Page 9 of The Baby Dragon Cafe (The Baby Dragon #1)

Chapter 9

S aphira arrived back at her cafe, tears falling down her cheeks as she held Sparky, who fidgeted in her arms. She let him down, hands shaking as she tried to look for her keys in her purse.

But then she looked down at Sparky with his head bowed, and her heart broke all over again. She scooped him up, giving him a kiss.

Abandoning the cafe door, Saphira walked to the gate leading to the garden in the back of the cafe. It was crowded and messy, even more so in the darkness of the evening, but she didn’t care. Saphira sat down amongst the overgrown bushes and weeds, hiding out in the greenery, sniffling to herself. She let the tears fall.

She was properly crying by then and didn’t even know why!

The evening with Aiden had been so nice; it was so lovely just walking around with him, talking and enjoying the beauty. Then there had been that heated, intense moment—god, but she had almost passed out when he brought her finger to his mouth and sucked. The sensation had shot through her like an electric current, and it was one that she desperately wanted to feel again.

Then the panic of not seeing Sparky, the worst thoughts running rampant through her mind: poachers stealing him away, her little baby; or Sparky getting lost and falling into a pond or fountain and drowning—even though technically dragons knew how to swim, but she hadn’t been thinking with logic. Only with breath-stopping fear!

When Aiden had found Sparky, all she felt was relief—until Aiden snapped at Sparky. Snapped! At a baby! Who did that?!

Did Aiden not know how special and wonderful Sparky was? He simply took the baby dragon for granted. If Sparky was hers, she would never do that.

Saphira wished Nani-Ma was here. Her grandmother would of course tease Saphira for being such a crybaby, but she would give her a good cuddle, too.

Sparky climbed onto Saphira’s lap, reaching to lick the tears away from her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Spark,” she said. “I don’t know why I’m crying so much.” She attempted a smile. Sparky didn’t seem so upset anymore; he was more so concerned about her.

Saphira’s heart tugged. She loved this little draggo. He snuggled against her in her lap.

He had gotten a little bigger in the two weeks they had been training together—all minuscule changes, but she could notice it when she held him. Saphira didn’t want Sparky to grow up; that would only mean she wouldn’t be part of his life anymore.

Sparky looked up to find Saphira still upset. He sat up and rubbed his nose against her chest, putting pressure on her heart, as if letting her know he was there. Then, Sparky looked up at her, waiting for her reaction with wide purple eyes, which only made her own eyes well with tears again because Sparky was such an angel!

Worried, Sparky put his paws on her face to get her to stop crying, and she hugged him, holding on tight. Saphira desperately missed Nani-Ma, then. The old lady used to give legendary hugs. Her hugs could solve anything.

A noise sounded in the air. Saphira turned to see Aiden entering from the garden door, which was ajar.

“Sorry,” he said. “You left the door open.”

Saphira wiped her face, looking away from him. She had in fact left it open. She was embarrassed to be crying over something so small, even more embarrassed to be caught.

“I’m sorry, Saphira,” he said, standing in front of her. She was surprised to see him; she didn’t think he would have cared enough to apologize, but here he was. Saphira had to tilt her head back to look up at him. His head was surrounded with stars in the clear night, his face apologetic. “I shouldn’t have snapped at Sparky like that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.”

“Can I sit?” he asked.

Saphira turned to Sparky, who was watching the exchange calmly, unbothered by Aiden’s presence. Well, if Sparky wasn’t holding a grudge …

“Okay,” she said, sighing. There was only a little bit of clear area where she was sitting, the rest was covered with weeds and branches. She moved over, making space, and he joined her, his shoulders bumping with hers as he sat down.

“Really, I am sorry,” he said, voice soft. He bumped her shoulder on purpose then, and she looked over at him. “I got scared and reacted badly, and I definitely shouldn’t have.”

Distantly, she knew that happened to people sometimes, that everyone dealt with their emotions differently.

