Page 8 of The Baby Dragon Cafe (The Baby Dragon #1)

Chapter 8

I t was jarring for Aiden to see Saphira in the gardens, jarring to see her anywhere, really. He was so used to only seeing her at the cafe, or in his mind, late at night, and now here she was, plucked out of his dreams, and in one of his favorite places, no less.

At the same time, it felt as if this was exactly where she belonged: her brown skin illuminated golden by the sunlight, a soft breeze playing with her wavy hair, surrounded by flowers that matched her dress.

He wasn’t an artist by any means, but the image was one he felt the desire to paint, if only to capture her beauty, to immortalize her for the world to appreciate.

“So what have you been working on?” Saphira asked, pulling him from his thoughts, which had progressed to considering how difficult painting could really be. Aiden cleared his throat, running a hand through his hair.

“We’ve been cleaning up the parterres,” Aiden said, pointing to the clean shapes.

Saphira made a thoughtful sound. “What’s that?”

He sometimes forgot not everyone knew the specific gardening jargon he did. “Sorry—it’s those geometric shapes. They’re made up of plant beds and low hedges,” he explained, “which are then separated and connected by the path, so you can walk along it and see.”

“Oooh pretty. There’s a bit of formality to it that makes me feel like I’m in Pride and Prejudice .”

“Yes, they’re the kind of thing you’d often find at great estates. Each parterre contains a particular species of rose.” He pointed. “So here we have old garden roses, which are double-flower blooms that emit a really strong fragrance, but they only bloom once per season, unlike modern roses.”

As they reached the section of modern roses, he pointed again, showing her. “These are what you’ll most likely find everywhere. They were bred after 1867, and continuously bloom, and they have a larger bloom size, as well. Plus, they have a longer vase life. The downside is that they don’t have as strong a fragrance, and are a bit less hardy and disease-resistant than the old garden roses.”

They continued on, and he pointed out the next section of roses, which were all pink. “And these are the wildflower roses, which usually have five petals, and are always pink! It’s actually super rare to find a red or white wild rose.”

Aiden stopped then, suddenly feeling self-conscious. Was he being lame? He must have been boring her with his superfluous botanical knowledge. He stopped, feeling awkward.

Silently, he admonished himself. He knew girls loved flowers, but that didn’t necessarily mean they loved all the random facts about them. His family members would always tease him about his obsessiveness. “Girls want flowers, not a history lesson!” Emmeline would tease.

But it was just so fascinating!

“Sorry,” Aiden said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t mean to bore you.”

“No!” she said, brown eyes wide. “You’re not. I think it’s cool!”

Aiden was not one for swooning, but if he was, he most certainly would have swooned in that moment. His gaze went to the rose bush, and his eyes fell immediately to a perfect rose: perfectly in bloom, the petals lush and bright.

He picked it, careful of the thorns, then handed it to her.

“Thank you,” she said, taking it and pressing it to her nose. Surrounded by all these roses was heady, as he now associated the scent with her.

Aiden stared as she breathed in the fragrance, watching her chest expand with the inhale, then deflate with a large exhale. Heat warmed through him.

Quit being weird , he reminded himself, averting his gaze.

“What’s your favorite flower?” Aiden asked. “Is it roses?”

She smiled. “Oh, that’s easy! And no, not roses. I’m actually not sure what it’s called in English but Nani-Ma and I love the amaltas trees.”

He hadn’t heard of them before. “What do they look like?”

“They’re usually in bloom around the end of June, and they have these beautiful yellow petals all raining down from thin branches.”

“Oh! The golden shower tree.”

Saphira’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Is that what it’s called?” He nodded and she said, “Makes sense … I love them. There aren’t many in Starshine Valley, but there were a few trees up by our old house, in the hills.”

Her smile deepened at the memory, the dimple making an appearance on her cheek. He resisted the urge to press his finger just there.

“What about you?” Saphira asked, waving the rose at him. “Is it roses?”

With her holding the stem, it would have been impossibly easy for roses to be his favorite.

It was usually a difficult question for him, for each flower had its own beauty, its own purpose.

“Ah, that’s like asking a parent who their favorite kid is,” he said.

Saphira laughed. “Parents definitely have favorites. I lucked out being an only child, but I bet yours have a favorite.”

“Oh, definitely,” Aiden replied. “It’s Ginny—she’s everyone’s favorite princess. Gets treated like it, too.”

“As she absolutely should,” Saphira concurred.

“As she should,” Aiden agreed.

They continued walking to another part of the gardens. This was lovely, being here with her, so lovely in fact that Aiden had been able to forget why he was supposed to be staying away from her and Sparky both.

Although he couldn’t help but feel proud when he saw how well-behaved Sparky was. He appreciated all the hard work Saphira had put in to make Sparky so.

Still, they shouldn’t be here. He didn’t want to get close to either of them. The farther away he stayed, the safer Sparky would be, and Saphira, too. She would be hurt to learn his family partook in the races that killed her mother, and he wanted to protect her from that.

Unfortunately, she looked so pretty, he didn’t have the strength to tell her to leave. He wanted to be around her, to spend time with her. Usually, he didn’t want anybody to see him because he knew they wouldn’t understand, but he had an uncanny desire for her to know him, to see him.

Maybe he should let her in.

Aiden glanced at Sparky, who had been well-behaved this entire time, bouncing along with them. Sparky barely paid any attention to Aiden; his focus was all on Saphira.

