Page 128 of Road Trip with a Vampire

Peter’s eyes found mine. “I did, though.”

I reached up to push aside a lock of his hair that had fallen into his eyes, shivering a little when he turned his face to kiss my palm. “You alreadymorethan repaid your debt to me, you know.”

“This isn’t about that.”

“What is it, then?”

He nodded at Flossie. “I just really love goats.”

I snorted. “I don’t believe you.”

He sighed theatrically, then pulled me into his arms. “If you must know, I’m here because I wanted to see my handiwork up close after it was all finished.”

“The fences look great,” I told him. A huge understatement. After seeing what a fabulous job Peter had done on Yoga Magic’s roof, Becky and Lindsay had all but begged him to build temporary fences around the field to keep the goats from wandering off.

I could tell he was glad for the work. Not just because it was work he enjoyed, although it was, but also because he needed to start supplementing his income. The small payment we forced him to take for these fences would help, now that he was cutting back on the contracts he took as a fang for hire.

The morning we’d woken tangled up together in my bed afterreconciling, he’d told me he would never again take contracts that came with even the slightest chance of him needing to kill someone who didn’t have it coming. Those cases had been a small percentage of his workload but had also made up the bulk of his income.

He needed to find ways to make up the loss.

“I liked building the fences,” he said, nodding at the field. He really had done a terrific job. “I’d like to expand my work to include carpentry, I think. For humanandnonhuman clients.”

He looked so hopeful when he said it. Happy. It was a wonderful look on him.

Becky and Lindsay appeared by the trailer once all twelve goats were out and ambling towards the field.

“Finally!” Becky exclaimed, eyes darting between me and Peter. “We were beginning to think you wouldn’t show.”

“Why?” I asked, giving one of the smaller goats—Angus, I thought—a gentle pat on the behind to encourage him to follow his friends. “You thought I’d make a run for it with a dozen goats in tow?”

“No,” Lindsay said, smirking. “We just wondered whether the two of you would make it out of bed in time.”

My face burned crimson. I didn’t have to look at Peter to know his attention was likely on anything and everything but me.

It was true that after reuniting, Peter and I had struggled to keep our hands off each other when we were alone. Sometimes when we weren’t alone, too. There’d been one late night incident at the studio when we’d reasonably assumed we were alone, which had…

Well.

How were we supposed to know Lindsay had scheduled an after-hours one-on-one lesson with a student?

“I’ll…just bring the goats to the field,” Peter said, voicestrained. Maybe he was thinking about that night Lindsay had caught us in the studio, too. He made acome heremotion with his hands, and like history’s most unlikely pied piper, he led the goats from the parking lot to the field, where people were already beginning their stretching exercises.

“I wouldn’t miss this,” I insisted once Peter was safely out of earshot. “You know I wouldn’t, right?”

“We know,” Becky agreed. She walked over to me and linked her arm through mine. “We’re just giving you a hard time.”

“We’re honestly glad you found someone to blow your back out,” Lindsay said conspiratorially. “You’ve been living like a monk since we’ve known you.”

“Um. Thanks?” I tried to remind myself that my friends were only being supportive. Peter, thank the gods, was too far away to overhear what Lindsay had just said.

But by the time I looked up again, he was back by my side.

“Ready?” he asked, eyes on mine, one large hand on my shoulder.

My friends gaped at him. “How did you get back here so fast?” Lindsay asked. “You just left.”

Peter shrugged. “I used to run track in college.”