Page 50 of Marked By Shadows

Chapter 16

The craft shop yielded a few gems, including a few old pattern books for quilting that I picked for Alex to browse through. They were hand stitching designs, some very intricate, but Alex was fascinated and wondered if he could do them with a machine. If Mae’s ghost was in the shop, he did not point her out to me. We shopped, then ate enough BBQ that I felt like I could crawl into the backseat and sleep for a week.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone eat that much,” Alex teased me for the hundredth time.

“It was so good,” I groaned, suddenly sad that Alex couldn’t drive because I could really have used a nap instead of the forty-minute drive.

“It was good.” Alex patted his stomach. “I have a food baby. That’s what they call it right? Or does that only go with alien impregnators.”

“I think it’s a whole separate kink. Pretty sure one I’d fit right now too.”

“I can drive,” Alex volunteered.

“You don’t have a valid driver’s license,” I reminded him.

He let out a long sigh. “I haven’t had an episode in a while.”

“I think you have to be a year from your last one before they let you test. But we can look into it when we get home.” I got into the driver’s seat, put on the belt and waited for Alex to get settled before starting the car. I was not a fan of SUVs normally since it seemed like it was more car than most people needed. However, for this trip, it was proving to be roomy and useful, as we had the back filled with stuff we’d collected at Mae’s.

Once I pointed the vehicle in the direction toward the B&B I was kind of happy to be headed back early. The sky was growing dark already, as it normally did in the winter. Hopefully we’d be back before eight and have an early evening of watching something stupid on my laptop. I planned to finish the binding on the quilt we’d done today, since that would take an hour at most. Alex was usually happy to sit and watch me sew, or read. And now he had a half dozen books on quilting design to look through. Maybe it was the hope of an easy night that cursed us.

“What time does the convention start tomorrow? Are we going early?” Alex asked.

“It opens at nine, and I’d like to be there around that time. I have a few booths in particular in mind, that I want to visit first. But it’s open until five tomorrow for the early crowd.”

“Is the rest of the group going?” Alex wanted to know. I suspected he was worried that Melissa would tag along.

“I don’t think so. None of them are vendors. I had to show some special paperwork to get in,” I told him. “And since you’re technically my employee, that’s how you’re getting in.”

“Ah, I see. Another benefit of sleeping with the boss.”

“I’m not your boss. Lukas is.”

“I call that splitting hairs. Since you do my schedule and complete the accounting software to approve paychecks.”

“But Lukas technically pays you.”

“If that makes you feel better about bossing me around,” Alex teased. “And finger pressing me.”

I laughed. “You’re a perv deep down inside, aren’t you?”

“I think I am,” he admitted. “But only with you. I have to work to not think of doing things with you to keep from getting hard. It’s like you’re my on-switch.”

I got what he was saying, and couldn’t keep the smile off my face. Alex didn’t hold back, and that was okay. He told me things straight up and it helped to keep my anxiety in check. Often I had to remind myself that we were still in the teaching phase. Learning about each other, finding how we fit and where we bumped heads. I loved that I could turn him on without trying. But I admitted I wanted a bit more from our relationship than lust. We were getting there, I think. I hoped.

“So because you’re a vendor and I’m an employee, is that why my ticket cost so much?” Alex changed the subject as he often did when the teasing danced on the edge of foreplay.

“Partially. More because I had to add you right before it started instead of having grabbed an earlier rate. Conventions do that a lot. You buy a year before the event and get admission for a quarter of the door price. But as a vendor my pricing was a bit different than the rest of the group anyway even though I don’t have a table. It’s all about tax IDs and paperwork.”

“Do you have to show stuff at the door then?”

“Our IDs. Everything else is done. We’ll get a special badge for the weekend that proves we are vendors. Gets us into vendor exclusive events and better seats at some of the other stuff. Some of the booths will offer special discounted pricing for us, mostly for networking purposes. And a lot of the young new designers here will be looking to make connections.” I suspected a textile convention was a lot like most other types of product conventions. Big dogs trying to pump up their products, and the little guys trying to get noticed.

“That’s what you’re looking for, right?”

“Yes. Some new fabric lines would be great. But I also am hoping for a few pattern designers too. A lot of the bigger brands demand exclusivity, and I’m not a fan of locking out the market for those starting fresh.”

“So we’ll see fabric and sewing machines, what else?”