Page 53 of Sweets and Sycamores

THAT’S MY LINE

“Stop squirming,” Allie scolded her husband. “You know you are not going to fall.”

Dominic gripped the broom so tightly with both hands that the wood could’ve snapped. His body trembled, and he couldn’t find his balance, even though they had been doing this together for the past year.

“I am not s-squirming,” he hissed, leaning back and forth on the broom.

Allie didn’t like to ride straddling her broom, so she and Dom sat on the wood next to each other as if they were sitting on a bench. Her magic enveloped them and the flying broom, and Allie knew with the certainty of her next breath that they would never, ever fall.

“The car is a perfectly fine means of transportation,” the Mage snapped when he managed to keep his balance for a few seconds at once. “I don’t get why you insist we travel through the skies when we have all this vast land at our disposal.”

Allie laughed. It was always like this, but she would never give up on flying, and as with everything else she loved in this life, she wanted to share it with her husband. As much as he was against it.

They had been married for two months and spent the last two weeks traveling.

Dom took Allie to his favorite beach, favorite rivers, favorite diners, favorite everything.

As a Mage, he’d seen so much of this world, and Allie was the tiniest bit jealous, yet immensely happy he was sharing everything with her.

Before the wedding, Allie and Dominic had finished renovating and rebranding the bakery. The room she used to live in was now open to the floor of the bakery to allow more tables inside for customers, and a tiny part of it was used for extra storage room.

Now they were traveling back to Sycamore Falls, Ekko flying in circles around them and leaving trails of steam behind, showing off how easy it was for him to fly. Dom grabbed for the dragon once, trying to keep him in place, but lost his balance and immediately cursed at the creature.

There was only one way Allie could make him feel better.

She leaned closer to her husband and kissed him on the cheek. Once. Twice. Then, as he slowly turned his head toward her, Allie kissed him on the lips, hard and loud, smearing her pink lipstick all over his mouth.

“I would never let anything happen to you,” she said sweetly. Dom scowled.

“That’s my line.”

Nothing was only his anymore, and Dominic didn’t miss that one bit. No lines, no space, no room. Everything he had, everything he was, he shared with his beautiful wife, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

When he came up with the idea to rebrand the bakery to include Allie in the business one way or another, she had cried and laughed for an hour straight, asking him over and over if he was sure about that.

Dominic had been so sure that he got down on one knee and proposed to her, making her continue to laugh and cry for another hour. Allie had yelled her answer, a sharp and resounding “yes” that vibrated in his heart, filling it with the purest love.

They renamed Dom’s Sweets to Ekko’s Treats and made the dragon their ever-proud mascot. Customers clamored to spend time with the creature, and Ekko basked in all the love and attention.

Dominic had been away for a couple of missions, during which time Allie had run the bakery all on her own. There was little left for her to learn, even if she argued that she needed a couple more years to practice. Dom always said, “You don’t. Trust me.”

And she did.

Allie trusted him with everything in their life. Every time he was away from home, every time she was scared of trying something new. Just every time.

When his lovely Witch wife gave him her heart, Dominic started a life-long mission that would end on his last breath: cherishing and protecting it.

And this was on repeat in his mind while they descended from the flight of hell down to Sycamore Falls, the recently-painted purple roof of the bakery coming into view.

As soon as he set his feet on the ground, Dom muttered thanks to the gods that they made it in one piece.

He also trusted Allie with his life, and deep, deep down—really deep, buried under all his organs—he knew nothing bad would happen when he was flying with her.

But there was a severe disconnect between this knowledge and the facts, one that grew with each foot of distance they put between them and the earth.

Dominic eyed the wicked broom and would have set it on fire, had it not been so dear to his wife.

“See?” Allie smirked, as she always did. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, her red, wild curls tickling his cheeks. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Never, as long as we’re together.”

THE END