Page 22 of Singing the Dragon’s Heart
Chapter
Twenty-Two
R eno lay on the couch, feet up on the arm, reading.
He loved to read. While he enjoyed movies and video games, he’d grown up in a low-tech keep where those things weren’t readily available, so he cracked a book whenever he could.
Kami was…cleaning.
More like rearranging shit. He wasn’t allowed to use hardcore cleaners now, and he said orange oil and vinegar made his nose hurt. So he was carrying this book here and that plate there, and Kami was muttering at them at the same time.
Reno just let it flow over him, because Kami never annoyed him. And he’d talked to the mated alpha club, and they told him not to worry, that Kami was doing this thing called nesting.
Making the space for the baby, they said.
So he read. Until he found that he was twitching. His feet started it. And if he had his tail right now, it would be going too. There was this humming noise. Kind of like tinkling water. A steady wavelength of sound.
He looked around for Kami, but he couldn’t find him at first glance.
For goodness sake, the apartment wasn’t that big, and Kami was huge.
Reno tried to focus back on his book, but that twitching wouldn’t go away. He’d ignore it, but he knew that was stupid. Trusting your instincts was ninety percent of getting through everything. The other ten percent was money.
He put his book down, stood up, and went searching for his hailee. Reno found him in the nursery, carefully unfolding and refolding all of the little clothes. “Hey, Kami, how are you doing?”
“I’m all right. Restless.” Kami shrugged. “This is that nesting thing that everybody talks about, but Rowan says he doesn’t think I’m quite in labor yet. I figured it was logical to just take advantage of the energy, though.”
“Sounds good to me. You want some help?”
“I do.” That earned him a warm smile, and Kami patted the floor.
He plopped down and started folding tiny socks into balls. That was a challenge and a half with his huge fingers.
Kami worked happily, a smile on his face. “I think we need to talk names, braaken.”
He tilted his head. “You don’t think we should meet her before we name her?”
“Right, but then we need to have some ideas. Like Kate.”
Kate? Seriously? “Kate is not the right name.” Reno said.
“But… I don’t know. I like Catherine. And then we could call her Kate.”
“But why not just name her Kate if you’re going to call her Kate?”
Kami just blinked at him. “I?—”
“You can’t name her Kate.”
“Why not?”
Reno reminded himself that arguing with his very, very pregnant hailee was bad, but Kami was still grinning, so… “Well, because your name has two syllables, and my name has two syllables, so her name should have more than one syllable.”
Kami blinked at him. “Well, it’s not a good reason, but it’s a reason. What do you feel about Cassandra?”
“Cassandra? Wasn’t she the seer that nobody believed? I think that’s dooming her in advance.” Not to mention it might be creepy.
“Well, that’s not a dragon myth; that’s a human myth. She’s not going to be human, and we could call her Cassie.”
“Which is very close to Kami and might be confusing.” Reno fought the twitching of his lips.
“Oh damn.” Kami pursed his lips. “You have a point.”
That really shouldn’t feel so damn satisfying, should it? “What about Samantha? Then she could be a Sammy.”
Kami shook his head. “Again, also very much like Kami, ergo confusing. I do like Samantha though, but Antha is a weird nickname.”
Kami did have a point there. Reno wracked his brain for another option. “What about Persephone?”
“Again, not with the good connotations. What do you feel about Stephanie?”
“No, I don’t love that. Derinda?” Reno had had an Aunt Derinda.
“Have you lost your mind?”
Reno was not going to laugh. “I also have an Aunt Harriet. Then you could call her Harry.”
“No.” That was very sure. “Can you imagine the teasing? Dragon children tease.”
This was harder than Reno had thought.
Seriously.
He just sort of assumed that at some point, baby’s names just popped out of the baby themselves. But no.
No, parents had to figure out what was good and if it sounded good and if they were going to get teased and all of that nonsense.
“Miranda.”
Reno sat with that one for a second. Miranda. He didn’t know what it meant, but it had a nice ring to it and then she could be a Randy. A Randa. Or an Annie.
And it kind of sounded like mirror.
Mirrors made prisms, and her entire bedroom was made of prisms.
“I sort of like it.”
Kami blinked at him. “I sort of do, too. Should we have a Miranda?”
“Why not? I mean, if when she’s born, we look at her and we don’t see Miranda, we could name her whatever we want to.”
“Except for Harriet.”
Reno rolled his eyes. “Fine, no Harriets. I mean, we can always name her Maude.”
Kami giggled. “Or Ethel?”
“Maxine.”
“Hortense.”
This was actually kind of fun. “Hortense is a great name. I mean, I wouldn’t name someone Hortense because, you know, teasing, but Hortense? I mean, this is the name of a strong human being. And—” He paused for effect. “She could be a Harry.”
“She can’t be a Harry. Hortense was fine, except for the whole Harry thing, which is creepy and weird and I don’t like it.”
“Right.” He reached over and stroked Kami’s belly. “But we were joking. We had moved beyond picking names into joking.”
“Right.” Kami glanced over at him. “I love you. You know that, don’t you?”
“I do know that, baby. I know our friends look at us sometimes and don’t see a traditional braaken and hailee, but I love it. I adore who we are together.”
Kami’s smile softened, becoming a little misty. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
He reached out to stroke Kami’s cheek. “I mean it.”
Kami kissed his palm, and the humming, tinkling, thrumming noise got loud again, making Reno jump.
“Is that one of your rocks.”
Kami chuckled. “No, babe. That’s our little girl.”
Awe punched Reno right in the chest, taking his breath. “I can hear her.”
“Yep.” Kami handed him another stack of laundry. “Fold. She’ll be coming sometime soon.”
“I can’t wait to meet her.” Reno let the song wash over him, and he sat with his hailee and folded onesies.
Life was perfect.