Paper Stars Read online

  It trotted in a circle again, jumped up into my Jeep then hopped into the back seat, making itself comfortable with a snuffle and grunt.

  “You want a ride?” I continued the apparently useless twenty questions. “Somewhere down the beach? Into town? By the lake?”

  The pig snuffled again, then closed its eyes, cute as an internet meme. It started snoring.

  Jean chuckled. “Oh, my gods. So cute.” She held up her phone and snapped away, then typed something.

  “It can’t stay there,” I said, trying to feel grumpy about the situation and failing. The cute was powerful with this one.

  “Looks like it can.” She pressed one last button. I had a feeling that pig was going to show up on all of her social media. “See how happy it is?”

  Yes, I could admit it made a adorable picture. I was just trying to get my head around the fact that I had an actual dragon curled up in my vehicle.

  “This is my Jeep. I need it for work. I can’t drive around with a dragon sleeping in the back seat.”

  “I don’t think it’s listening to you. And unless you want to do battle with a dragon….”

  She paused, a little too much hope in her expression.

  I scoffed at her.

  “Spoilsport. Fine. Then I’d suggest you stop worrying so much and let the dragon situation work itself out naturally.”

  “Naturally?”

  “Naturally. Like how nature intended.”

  “Nature didn’t plant a dragon-pig in my backseat, Jean. The dragon-pig did. And this is…”

  “…our job?”

  I sighed to cover a groan. She was right. This was our job.

  “Fine.” I got in the Jeep and glanced at the dragon in the rearview mirror. “You let me know if you want off anywhere, okay? One grunt for yes, two grunts for no.”

  It grunted once.

  Jean chuckled. “Progress! Actual dragon-pig, human communication. See how great things work out when you stop worrying and just go with the flow?”

  The hazy warp still surrounded the piggy, but it wasn’t as noticeable. The dragon was getting better at controlling how it was perceived. If someone saw it in the back seat, they’d probably think it was a normal pig.

  At least it knew how to hide in plain sight. That was a good trait for surviving in Ordinary. Maybe it wouldn’t be any trouble.

  I put the Jeep in gear.

  “Hold on.” Jean pulled off the Santa hat she’d been wearing under her hood and dropped it gently on the pig’s head.

  It sat up and oinked. It turned its head side to side as it tried to bite the edge of the hat.

  Jean snapped more pictures. “Adorbs to the millionth power! Hey, dragon, can you make it snow?”

  “Jean.”

  The pig oinked twice.

  I laughed. “That’s a “no” sister.”

  She shrugged. “It was worth a shot. You know what else is worth a shot? Calling Ryder and telling him to come home.”

  “He’s busy.”

  “He’s lonely and so are you.” She shifted in her seat and stared at my profile as I drove.

  “What?”

  “I know you keep wondering when you and Ryder are going to stop being a thing, but two months apart isn’t going to change what you are to each other. ”

  She was right. I knew it. But a small part of me still worried.

  She patted my knee. “Believe in a little magic, Delaney.”

  “Dragon in the back seat looks like a pig. I believe in magic.”

  “Then it should be easy to believe in love.” She smiled and fiddled with the radio.

  Christmas music rolled out loud and strong, ordering us to “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”

  Jean sang along. Loudly and off-key just to bother me.

  It must have bothered the dragon too because it ate her Santa hat. Sucked it down like a noodle until the little white pompom popped in its mouth. Then it chewed and swallowed.

  Jean thought it was hilarious. She recorded it on her phone.

  Chapter Two

  “You gonna get that?” Bathin, tall, dark and demon-y, blew over the top of his quad shot espresso with the Blue Owl’s logo on the side.

  The diner had been playing Christmas music non-stop since December first.

  The current tune sounded a little warped as it yodeled about halls that needed decking.

  The Blue Owl was warm, customers were smiling, and that happy, fluttery mix of holiday good will and hopeful expectation was thick in the apple pie-scented air.

