comfortable than Mrs. Cunningham’s, but the fabric was as faded as the carpet, and the dents from people sitting on it were obvious. Next to the sofa was a chair in the same fabric. It was soft and comfortable looking, and the bottom opened with a lever to allow the person sitting to rest their feet up. I liked that chair a lot. I wanted to ask Tanner what it was called, but his mother was currently sleeping in it, so it felt rude.

Tanner smiled uncomfortably and led me past her. In the hallway, I couldn’t help but notice the walls lined with photographs of the family. They were a timeline of Tanner and his siblings’ lives, starting from when he’d just been an infant cradled in his much younger mother’s arms, a man with a build so similar to Tanner’s, it must have been his father’s sitting next to her, smiling down happily at the small child. Eventually, the man stopped being in the pictures, and his mother began looking weaker and more frail. More children continued to pop up, but despite the hardships that had clearly marred their lives, they were always smiling, always so filled with love.

I allowed Tanner to lead me into the kitchen, which was in a similar state as the living area. It was clean, but the appliances and countertops were old and not of great quality. I didn’t have to be of the human realm to notice that. The floor was chipped, and in a few places, mats covered missing tiles. None of that mattered, though, because the focus would always be on the dining table and the brightly colored chairs that made the place feel very homey.

Tanner was rummaging through the cabinets, muttering quietly to himself. Eventually, he pulled out a tall glass mug that we would drink pints of ale out of back home.

“We don’t have a vase,” he told me sheepishly. “But I think this should work.”

“It’s perfect.” He seemed self-conscious for some reason, and I never wanted him to feel like that. Like the bouquet of flowers, the mug fit Tanner much more than a vase ever would. He quickly filled it with water and placed it on the counter near the window behind the sink.

“They look great,” he said, closing the space between us and wrapping his arms around my waist. “Thank you. Seriously. No one has ever done that for me before.”

The statement both pleased me and saddened me. I hated that Tanner had never had anyone who cherished him the way he deserved. On the other hand, it satisfied some part of me I hadn’t realized existed to know that I would be the one to give that to my mate. The only one.

The way Tanner was looking at me now, I’d do anything to keep that expression on his face. I could practically feel his contentment. I’d done that. I’d made him happy by such a simple gesture.

His phone vibrated then, pulling both of us out of our moment. He still didn’t move for a long while, his gaze meaningful and heavy. Finally, he dragged those brown eyes away and dug it out.

“That was Chelsea. She just picked up the girls from school and will meet us there.”

I nodded. Chelsea was his sisters’ nanny, though he called her a babysitter. I did not understand that phrase, as neither of his sisters were babies, but humans were strange sometimes.

“C’mon. It’s time for you to meet my family.” He took my hand again, which would never not thrill me, and we walked back to the living area. He paused at his mother and separated from my grip so he could adjust the blanket that had shifted on her. He watched her with a sad smile, as the woman barely moved. He kissed her head. “Rest, Mom. I’ll take plenty of pictures.”

He walked away, once again taking my hand, and we left.

The town of Destiny was small, and while Tanner did have an automobile—a truck he’d called it—as well as his mom’s van, he rarely ever used them. Which pleased me because I was still not used to the contraptions. You were locked in a metal tube going at intense speeds. My research had shown how dangerous they were, and I had seen many videos of gruesome accidents. I would prefer that Tanner never used one at all, but when I’d suggested it, he’d laughed in my face. I guessed the idea of a day-long walk to get to his mother’s appointment was not pleasing to him. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with carriages, but apparently humans no longer used them.

The weather was nice, as Tanner had explained, so we walked to the high school, it was called, to see his brother Jake play baseball. I had looked up the game when I’d been invited, and we had something that was similar. It made me pleased that I should be able to follow the game at least somewhat.

In under ten minutes, we were coming across a large brick building. In front was a sign that read: Destiny Memorial High School. Home of the Mustangs . I pulled out the phone that Tanner had helped me buy. It gave me access to the Google everywhere, not only at the Cunninghams’ home, which I was glad for now as I looked up what a mustang was.

“Oh, like a rhipponek but with four legs.”

Tanner tilted his head. “A rhipponek?”

“It is an animal back home, similar to your horses, I think. They have six legs though.”

“Wow. That’s . . . wow.” I didn’t know what wow meant, but he did not seem upset, so I put my phone back in the pocket of my polka-dot pants I’d found in something called a thrift store.

“You know I love hearing about your home, but when we’re at the game, try not to mention that, okay?”

Right. I was just an everyday human who was temporarily living in town for business. That was what we’d decided I should tell people.

“Okay,” I replied easily. I understood why I had to pretend to be a human. It was why I’d been given the magical bangle to begin with. We all knew how dangerous it could be if other species found out about our existence and found a way to infiltrate our world.

We walked through the lot filled with automobiles. Young ones lingered, some sitting on the tops of the vehicles or in the beds of the ones that were trucks. Other children were on the grassy field on the side of the school, kicking a black-and-white ball. None of them paid us any mind as we kept walking back.

“That’s the soccer field,” Tanner whispered to me. “Do you know what soccer is?”

I shook my head but remembered the name so I could research it later. “Back there, you see those yellow posts that are sticking up?”

It was in the distance, but they were clear. “Yes.”

“That’s the football field,” Tanner explained a little excitedly. “That was what I played.”

I could tell it meant a lot to him, and I wanted to ask so many questions. “I want to learn all about it. Do you still play?”

Tanner deflated, and a flash of sadness spread across his features. “No.”

He didn’t say anything else, and even I realized this wasn’t the time to press.

We crossed the soccer field and were then standing in front of a fenced in area. A diamond of sorts was painted in white, and a mound of sand sat in the middle of it. All around, children in two different colored uniforms were standing. Some were stretching. Some were tossing a white ball— baseball , my brain supplied—to each other, catching it in brown mitts. Along the other end of the fence, players were swinging the wooden sticks the humans called bats.

Tanner paused at the fence, where many other families were also mingling about. He scanned the field and then grinned and pointed to where two boys tossed the ball to each other on the far end. “The dark-haired one with his back to us is Jake!” Tanner told me proudly. I chose not to remind him that I knew well what Jake looked like. “His number is 6.” Then a little quieter, he added, “That was my football number.”

That also meant something to Tanner. Something I did not understand now, but I would. Unsure what to do or say, but wanting to fix Tanner’s sadness, I squeezed his hand and leaned into his shoulder.

Just then, the boy with Jake saw us and said something to Tanner’s brother. He turned around and, upon seeing us, broke out into a huge smile and even waved. He looked so much like Tanner at that moment, it warmed my heart.

Tanner laughed. “He’s so corny.” But he waved back, and I could feel how proud he was of Jake.

“C’mon, Chelsea said she was saving us a spot in the bleachers. I can introduce you to Lucy, Mia, and Kenzie.”

“That sounds wonderful.”

Everything felt perfect as we walked over to the metal benches Tanner had called bleachers and up to a young woman with three young girls hanging all over her.