“I’ll do better,” he added. “I promise.”

Saphira didn’t know if she should believe him, but she wanted to.

“I’ll stick around when you train him,” Aiden said. “I know that’s important.”

“Really?” she asked, pleased. He nodded. “Okay, you’re forgiven,” she told him.

Surprise lit his face. “I thought you’d be angrier for longer,” he said. “I deserve it, too. I’ve been awful.”

Saphira shrugged. “Life’s too short to be angry.”

His mouth hung agape at that, his face awed. She felt shy all of a sudden, and raised a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. As she did, the bangles on her arm jingled in the quiet evening. Aiden’s gaze dropped to her wrist.

“You always wear these,” Aiden said.

He had noticed. It was such a small thing, but she was pleased he was paying attention.

He touched the bangles, his fingers brushing against her forearm. A shiver ran through her, and the evening was too warm to convince herself it was from the weather.

“They used to be Nani-Ma’s,” she told him. “You know technically only married women are supposed to wear so much gold, but I don’t really care.” She ran a finger over the bangles, jingling them. “It used to be a set of six, but my mom sold two of them.”

Her mother didn’t always make the best decisions, but Saphira couldn’t hold a grudge against someone she had never met. She hoped to one day make it a set of six again—when she had the money for it, of course.

“They’re pretty,” he said, voice soft. “You’re pretty.”

His piercing gaze scorched through her, making her cheeks warm as devastating pleasure settled in her chest at his words. Before she could think of how to respond, a gust of wind blew through the garden, upending a mess of leaves into their faces.

After the wind settled, Saphira saw Aiden’s horrified expression as he took in the state of the garden, how overgrown and messy everything was, a stark contrast to the neat rose garden he had shown her earlier.

“I know, I know, don’t say it!” she pleaded.

“It’s just …” he trailed off, at a loss for words.

He frowned as he looked around, until his gaze settled back on her. His lips twitched. Before she could ask, he plucked a stray leaf from her hair.

“Oh god,” she lamented, but laughter broke through. “You know I wanted to make this place into extra seating for the cafe. I had all these ideas.”

“You should do it,” he said. “That would be wonderful.”

Saphira sighed. “If only I had the time! Or the money. Or the energy …”

He paused, thinking. “Well, I could work on it for you, when I don’t have other jobs to do. Sparky could hang out here during the day, as well.”

Immense pleasure shot through her. “Oh, yes, okay!” She grinned. “That would be wonderful! Then when I have downtime during the day from the cafe, I can come spend more time with Sparky.”

Even though Saphira had been the one urging Aiden to bond with Sparky, and she appreciated this effort on his part, she also didn’t want to be left out. But if they were just in the garden, it would be easy for her to pop over and still be included.

“I know it’s important for me and Sparky to bond,” Aiden said, though he seemed hesitant about it.

“It seems like you’re afraid,” Saphira said, looking at him curiously. “Why?”

Aiden considered her question. She could see him mulling it over in his mind, going back and forth about something.

“I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell you this,” he started. “It’s kind of one of those Drakkon family secrets.”

For a moment, Saphira felt like a total outsider, then. Even if they grew up and lived in the same small town, she was reminded that they existed on two completely different planes—that he was from a Drakkon family, and she was not. She couldn’t help but feel inferior then, with her ordinary life, devoid of secrets she was meant to safeguard.

“You must have heard rumors about dragon racing,” Aiden continued, immediately intriguing her. She did love being privy to a good secret; it made her feel as though she was part of the club.

“Kinda,” she replied. “Not so much, though. Vaguely, I know it’s something that happens? But beyond that …”

“It does happen, and my family is … kinda … really involved in it.”

“Isn’t it illegal, though?”

“Yes, but like any other illegal activity, it brings in a lot of money, so the people in power willingly turn a blind eye to it. Especially because those involved are those on the Dragon Council.”

