Page 16 of Guarding the Star

“I know you've got your girlfriend and everything, but I need you to watch him for half an hour. Can you…? He's about to pass out.”

“Give him to me,” I order, stretching out my arms.

Wesley protests for a second, but the moment he realizes it's me, he buries his face in my neck and goes still. I smell his hair.

“Thanks,” Zoe says. “I'll come get him in half an hour.”

“Make it an hour or two. I don't have better plans.”

Zoe smiles. Glances at my so-called girlfriend, shrugs, and leaves.

“Story,” the kid demands the second I lay him on the bed and pull off his sneakers.

“Which one, boss?”

“Dwagon.”

“Again? Don't you ever get tired of that story? Fine. But today I'm telling you a new adventure. See, that dragon played a lot of seasons with us. Know what happened after the game?”

Wesley shakes his head, dead serious.

“He wanted to go to school. And the dragon showed up on his first day with a backpack that was huge and sat in a chair that was way too small. His tail stuck out the back.”

“Tail?”

“Yeah, a super long tail. Green. With spikes. And the thing was, every time the dragon got excited, fire came out of his nose. A rabbit told him he'd scored a really cool goal, and the dragon got so pumped that a big flame shot out and burned the chalkboard.”

“No!”

“The other animals got a little scared and left. The dragon was all alone in the classroom. A little sad.”

Wesley stares at me, eyes huge. His lower lip pushes out and starts to tremble.

“No, no, it's okay, because then a really old turtle showed up. You know turtles live a long time, right? She was the teacher. And she said: Dragon, you're not bad. You've just got a lot of energy inside. You have to learn to let it out a little at a time, not all at once. And she taught him a trick.”

“Wha twick?”

“Whenever the dragon felt the fire rising, he closed his eyes, breathed three times, and the fire turned into a teeny tiny little flame. Like this.”

I close my eyes. I breathe in big three times and Wesley giggles.

“Does it work?”

“Of course.”

“Does da dwagon have fwiends?”

“He's got tons of friends. Because he learned that he didn't have to stop being a dragon. He just had to learn when to use a lot of energy and when to use just a little.”

Wesley smiles, and I can't help kissing the top of his head.

“Who's dat?” the kid asks, pointing at my bodyguard.

“She's my friend. Paula.”

“Fwiend?”

“Yeah.”