Page 22 of Dragon Tempted

“She also asked Marilyn to make you grilled cheese and tomato soup since that is one of our favorite comfort foods.”

John nodded and stood awkwardly, not sure what else to say.

Tessa gestured to the couch. “Why don’t you take a seat and eat while it’s warm.”

He sat down, but instead of leaving, Tessa sat in the chair across from him, and Lily perched next to him. They were going to watch him eat? He reached for the sandwich and brought it to his lips while Lily leaned forward, watching him with a small frown.

He stopped. “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t you want to dip it?” Lily asked.

He glanced over at Tessa, who smirked at him before he turned back to Lily. “Okay.” John set it down and reached for the knife to cut it in half. As he positioned the knife at the top to cut it lengthwise, Lily frowned again.

“How should I cut it?” She pointed her little finger to the corner, and he cut the sandwich on the diagonal. Picking up half, he dipped the sandwich in the soup and then took a bite. Lily and Tessa watched, and he felt a bit like a specimen under a microscope.

“Mmm. That’s really good.”

Lily beamed at him while he dipped and took another bite.

“That was close,” Tessa said, barely choking back a laugh. “You almost cut the sandwich wrong.”

Lily sighed. “Daddy cuts it wrong all the time.”

“He says he likes it that way, but we’ll keep working with him on it, right, sweetheart?”

“Right.” Lily turned toward the closed door. “Bella.”

A second later there was a knock at the door, and Lily skipped over and opened it. Megan walked in carrying a toddler with curly auburn hair like her mother.

He must not have hidden his surprise well, because Tessa nodded. “It still shocks me every time too. Bella does the same thing with Lily.”

“Glad to see you up, John,” Megan said. “This is Bella.”

“Hello, Bella.”

Bella waved at him. “Hi, Unka Gumpy.”

Megan’s face turned bright red as Tessa burst into laughter and Lily’s giggle joined her. The corner of John’s mouth hitched up slightly. Smiling was another thing he was rusty at.

What was happening? Megan set Bella down when she started to squirm, and Lily took Bella’s hand and led her over to the couch. Bella climbed up next to him, and Lily circled the coffee table and sat on his other side.

Megan gaped at them. “It normally takes Bella a while to warm up to new people.”

Hell, it took him a while to warm up to any people. He wasn’t someone who wanted relationships. He’d learned long ago that it was just a recipe for heartbreak. He cleared his throat. “She probably saw the cookies.” He picked up the plate and held it out to Bella and then Lily, who each took a cookie. He picked one up and took a bite as well.

He moaned at the taste, and there was no faking it for the sake of Lily’s feelings. “Now that is a good cookie.”

Lily smiled as she took a bite of her own cookie, leaving chocolate at the corners of her mouth.

They finished their cookies, and then both girls watched while he ate the rest of his sandwich and soup. Luckily he didn’t have to talk since Lily regaled him with stories about her teacher and Bella laughed at almost everything Lily, or “Yiwee,” as she called her, said.

“Lily. It’s time for you to go back to school,” Tessa said.

Lily nodded. “Okay. Bye,” she said as she scurried out of the room.

“We have a tutor that teaches her at the house. As much as Adam and I would love for her to be in a school with other children, we don’t think it’s safe right now. We know that the Templars were after her in the past, and now that she’s older and her powers are growing, she’s in even more danger.”

His stomach soured a bit on the food he just ate. “Does she still have visions through her drawings?”