Palin
This time he pulled into the assigned “parking lot.”
It was really just a stretch of gravel shoulder off the road, but today Palin wanted to make a good impression. While he doubted Sandy cared where he parked, he didn’t want to appear disrespectful, so he parked in a line with the other cars.
Killing the engine, he got out and grabbed the stack of items from the trunk. Neither Torran nor Rowe were with him this time thankfully, and he didn’t particularly feel sad. The ride back into the city had been nonstop snide remarks about his diet, his weight, that he was in love with a human, and more.
That last part bothered him more than he cared to admit to either of them. Palin was still having a hard time believing that Sandy was a human. How could she be if they were mated? That was part of the reason he’d come back. The main reason, really. He needed to be certain that his dragon wasn’t mistaken, that she was his mate, and that she was also human.
He wasn’t certain what he would do if both of those questions came back as true.
Marching through the booths, he ignored the calls of the merchants, striding quickly and easily through the rows until he came to the smaller ones on the far end. Sandy was at her booth again, fresh crops displayed in front of her.
She wore the same outfit, though the shirt was now tan, brown, and white. Still plaid, still flannel, and still sexy as hell. He wondered if he could convince her to tie it across her midsection at some point in private with him, while unbuttoning the top. He’d seen it in a television show the past week, and his mind had immediately superimposed Sandy’s body over the too-thin actress on television.
He wanted curves, meat, softness. All of it and more, all of which had been combined perfectly into Sandy.
“These are for you,” he said, holding out the stack of crates he carried in one hand.
Sandy eyed him in surprise. “You’re back.”
“I am.”
“And you brought my crates back.”
“I did.”
“I don’t know what else to say.”
Palin chuckled. “I told you I’d see you. I’m not a liar. I keep my word.”
“Yes, I suppose you did,” Sandy said slowly. “I’m not sure how to thank you for that.”
She looked just as gorgeous as he remembered. All week Palin had thought about her, unable to get her out of his mind. The pale pink hair, the sun-kissed skin, and for some reason even the denim overalls. They just…worked for him. That was who Sandy was, and Sandy was his mate. He didn’t doubt that now; the clamoring of his dragon had started the instant he’d laid eyes on her.
Eyes.
“You could take off your sunglasses.”
“Pardon?”
“If you want to thank me, you could take off your sunglasses so I can see your face when I talk to you.”
Sandy frowned a little, but in the end she reached up and removed the gold aviators, tucking them into a breast pocket.
She had brown eyes. Perfectly normal brown eyes. They had the barest few specks of gold, but for the most part they were a solid hazelnut color. Just like the rest of her—it wasn’t anything unique, and yet it made him desire her even more. Even the faint tan lines from the sunglasses called to him.
Palin wanted everything to do with her. Perfections. Flaws, and even the things that just “were.” If it had to do with Sandy, he was attracted to it.
“Better?”
“Yes. Much.” Forcefully ripping his gaze away from her, he walked into her booth, around her tables, and plopped the crates down in the back.
“Is returning my crates the only thing you came here for?”
“No.” He walked back out front and waved a finger at everything she had arranged in front of her. “I want all of this as well.”
Sandy frowned. “Again? You want all of it?”
“Yes.”
For a moment he thought she was going to refuse, to say no. Palin knew she couldn’t afford to decline his money. The way her eyes had lit up the past weekend had clued in to him that maybe he was doing her a bigger favor than he realized. He’d vowed to come back every weekend until winter hit and buy everything she had.
Palin wasn’t going to eat it, but when he’d told the other dragons living in the apartment building where they had been assigned, “The Dragon Tower” as it was affectionately known, their mates had clamored for access to it. He’d let them deal with it, laughing all the way back to his place, knowing that his actions had forced the other dragons to eat way more vegetables than they wanted.
Now that was a good prank. So good, in fact, he wanted to do it again with what he bought today.
“Why do you want it all?”
“I like vegetables. I have a big appetite.”
Sandy snorted. “Right.”
“I’m going to need more too. Whatever you have.”
She shook her head, ponytail flicking back and forth a split second later. “This is all I have. Was it Palin? It’s all I have, Palin. I bring what I have every weekend. You cleaned me out last time, and now you’re doing so again.”
He frowned. That wasn’t good. How was he supposed to funnel more money to her? There had to be a way.
“Well, I’ll be back next weekend I suppose, to buy it all then.”
She smiled. “I don’t think I’ll have anything by then.”
“What do you mean? Why not?”
Palin didn’t know the first thing about farming. They were big though, weren’t they? How come she couldn’t get more than this?
“I just won’t.”
He blinked, bouncing off her wall so suddenly he was at a loss for words. He hadn’t meant to pry, not into anything painful at least.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be nosy. I just thought farmers had lots of land.”
Sandy sighed. “I’m sorry too, I guess. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Look, Palin. I’m a private person. I don’t like to talk much. This conversation is already twice as long as I’d prefer. So I’ll be straight with you. I run the farm by myself. There’s only so much land I can farm in a day. Which means there are only so many crops I can farm in a day. That’s why I won’t have enough to make the trip out next weekend.”
He had been taking in all that she was saying, and all that she wasn’t saying as well. Sandy was struggling, he realized. She needed the money more than he’d believed. She didn’t want to admit it, but things were bad.
Two things needed to happen from there. One, he needed to spend more time with her. To figure out why his dragon thought a human was his mate. There had to be something different about her. Palin just needed to figure it out. Secondly, he needed to find a way to either get her more money, or get her more crops, so that he could get her more money.
A plan as simple as that could be coalesced right in front of his eyes.
“I’ll come work the farm with you.”
It was perfect. Now all he had to do was get her to accept, and Palin would have all the time in the world to figure out just how to win over his mate and learn all her secrets. The information he wanted was there somewhere. Now he would be able to look for it.