Page 22 of Culture and Curiosities (Blue Ridge Charm #1)

Wren

“Daddy said I could ask you if it was okay to ask more questions.” Kenzie planted himself right in front of the doorway of the council room to make sure we didn’t escape before he got us.

I wasn’t sure if us being one of the last ones out because we’d gotten distracted was the reason for it or if it was just luck, but I was curious to see what was going to happen after he went to the trouble of warning us. “I will respect safewords and prior social commitments, though.”

Before I could figure out what to say, he kept going…

earnest and adorable…and as pushy as everyone else in town.

“Having dinner with us would be a new social commitment that would make your life easier because answering my questions one-on-one and letting me have dinner with an alien will help spread the rumors around faster and you won’t have to explain the same things a thousand times.

I’ll tell everyone at the diner in the morning. I promise.”

I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be something we needed to praise him for or not. I was manipulative enough that if it had come from me I probably should’ve been punished, but Kenzie was different.

Daddy took the decision out of my hands because he was better at that kind of stuff, and he smiled at Kenzie. “That would be helpful. Thank you for thinking of us. Having dinner away from the diner tonight would probably be a good idea.”

Kenzie nodded like Daddy was brilliant. “They’re all going to be really nosy because I’m pretty sure the room is bugged somehow.”

Great.

Daddy’s head cocked, so I gave him the dictionary page that explained it. Once he got it, he straightened. “That’s fascinating. What do you know about those kinds of devices?”

It was Kenzie’s turn to look confused before having a lightbulb moment. He leaned around us and frowned before calling out. “Daddy. The aliens don’t have listening devices. But they said we can have dinner with the alien and his mate. I’m going to see if Wren wants to play too.”

Yes, I wanted to play too.

“Oh.” The easily distractable dragon looked around the room seriously. “Bugging the conference room is naughty and I tattled on you to Carrick.”

When we both looked confused, possibly for different reasons, Kenzie smiled at us and lowered his voice. “That’s Lorne’s cranky mate. He’s a mage. He’s dangerous and has a short temper. Lorne’s the sparkly one.”

“You’re really good at breaking things down into the most important parts. You’d have been very good to go through the portal with, but I understand why you’re staying here with your Daddy.” I was being honest and polite but I’d miscalculated.

He tackled me.

“Thank you.” Daddy kept him from nearly taking us both down, but I got a squishy hug that rearranged several organs. “You’re so nice. I’m so glad you got an alien mate and he didn’t get someone cranky. We have to take care of our aliens.”

“Our?”

Daddy was back to being confused again but for a whole different reason that time.

“Have I been kept? No. Adopted?”

He was cute but I didn’t have any answers.

“I don’t know.”

It was a good question, though.

“With this town nothing would surprise me, but at least they like you enough to want to keep you.”

That seemed like a step in the right direction as long as it wasn’t to put him in some kind of zoo with the dinosaurs. Which brought that back to the front of my mind.

“Dinosaurs, really?”

Daddy shrugged in my head.

“I did not realize that would shock everyone. Didn’t. I didn’t realize it would shock everyone. We just thought you had removed them from the area for safety.”

“I’m glad you want to take care of him. Thank you.” Hugging him back was the only good option until his Daddy saved us all.

“Come on.” The deputy was trying not to grin as he gathered up his boy, but I didn’t think Kenzie would’ve minded that his Daddy thought he was cute. “What should we make for dinner since we’re having guests?”

Kenzie straightened and gave us another smile. “Don’t worry. I don’t cook. He’s being nice, so you don’t have to worry.”

Worry?

What had he done before he found his Daddy?

The Daddy in question was back to trying not to laugh, and somehow that gave me the impression Kenzie was downplaying the problem with his cooking.

“You’re both very nice.” Daddy was very nice too even though he was still very confused. “I’m looking forward to it.”

“My mate? What are the social topics I need to understand?”

He just kept asking good questions.

“Normally, I could explain that but this town is not normal for America or Earth or even for dragons. So we’re just going to have to do our best.”

His mental sigh said he’d been afraid I was going to say that.

“Um, we just need to let him know if there’s any food you can’t or won’t eat, and we need to find topics to talk about that won’t upset anyone.”

That should hit the highlights, right?

“I have not run into anything at the diner that I found distasteful and I think I will be the topic of conversation, so that can’t be offensive.”

Hopefully.

“Just remember safewords and it’s okay to say something is too personal to talk about.”

Daddy sighed again in my head but smiled at Kenzie and the deputy. “Should we follow you to your place? Wren has a rented car so we can follow you.”

He was really good at reading all the parts of my mind at once…it was really handy…what had we been talking about?

Oh, too personal.

Daddy seemed to be debating if laughing at me would be rude or not.

“My mate, I was asked about sexual play toys at the diner.”

Okay, good point.

“We’re just going to do our best to play nice but we’re not going to be afraid to point out something is rude or too weird to deal with.”

Daddy was right. Sex toys at the main town restaurant said there was only so polite we had to be.

“You know, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to let my mother come visit. Just the diner men would give her a heart attack.”

Before Daddy could finish a thought about how he agreed with me, Kenzie spoke up again. “Yes, that’ll be fine. Daddy can give you directions just in case, though.”

Did Kenzie not know where he lived?

That thought must’ve shown on my face because the deputy was desperately trying to take the conversation seriously. “There are quite a few roads that don’t actually have names and they aren’t always on the maps. I seem to be the only one keeping track of those, so it’s best I give directions.”