  Outside, the rain and wind came down hard and cold. We wouldn’t get snow, but we were in for a heck of a storm.

  My phone rang again.

  Bathin nodded toward it, like I hadn’t noticed the noise. “Gonna?”

  “No.”

  He grinned. “Oh, please. I can hear your heart beating love notes from over here. Don’t ignore your boyfriend on my account.”

  I picked up my coffee and went back to the reports I was scanning. Ignored Bathin. Ignored the phone.

  Bathin twitched one eyebrow. He liked a good game of chicken. “Maybe Ryder’s hurt.”

  He widened his eyes and gasped, going for the theatrics. “Maybe he’s dead.”

  I scowled and took another drink. Ryder didn’t usually call me before dinner. Half- asleep-after-eleven-o’clock calls had become the default lately.

  “Why, he hasn’t even told you if he loves you or not.” He chuckled at my scowl. “You think I don’t know your innermost secrets? You think I don’t know what you feel?”

  He leaned forward on his elbows, eyes kindled, mouth tipped in a smirk.

  “Answer him. Talk to him. Tell him you love him. You know you want to,” he sing-songed.

  “Remind me again why you’re sitting here?” I slurped coffee.

  I’d found it was best to ignore his drama. Since I dealt with gods on a daily basis, tricksters and attention hounds were old hat.

  “Three days before Christmas, I haven’t been invited to the Reed’s famous Christmas Eve shindig—an oversight, I’m sure. I’m just a lonely demon looking for a little company and fun.”

  He stuck his lip out in a pout.

  Yeah, that wouldn’t work on me either. I started reading the reports again.

  “Fine,” he huffed. “I want an invite. Please invite me to your family Christmas party. Besides, where else would I be? I am sort of attached to you.”

  Since he could read my mind, I envisioned some places I’d rather he be. I had a vivid imagination.

  That got one short, surprised laugh out of him, and I had to work not to give him a smile in return.

  He was charming when he laughed. Handsome when he smiled. Enough so that it was deceptively easy to forget he was a demon in possession of my soul.

  And sometimes, like whenever he thought my sister Myra couldn’t see him watching her, I could even see a kind of confused warmth in his eyes that didn’t appear to be fueled by the fires of hell.

  The rest of the time, he was an annoying pain in my neck.

  “You should call Ryder back.”

  “No.”

  The phone rang again.

  Bathin watched me. “Do you want him to start worrying about you? Selfish. It really could be an emergency. There are creatures out in the world beyond Ordinary, you know. Gods, demons, monsters....”

  I made a frustrated sound and grabbed my phone. “Delaney,” I barked.

  There was a pause on the other end of the line.

  “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

  And just like that, the warmth and rumble of Ryder’s voice, low and warm and sexy, made everything around me less annoying.

  The crackly sound system filtered Nat King Cole crooning about chestnuts and roasting fires.

  Rain rattled down the windows. Street lamps set each raindrop ablaze: sparkling like melted stars caught in dark glass.

  I was surrounded by people, heat, noise, life. Christmas was in the air.

&n
bsp; All I heard, all I felt, was Ryder.

  “Not a bad time,” I said, my own voice dropping, all the hard edges and frustration sliding away.

  I missed him. His laugh. The way he tried to trick me into telling him which supernaturals lived in town.

  The way he rolled out of bed in the morning and walked to the bathroom with his eyes closed, groping at the light switch and shower and not opening his eyes until he was under the warm spray for at least five minute. The way he always offered me the last French fry on his plate.

  I wanted to see him, touch him, know he was solid and real in my life. That we were solid and real in this life together.

  “You’re good,” I said. “This is good. Is everything okay?”

  “Yes?” He inhaled, held it. “Why?”

  “You’re calling early.”

  That pause again. “I…things are winding down here. With the build. With the holiday coming up, I thought, maybe I should….”

  I waited. He didn’t finish the thought. “Should what?”