“Oh.” The Dragon Council was a branch of the government in charge of overseeing all the dragon-related affairs, such as the Drakkon taxes, insurance, stipends, and other such matters. “So what does that have to do with Sparky?”

Aiden swallowed. “Like I mentioned, my family is really into racing. The Sterlings have been winning the races for decades. I was never interested, so I never got involved, but Danny used to defend our family name. After he died … well, my father wants someone else to take over, keep up the good family name and all.”

Saphira was beginning to understand a bit now.

“So you’re afraid if you bond with Sparky, you’ll be pressured into racing?”

Aiden nodded. His brows were pinched with stress, but his facial features seemed to relax a bit when he saw that she understood where he was coming from. “When Danny left the egg to me, I didn’t even have any intention of hatching it, so I would never be in that position.”

While Saphira understood his fears, she thought having a dragon egg and not intending to hatch it was true insanity. It was a crazy privilege that he apparently could not recognize, which was jarring for someone like her. It was something people would kill for—and literally did, as poachers were notoriously savage—whereas Aiden saw it as something immaterial in his life. Almost inconvenient.

“So what changed?” Saphira asked. “I mean, regarding hatching the egg.”

“My family can be a bit … overbearing and intrusive.” Aiden sighed, running a hand over his face. “It wasn’t me who changed my mind. The egg was hatched under circumstances I’m still not completely clear on, but I have suspicions it was my parents meddling. So I had a baby dragon, and I thought if you trained Sparky, and I stayed away, it would be safer.”

Aiden clearly disdained dragon racing, which she was glad for because she could never approve of putting dragons in danger for the sake of an adrenaline-rush.

“What changed your mind about staying away?” she asked. He looked at her, so deeply that she felt a chill run down her spine.

“I saw how upset you were,” he said, voice quiet. “I couldn’t bear that, either, so I figured I might as well come clean.”

“Oh.” She blinked. He did care.

“There was another reason I thought it best to stay away,” He trailed off, unsure. “I don’t know if it is my place to tell you, or perhaps you already know, but I was also hesitant to spend time with you because well … I thought you’d hate me if you found out.”

“Found out what?”

Aiden swallowed. “Saphira, your mother died while racing on a poached dragon.”

Surprise rippled through her at the statement. “Why are you telling me this?” she asked.

“I’m sorry to have brought it up, but I don’t want to keep any secrets from you,” he said, voice miserable.

Saphira’s mother had died when she was only a few years old, so the grief of losing her had been dealt with a long time ago. As such, Saphira wasn’t entirely shocked by the information, but it was still jolting to hear. Nani-Ma had always skirted around the topic of Saphira’s mother’s death, but Saphira had gathered that it involved bad decisions on her mother’s part, a situation that could have been avoided. To find out now that she had died while dragon racing filled that blank in a way that made sense.

“I didn’t know exactly how she died, but my grandmother did tell me that my mother got involved with the wrong people, which led to her demise,” Saphira told Aiden after a moment.

Nani-Ma also always mentioned it was Saphira’s mother’s love of dragons that had led her astray, but she did not want to say that to Aiden. She was scared he would think the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, but she knew she wouldn’t be as reckless as her mother. She loved dragons too much. Training a baby dragon was different than acquiring an illegal dragon off the black market and participating in dangerous races.

“Again, I’m sorry to have brought it up,” Aiden said, looking both guilty and concerned. “I found out about it recently, and I didn’t know if you knew, and I didn’t want to know something that you didn’t.” He swallowed. “Are you alright?”

Saphira thought about it for a moment before replying. She did appreciate Aiden not wanting to keep any secrets from her, and it really was so long ago, now.

“Yes, I’m okay,” she finally said, nodding. And really, she was. “Just surprised that my grandmother never told me, or that the information never came from anyone else in town.”

“Gossip like that tends to stay within the Drakkon circles,” Aiden told her.

