Sandy
“You had all this shipped over?” she asked as the tractor trailer pulled into the yard out front her house.
Palin was waiting down on the grass while she watched from her favorite chair on the porch. Champ sat at the top of the steps, supervising everything. His tail thumped from side to side in a slow repetitive pattern that threatened to lull her to sleep.
“Relax,” he chuckled, looking back over his shoulder at her. “It’s not full.”
“I thought you were banished from your homeland?”
He shrugged. “I thought so too. Maybe I am. I didn’t really ask. I just said I wanted everything shipped here and they agreed.”
Sandy let it drop at that, not wanting to press him on the subject. It hurt her to know that he’d been forced between choosing the home he’d known all his life or her. She never wanted to be that sort of ultimatum for someone, but he’d done so before she could give her opinion, and according to him there was no going back even if he’d wanted to.
“You know, I said you could move in, not that you could take over.”
Palin looked skyward. She could just imagine him rolling his eyes, a lazy grin on his face. “Half your house is closed off and unused because it’s just been you living here,” he shot back. “This place is big enough to house a family of like eight. We’ll be fine. I’m just going to add my stuff to a few rooms. I’ll build an addition or a proper storage room in the barn or something for the stuff you don’t like.”
“I didn’t say anything about additions!” she yelped, sitting up so fast her book went flying.
Palin hunched over slightly, his shoulders bouncing. He was laughing at her.
“Oh, real funny. Reallll funny.”
The big semi hissed to a halt, the engine making all sorts of noises as the driver turned it off.
“Well, come on then,” Palin said, motioning to her.
“Where am I going?”
“To help.”
“Ah. Ah hah. Ha ha ha. You’re funny. You wanted to bring stuff, you unload it. I did not sign up for moving boxes.”
“We need this stuff,” he countered.
“No we don’t.”
“Sandy, you don’t have a TV. I’m not living without a TV.”
“You don’t need a semi-truck for your TV,” she shot back, sticking out her tongue.
He looked sad at that.
“Now take off your shirt and get sweaty unloading,” she commanded imperiously, giving him her best royal “wave.”
“Pervert,” he shot back, but did as he was told.
Sandy grinned. It was late October, but they had been blessed by a stretch of warm weather. Though she felt like she should be working, after everything with Rusty had gone down, Palin had revealed to her one secret he’d been keeping. One very big secret.
He was rich. Not just like, wealthy, but filthy disgustingly rich. He’d tried to keep it a secret, but when he’d bought Rusty’s property when the bank seized it—apparently he had no living heirs—without batting an eye she’d been forced to notice. He simply bidded an extra hundred thousand dollars over the other highest bid.
With the massive farm around them generating income, he’d told her that her days of working herself to the bone were over and done with. From now on she was to be a hobby farmer only. He didn’t want her to be bored, but he forbade her from pushing herself as hard as she had been. Which was perfectly okay with Sandy. She wanted a job, but she wasn’t interested in continuing the lifestyle she’d been living.
Now she thumbed slowly through her book, watching as Palin worked away slowly. Eventually he had worked up a good sweat and she got up and started helping.
“You look like you’re getting tired,” she told him, swatting him on the rear.
“Oh fuck you,” he swore with a grin.
“Later,” she promised. “Work first.”
They unloaded the rest of the truck over the course of the afternoon while the driver sat in his cab and did absolutely nothing to help. Finally the truck was empty and they watched the driver head out, thankful to be rid of him.
“That wasn’t as much as I’d thought,” she admitted, surveying the boxes and other items piled in the main room in her house.
“Told you. Just the important stuff.”
“And the TV,” she said, pointing to a gigantic box.
“And the TV,” he agreed, grinning from ear to ear.
She sighed, pulling him close and kissing him again and again. That was something she would probably never get used to, the freedom of being able to just kiss him at will. It was a pretty good perk of having him move in. Not to mention the perks that came with continued kissing, as they were doing now.
“Sandy,” he said, taking her by the shoulders and keeping her still.
At first she thought he was making her work extra hard for it, but when she looked into his eyes the seriousness there registered with her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “Nothing’s wrong. I just…with me officially moving in now, I wanted to give you something. Something to commemorate it by.”
“Like what? I’m not so sure I’m interested in getting matching tattoos.”
Palin laughed, reaching into a pocket. “No, but I was hoping maybe you would wear this.”
He pulled out a brilliantly polished silver necklace with a locket attached to it. It was beautiful, each link hand-carved and glowing in the light.
“Oh Palin. It’s beautiful.”
Intricate carvings on the outside swirled and danced in a pattern that invited her to just do nothing but stare at it. Gently she opened the locket. It was empty inside. One half had his name carved in it, but the opposite where a picture might sit was devoid of anything.
She glanced up at him. “I don’t have a picture to put in it.”
He grinned. “You don’t need one.” Without another word he lifted his hand to her neck and spoke a word. Sparkling gas leapt from his hand, coiled around itself and slid home into the empty locket.
Sandy flinched, knowing what his dragon abilities could do, but Palin just smiled gently. “You have nothing to worry about. It won’t harm you.”
The gas swirled in the locket, condensing until it was a vibrant powerful green so bright and beautiful it looked like a gemstone.
Then she gasped as it settled, the shape of a dragon appearing in the center of it in a lighter shade of green. “Palin I…” she trailed off, at a loss for words. How does one go about expressing their feelings about something so beautiful?
“Will you wear it?” he asked nervously.
“Of course!” She slipped it over her head, pulling her ponytail through it gently so she didn’t break anything. “It fits perfectly.”
“Good.”
She pressed a hand to her chest, feeling the cool metal on her skin. “We really are meant to be together, aren’t we? It seems that everything with you is just perfect.”
“I do try hard to make it that way,” he grinned. “Yes, we are meant to be together. Not everything will be perfect. We will have our arguments I’m sure. But fate will always draw us back to one another, no matter what happens. I may irritate you, but I give you my word that I will never fail you, Sandy Talbert. Ever.”
She shivered as he spoke that pronouncement, something running down her spine at the permanency of it.
“Good. Because otherwise I’d have to bend you over and spank that sweet ass of yours until it was red and you cried out for me to stop.”
Palin’s jaw dropped so hard it popped, and she wondered if he’d dislocated it.
“Pardon me?” he asked, stunned.
Sandy started laughing. “I’m sorry, I don’t do so well with solemn moments. They make me nervous and I say weird things.”
“Apparently.” He swept her up into a hug, spinning her around.
She closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment.
“By the way,” he said, speaking quietly into her ear in that throaty sexy manner she loved. “If you want to play out that scenario in reverse, all you have to do is ask.”
Sandy bit her lip. Yes, she was going to be quite okay with having him live there. Quite okay.