  Did he want to stay there? The long drive home with holiday traffic would be a hassle, especially since he’d just have to turn around and go back to tie off the project’s loose ends the day after Christmas.

  My stomach knotted. I pressed my lips together so that I wouldn’t make any disappointed noise when he told me he was going to stay there.

  “Should come home,” he said.

  I exhaled hard, the rush of my heartbeat making my breath a little hitchy. Bathin raised his eyebrows at me then shook his head. Told you so he mouthed.

  “I’ll try to be there by early afternoon tomorrow. If that works for you?”

  “That sounds good. Really great.” I cleared my throat. “But the passes are pretty bad after the last freeze. Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Okay. Promise you’ll drive carefully and chain up.”

  “I will.”

  Another long pause where I listened to the inhale and exhale of his breathing. I strained to hear more of him, of what was around him.

  I could just make out the radio over the rumble of his truck engine. Another Christmas song, this one about peace on Earth, carried by the smooth chocolatly baritone of Bing Crosby mixed with Bowie’s caramel-sweet tenor.

  I wondered if he could hear my breathing too, wondered if he strained for more of me like I strained for more of him.

  Wondered if he could hear the diner around me as Nat King Cole’s buttered-rum vocals wished us all a Merry Christmas.

  “Delaney?” Ryder said.

  “Yes?”

  “There’s something important I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

  “Yes?”

  “Oooh,” Bathin said. “Here it comes. He loves you. Or he’s breaking up with you. Fifty-fifty chance here, no wrong answer.”

  I flipped him off. He grinned.

  “Something I should have said a long time ago,” Ryder said.

  “He’s finally gonna say it. Love? Hate?” Bathin pressed his palms together in prayer position and looked to the heavens. “Hold me, Jesus.”

  I glared at him. To Ryder I said, “Okay.”

  “I don’t know why it’s taken me so long.” Ryder paused. “But...”

  I held my breath. Waited. Everything in me tingled with a rush of excitement.

  The boy I’d had a crush on all my life, the man I’d fallen in love with, was finally going to say the three words I’d been waiting to hear.

  Maybe Jean was right. Christmas was romantic.

  “…tell Spud I miss him, okay?”

  Reality slammed back into place with the smell of grease, ketchup, and wet coats mixed with the overly-loud dinner crowd.

  A Christmas song I despised, sung by rodents who should not have gotten their own movie, much less a sequel, added to the noise.

  The demon across the table from me grinned like a fool and sighed happily, enjoying my emotional whiplash.

  “Spud,” I said in the most blasé tone I owned.

  “Spud.” Was that a hint of laughter in his voice? Was Ryder teasing me?

  “Your dog.”

  “Last I knew.”

  “Tell your dog, you miss him. Your dog.”

  “Yes. Because I do. Oh, and there’s one more thing.”

  Pause. Maybe for dramatic effect, maybe for navigating a tricky spot in whatever road he was driving.

  “Tell Spud that I love him.”

  Really? I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it.

  Was he pranking me? Had Jean called him behind my back and told him about our conversation?

  I knew Ryder loved me, because he’d proved it over and over again with his actions.

  But Jean had gotten that stupid “L” word stuck in my head and then Bathin had been all over it, and now I wanted to hear it, dammit.

  I wanted my Christmas romance.

  Bathin snorted.

  I scowled at him. “Stop reading my mind.”

  “Stop being so entertaining.”

  I imagined throwing him in a dungeon with a thousand hungry rats.

  “Promises, promises. And now I’m suddenly famished. I need pie.”

  He wandered off to sweet talk the waitress out of a free slice, something at which he was surprisingly adept.

  “Delaney?” Ryder’s voice brought me back to the conversation.

  There was no need for me to get upset about him teasing me. There was no reason for me to be annoyed that he was more emotionally open with his dog than with me.

  I could be calm. I could be happy that he was coming home in time for the holidays.

  Who needed the “L” word? Nobody. Who needed Christmas romance? Not me.

  Take that, Jean.

  Also? Two could play this game.