Kenzie shrugged, not worried or offended. “I don’t care how confused the new UPS guy was. He was rude.”

Oh.

“What is a UPS guy?” Daddy asked that out loud but I gave him the picture and what the website had looked like the last time I’d tracked a package. “Ah, thank you. I can see both of you being frustrated.”

Kenzie seemed to like not being told to be nice to the confused UPS guy, but he focused on something I wasn’t expecting. “You’ve got a good bond? Words and conversations right away?”

I wasn’t sure if he was leading us somewhere or not, but Daddy spoke up faster than I could decide what to say. “Yes, I’m not sure if our bond is unique because of our differences or similar to others, however. The portal opening also seems to have changed the bonds.”

Since he was right, I nodded. “I don’t even know how we’d begin to figure that out, though. Has anyone started doing a survey or anything about bonds over time? A research project?”

Kenzie and the deputy both cocked their heads, but it was the deputy who spoke up. “We’ve got an extensive library of old diaries. Could someone use those to put together the information?”

Who could do something like that?

“Do we have any dragons or mages in any of the university research programs?” I wasn’t sure it was the right angle, but it was the only one that came to mind right off the bat. “They might know how to compile the data more clearly.”

“University?”

Daddy’s question made me think he’d never heard the word, so I sent him over more info.

“I have a question.” Before the deputy could stop him, Kenzie smiled at his Daddy. “Everyone said I could ask questions.”

Technically yes…so he charged right back in. “What part of that didn’t you know? I don’t always understand what you’re confused about and what made sense.”

“Originally we were told to use a specific spell to help us acquire the local language.” Daddy was still frustrated about how that had gone and I was pretty sure they could hear it as well.

“There seems to have been some problems with how the spell worked and because the woman we initially scanned did not have an up-to-date vocabulary.”

When Kenzie nodded and waited for more information, Daddy was polite and kept going. “The fact that your language has a variety of words for very similar or even the same thing makes it harder for the spell.”

“Oh.” Kenzie’s slow nod was mirrored by his mate’s, so it seemed like they’d both had questions. “That makes sense.”

“Bonding with my mate has helped it a great deal and we think when the information is transferred to a completely unfamiliar person it will be passed more accurately. For now, when I do not understand a word right away my mate is very helpful and sends me images from your dictionary book.”

They had matching head cocks that time.

“Daddy?” Kenzie’s question was clearly about us but we had to be patient until they’d finished speaking privately or until his Daddy just figured it out on his own.

“Okay, I’ll ask this one.” The deputy frowned. “Full dictionary pages?”

Ah.

Um.

Yeah.

Daddy was very confused about what everyone else was confused about, so I knew it was my turn.

“I have a photographic memory and when I was in middle school there was an issue. It wasn’t my fault but that asshole lost his front tooth, so I was grounded for a month and reading the dictionary was part of my punishment. ”

For some reason my mother thought I could be bored into being better behaved…and straight…I couldn’t, but it’d come in handy for Daddy, though.

“Some people are just rude and don’t need all their teeth.” Kenzie shrugged and reached out to take my hand. As he pulled me out into the hallway, he smiled sweetly. “What other books have you read? What’s your opinion on human forms…are they crunchy or not?”

As I tried to decide which answer wouldn’t get me arrested by his mate, Daddy let us head out toward the cars and turned to the deputy. “I thought it was a skill my people here on Earth had developed.”

“Nope. That’s just a Wren thing.” The deputy sounded like he wasn’t sure if he could find the situation funny or not. He probably ran into that a lot, but I was just glad Daddy wasn’t considered a fucking alien . “I bet it’s been a big help, though.”

Maybe because Daddy Manny was too polite?

Was it a leadership thing?

A Daddy could keep his naughty side to himself thing?

Kenzie wasn’t the only one with questions, but manners probably meant his got to come first.

“So…has he told you what his mating customs are like? How do we get you married so his family accepts it? That’s always a thing in books.

What about sex? Is that the same? Do we have all the same parts?

” No, he got to go first because he never stopped talking.

“I’m pretty sure the men at the diner are going to want to know if they have kinks too or is that just an Earth thing? ”

That would be a good question they’d immediately want answers to…and we hadn’t really mentioned that in the meeting, so even eavesdropping wouldn’t have helped.

I couldn’t tell that to Kenzie, though, because he just kept going.

“Why does he look like us when we didn’t use to look like us? What does us look like before? Does he have any food allergies? Can he eat dairy?” Kenzie scrunched up his face but still kept going. “Daddy was going to make mac-n-cheese but now he’s worried about giving an alien a tummy ache.”

His mind was a busier place than mine.

That was amazing.

“Can we eat dinosaurs? I couldn’t decide if he meant they were all the size of chickens or if they tasted like chicken or if they were like really big chickens.

The Florida guy was really excited, but he kept interrupting and that’s so rude.

” Kenzie took a breath, but I wasn’t sure if that meant I was supposed to talk.

“Oh, Daddy said I had to ask you if there’s anything your Daddy doesn’t like talking about.

He wasn’t sure what an alien politician would consider private. ”

Daddy was going to appreciate them at least thinking about privacy stuff.

“Does being a politician change that? I wasn’t sure and Daddy wasn’t any help. Politicians aren’t always his favorite people but aliens are different. I know that. You know that. We’re just going to help my Daddy with that.”

So Daddy Manny wasn’t a fucking alien but he was a fucking politician?