Page 81 of Demon's Heart

“I don’t think you ran scared at all.”

“But I didn’t exactly get on board either.”

“I never expected you to. Not with the way everything was thrust on you.” Dante paused. Ollie was taking this final revelation better than he’d expected. “Does hearing all this now scare you?”

“No, not so much.” Ollie pushed off the bar, twisting around so he faced Dante fully. “I think I get what you’re saying.” He laughed, shaking his head.

Dante shifted closer. “What do you mean?”

“I finally get it.” Ollie’s brow wrinkled. “You’re saying something having a larger impact on the magic world doesn’t have to impact us. Me—your mate—existing is this big thing, butto me, existing isn’t a big deal at all. It’s just my life. Both realities are true. And me being a big deal to a bunch of demons doesn’t change who I am.”

“Exactly, Ollie. Finding you is big, and we will have something special between us, but it’s also you and me. Doing ordinary things, unaffected by the weight of it all.”

Ollie broke into a grin. “I like that. It’s big and small. Even if it’s guaranteed, it’s not all predetermined. Even if we know it’ll work out, we don’t know how. I think I can live with that. I’d choose to sit here with you even if we weren’t bonded. I know I would. And I’m still choosing even though we are.”

Dante squeezed Ollie’s shoulder. “Yes, more than one thing can be true at once without canceling the other out. We can be fated and choose this at the same time.”

“Big and small,” Ollie repeated, a tiny smile twitching his lips.

Dante leaned down and kissed the top of his head. “You got it, darling. We’re whatever we want to be.”

Ollie raised his drink, cheeks flushed. “Cheers tothat.”

Dante’s demon fire flared. He signaled the bartender and ordered a Coke and another beer for Ollie. “Cheers.”

They clinked glasses.

“So, can this be our first date?” Ollie asked.

“Certainly.” Dante ran a hand through his hair. “Drinks is a common first date, or so I’ve heard.” He’d read a bunch of dating advice online before the art show. He could finally put it to use.

Ollie’s expression turned sheepish. “I was so worried you thought dinner at my place with Harper and Ash was a double date.”

Dante set his soda down. “Worried? Why?”

Ollie picked at his beer bottle. “No relationship was worth the risk. Even good people couldn’t protect me from my bad habits, like wanting to please others over staying true to myself. And since I was so against anything, it freaked me out that you might have thought it was a date when I hadn’t agreed to that.”

“I’d wondered if something happened that night.” Dante’s face heated. “I confess, I’d hoped to ask you out when I saw you again.”

“But then you were so accepting of being friends,” Ollie said like he didn’t understand.

“It’s what you wanted, and that was more important than my preconceived notions of what mating bonds looked like. I had to open my mind a little, but I trusted that whatever we’d have would be right for us. Friends or lovers, or anything else we dreamed up.”

“You trusted fate. Huh.” Ollie seemed to mull this over like it meant a lot to him.

“I suppose I did.”

Dante had trusted fate, hadn’t he? Even after all this time. Maybe that’s why he never gave up. He’d never have put it that way if asked, but it fit. And it seemed Ollie was starting to trustfate too.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Dante flagged the bartender down. “Do you have cocktail cherries?”

She smiled indulgently. “We sure do.”

“Can I have…?” He considered the size of his drink. “Eight cherries, please?”

The woman bit her lip. “Sure, love. Be right back.”

Dante beamed at Ollie, who giggled. “What?”