  “You’ll be glad to know I’ve already told Spud I love him more than you do. And guess who he believes? Me. I didn’t want to break it to you over the phone, but ever since I’ve been taking Spud on walks, feeding him bacon, bringing him a dragon to wrestle with, he’s made it pretty clear he loves me best now.”

  “A…did you say dragon?”

  “By the way, you’ll need new curtains. The dragon likes fabric. And there’s a strong possibility Spud won’t even recognize you by the time you get back. Why, just the other day he was staring at your picture and growling.”

  “Delaney.” He coughed to smother a laugh. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m just fine. I’m just great.”

  “Mmmm-hmm. You sound great.” His voice dropped into that sexy burr that made my mouth water.

  I bit the corner of my lip and waited for my stupid heart to stop fluttering for him. Waited for the butterflies in my stomach to get the message that there would be no takeoffs today. All flights were grounded.

  “Don’t,” I whispered.

  “Don’t what?” Sexy voice. Sexy man.

  I closed my eyes and could almost feel his arms wrapping around me, his body hard and heated against mine.

  I could almost feel his breath ghosting across my cheek to my lips, where he would pause, thumbs framing my mouth before he pressed a kiss exactly where he wanted it.

  How could I miss him so much when he’d only been gone for a couple months?

  Hearts were confusing.

  I might have made a little sound.

  “Don’t think I’m not missing you,” he rumbled. “I can’t sleep at night. You’re all I think about. And every time I hear your voice…I just want to turn the project over to some other company, pack it all up, and come home.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  Who knew one word could make everything seem better?

  I opened my eyes and stared at my cup while the Hula Hoop-obsessed rodents sang me back to the here and now.

  It was almost Christmas. Songs were playing, people were laughing. That lift of kindness and hope and nostalgia filled the air, thicker than the scents of cinnamon and peppermint.

 
Bright lights blinked along the edges of windows and silvery snowflakes hung glittering from the ceiling.

  “I’ll be there,” he said. “Soon.” Promising me. Promising himself.

  “We’ll talk. Okay, Delaney? We’ll really talk. Because I have things to say to you. Important things I need you to know. About us. Things I’ve been thinking a lot about.”

  “Okay.” Even I heard how soft my voice had gone.

  He made a frustrated sound. “I need to say them when I can see your eyes. When I can feel your heartbeat.”

  “Okay.” He was coming home. That was good. That was enough. “I miss you like I miss the stars in the sky.”

  “Aw,” Bathin whispered as he settled down with half an apple pie. “Stars. How poetic. Most people only aim for the moon.”

  I reached across the table with my spoon and scooped all of the whipped cream off his pie.

  “Hey.”

  I stuffed the entire pile in my mouth and gave him a what-you-gonna-do-about-it look.

  “Baby.” Was all Ryder seemed able to get out. But it was enough.

  That word was love.

  “Hey.” I swallowed the sweet cream then took a quick sip of coffee. “There is a storm headed inland. It’s going to dump a lot of snow in the passes. Do you think you should wait until it blows through?”

  “No. I want to be home. I’ll be careful. I promise.”

  “Just…don’t push it if it looks too bad.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Call me before you leave. And make sure you have a full tank of gas.”

  “And cold weather gear, chains, water, granola bars and jerky. I’m only three hours away, Delaney, not trekking across Siberia.”

  “A hundred and ninety-one miles, Ryder. There are two mountain ranges between us.”

  “You think a couple mountain ranges could keep me from spending Christmas with you?”

  “If they’re going to throw a blizzard at your head? Maybe.”

  “Let them try. I’m still coming home. Blizzard or no blizzard.”

  “Okay.”

  “Delaney.” Soft, intimate. “I’ll be home for Christmas.”

  “Don’t you start quoting songs at me.”

  He chuckled, and just like that, things felt better again. Things felt right. “Jean’s right,” he said. “You have no Christmas spirit.”

  “Excuse me? You’re taking my sister’s side on this?”