“I can see why you lost track of time in here,” Saphira said. “It’s so peaceful.”

“It can be hard work, gardening, but always satisfying,” Aiden said.

“I can understand that—it’s the same way in the cafe. The hours fly by, and even though I’m exhausted by the end of it, it’s rewarding, too. I love seeing the cafe full of people.”

They kept talking, walking along the gardens, and Aiden had no idea where the time went. Without his notice, the sun began to set around them, the sky a blaze of pink and gold.

“Look,” Saphira said, voice soft. She had tilted her head back to look at the sky, her eyes wide. “How can anyone be blue when the sky is pink?”

There was amazement on her face, a smile tilting her lips, and all he could think as he looked at her was: “How can anyone be blue when they’re standing next to you?”

Saphira turned to him, and he realized he had said that last part out loud. Embarrassment flushed through him, but she didn’t seem offended by his saccharine words.

Aiden took a step toward her and, as he did, their hands brushed. Her breathing hitched. She was still holding the rose, but she moved her fingers, a feather-light touch against his knuckles. Desire beat through him.

Then, the rose stem moved in her hand; she let out a little yelp as a thorn pricked her. Panic shot through him.

“Are you okay?” he asked, holding her hand to inspect it.

A prick of red blood bubbled to the surface, and instinct took over: he brought her finger to his mouth and sucked on the wound.

Saphira’s soft gasp brought him crashing down to reality, but he was frozen in place, her finger in his mouth, the salt of her blood on his tongue.

Blood rushed through his body, his heart pounding painfully against his chest. Saphira’s eyes were wide and dark.

His chest tightened as he felt her pulse quicken against his fingers from where he held her hand. Her lips parted, her breathing shallow.

Alarm bells rang in his mind as the moment liquefied around them. He felt compelled to do something insanely stupid like kiss her palm.

Before he could decide, Saphira’s gaze strayed to the ground. She blinked, stepping back, removing her hand from him.

“Where’s Sparky?” she asked, voice high. Aiden looked around; Sparky was nowhere to be found. A potent concoction of emotions shot through him: anxiety, worry, guilt.

Aiden had a feeling Sparky hadn’t liked the fact that Aiden was taking up Saphira’s attention. He shouldn’t have been distracting Saphira; they should have been focused on Sparky.

“You guys shouldn’t have come here,” Aiden said. This was all a bad idea—even as he could still feel the imprint of her finger against his lips, a sensation he knew would never leave him.

Hurt flashed on Saphira’s face. She stepped away from him.

“Where is he?” she asked, voice breaking as she looked around. Aiden searched for him as well, trepidation coursing through him. The gardens were open to the public; anyone could walk in. Anyone could find a stray baby dragon and take him for their own.

His stomach turned at the thought, and he searched harder, running over to the next section. Then the next, where there was a bush of vibrant purple dahlias … or what was left of them.

“Sparky!” Saphira cried, rushing up behind Aiden to see the baby dragon had eaten most of the flowers and ripped up the rest of the bush.

The panic of losing Sparky was quickly replaced by a pit in his stomach as he regarded the destruction. This was all his fault. He should never have let Sparky run loose in here. Luckily, the dragon hadn’t destroyed any of the prized collections of the gardens, but still. This should have never happened at all.

He lost his head around Saphira. Lost all sense.

“Bad Sparky,” Aiden snapped, pulling the dragon out of the bush. Sparky’s eyes widened, his mouth falling open. “You can’t go off on your own like that. Very bad!”

Then, Sparky’s head drooped low, his little shoulders hunching over. With a little sniffle, Sparky walked away—something dragons only did when they were too low-spirited to bounce or jump like usual.

Regret panged through Aiden; he shouldn’t have snapped at the little guy. But Sparky needed to know he couldn’t wander off like that; it wasn’t safe!

“What is wrong with you?” Saphira asked, coming to stand in front of him. She was livid, and the sight frightened him cold. He had never seen her be anything but sunshine, but she was a storm now.

“It was an honest mistake!” Saphira scolded. “How could you yell at him? He’s a baby! And now he’s devastated!”

“I’m—”

“He only wants your attention,” Saphira continued, lower lip trembling. “He’s your baby dragon.”

“I never wanted him,” Aiden said, voice soft. He had never expected this, never dreamt of it, and so he had never prepared. He didn’t know how these things worked; it all came so naturally to Saphira, but it didn’t to him.

His words only seemed to make Saphira more upset. She shook her head at him. “You’re so ungrateful,” she said, disappointed now. “If you don’t want him, then give him to someone who does.”

That was what Aiden thought he was doing by having Saphira train Sparky, by giving them uninterrupted time to bond. Before he could say as much, Saphira stalked over to Sparky and scooped him into her arms. She gave him a kiss, comforting him.

Aiden felt awful, so awful in fact that he couldn’t move. He was afraid he would throw up. It was only after Saphira had stormed off that he realized he shouldn’t have let her go when she was angry with him.

Aiden chased after her, but by the time he made it out of the gardens, she was long gone.

A lump rose in his throat. Aiden sat down on the curb, catching his breath. Suddenly, he had the feeling that Danny would be terribly disappointed in him. He felt like he wasn’t doing right by Sparky—he was mucking everything up.

He knew he had good intentions, but what he didn’t always know was how to execute those intentions. Everything made sense in his head, but it didn’t always translate that way to the real world.

However, Aiden knew enough to realize that he owed Saphira an apology.