Tasha’s amused voice replied, “Educating the kids about scurvy is admirable, if not a little weird.”
Andrew asked, “What’s skirt-vee?”
He gestured for Tasha to explain. His human didn’t bat an eyelash and turned toward the boy. “Scurvy. If you don’t get enough of something called vitamin C, your teeth can fall out.” She lowered her voice. “Although most people do okay these days. It was many, many years ago that people didn’t have enough fruits and veggies and had to worry about it. So make sure to eat your fruit and vegetables—and brush your teeth, too—and your teeth should be okay.”
Andrew squinted at the blueberry on his fork. “Eat all of them?”
Tasha nodded. “As many as you can. Well, the parts your mom and dad give you in your meals, anyway. If you ate all the fruits and veggies in the world, you might explode. You know, BOOM.”
Tasha threw her hands out and Andrew giggled.
In that moment, Brad realized Tasha would be a great mother.
So not only was she smart about business and sexy as hell, she was good with kids, too.
For most dragon-shifters, that was it—they’d try their damnedest to win over such a person.
Brad wasn’t most people, though. He’d jumped into a relationship with everything he’d had and had been abandoned without more than a few words on a page.
His dragon sighed. You have some serious issues.
Ignoring his beast, Brad jumped into the slight lull in conversation. “Have you finished eating, Tasha? David should be waiting for us.”
She nodded and stood. “I am, if Megan and Justin don’t mind cleaning up without me.”
Megan made a shooing motion with her hands. “Go, go. I’ll give you one free pass. Although next time, I may not be so generous.”
Brad rolled his eyes. “You could try being nicer to the first human guest StoneRiver has had in quite some time.”
Megan shrugged. “Hey, I hate doing dishes, so sue me.”
Tasha snorted. “Try running a bar. It’s not as bad as, say, a restaurant. But there are still plenty of dishes, and sometimes I still do them myself if someone calls in sick.”
Andrew asked, “What’s a bar?”
Brad jumped in. “Ask your parents.”
He dared to put a hand on Tasha’s back and barely resisted sucking in a breath. Even through the thin fabric of her shirt—a different one from the night before, which meant she must’ve borrowed it from his sister—he could feel the heat of her body.
He could only imagine what it would feel like if they were skin to skin.
His dragon hummed. Yes, yes. We should see what it’s like. And then you’d never let her go.
Not wanting to imagine that, he instead concentrated on Tasha. “Come on.”
Gently guiding her toward the front door, he made out Andrew’s voice. “I like Tasha. She come back soon?”
As his sister gave a nonanswer, Brad was grateful that human hearing couldn’t have picked up Andrew’s words.
Because the answer relied on Brad as much as Tasha.
And he was starting to think he should give her more of a chance and see how it went. Provided, of course, Tasha wanted to be kept on StoneRiver.
His dragon murmured, Then try a little harder to convince her to stay.
We’ll see, dragon. No one can force her to stay on StoneRiver. If she says yes to that, then I won’t outright ignore her. But if you think I’m going to start giving flowers and making romantic dinners, then you’re clearly crazy.
His beast huffed. We’ll see. I get the feeling someone like Tasha wants respect and love instead of empty gestures anyway. Although a few chocolates here and there never hurt anyone.