That made her feel strange. All of these people knew how her mother died, and she hadn’t.

Were they all quietly laughing at her behind her back? The daughter of a woman who reached for something that wasn’t hers? The Drakkon families could be intensely snobbish. Saphira felt humiliated then, even though she had no reason to be.

Suddenly, she understood why Nani-Ma never mentioned it to her. It was a shameful way to die, possibly one of the most demeaning ways to go in Starshine Valley.

Drakkon families already had this sense of entitlement around owning dragons, as if there was something special in them and their blood. They already disdained riders who poached dragons, thinking those riders couldn’t handle it, and Saphira’s mother had basically confirmed all those elitist views by dying the way she did.

Embarrassment echoed through her, making Saphira squirm.

“What are you thinking?” Aiden asked, voice soft. His gaze was intense as he regarded her, and though this was surely a difficult topic, somehow she didn’t find it difficult to talk to him.

“Just thinking about my grandmother,” Saphira replied, clearing her throat. “She must have known … she must have held onto it alone all those years to protect me.” She could appreciate Nani-Ma not sharing all the terrible details, but she was glad Aiden had told her now. “Thank you for telling me.”

He looked worried, and she gave him a smile.

“I don’t hate you—my mother’s death was surely caused by her own actions. It had nothing to do with you.” He released a long breath. “And as for worrying about Sparky—that’s a valid concern, but in trying to protect him you’re hurting him. He wants to bond with you. So maybe the races are something to worry about later?”

“You’re right.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Sometimes I get too much in my head about things and it gets all tangled up and then I get weird. Again, sorry.”

He sighed, and she found it terribly endearing how genuine he was. She had initially been nervous around him because she had thought that because he was so rich and handsome and privileged that he would find her to be strange, but here he was apologizing for being weird himself.

“Don’t say sorry only to me, I’m not the one you yelled at,” she said, turning to Sparky, who had been rolling around in the weeds, chewing on grass and entertaining himself.

Aiden whistled, and Sparky looked over. “Sparky, come here,” Aiden said. Sparky gave Aiden what could only be described as an arch glance before ignoring Aiden completely.

“You need to add some sugar,” Saphira advised.

“This is ridiculous,” Aiden muttered, but even so, he stood, going over to the baby dragon.

“Hey, Sparky,” Aiden said, adopting a bit of a baby-voice, which delighted Saphira. He was usually so serious.

Sparky seemed placated by the effort, as well. He perked up, then bounced to meet Aiden, who crouched down.

“I’m sorry, little guy,” Aiden said, scratching Sparky’s chin. Sparky replied by licking Aiden’s hand. All was forgiven and forgotten.

Aiden turned back to Saphira, both proud and awed. “The baby-voice is crazy, but it did work.”

“Exactly!” Saphira stood, coming to stand next to him. Aiden looked around, surveying the overgrown garden. His eyes widened.

“Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me,” he said.

“You’re the one who offered,” she said, holding up her hands. “You can’t back out now.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He smiled. “It’s a nice space. It’ll be really beautiful once it’s cleaned up.”

He walked around to the side of the building, where branches were growing over the stone. Aiden looked closer, touching the dead leaves.

“It’s bougainvillea,” he told her. “The roots are still good, so it’ll grow again once it gets a little tending to.”

“Oh, I love bougainvillea! The bursts of pink are so pretty.”

Sparky seemed to notice then that Saphira and Aiden had walked across the garden from him. He let out a little growl, running to catch up with them. Putting a paw around Saphira’s leg, Sparky looked at Aiden expectantly, as if confused as to why Aiden was still here, taking up all of Saphira’s attention.

“You know, I don’t think he actually likes me that much,” Aiden said, looking from Sparky to Saphira. Baby dragons could be fickle, but it would be fine.

“Don’t worry,” Saphira assured him with a laugh. “We can handle it.”

Besides, how much more work could one little baby dragon be?