“What. The. Actual. Fuck?” Cindy’s eyes are wide, and her voice is loud as she stops dead in the doorway of the townhouse we share.
“Nothing.” I guiltily hide the jammed vacuum behind my back. We’ve only been living together in our little townhouse for a month. We haven’t even set a date for the wedding.
I don’t know if that’s relevant, but I’d just feel better if I waited until after I was her official husband to break the vacuum.
She rolls her eyes. “I can see it’s something!” Cindy puts down her bag.
“I’ll fix it. Even though I’m not your husband yet, I know that husbands... fix things,” I trail off lamely.
Cindy’s smile is crooked as she hurries to my side. “Sure they do. Now, what’s broken?”
“The vacuum. It turns on, but it won’t suck up anything.”
“The canister is full.” Cindy frowns and looks at the carpet. “Of feathers, I’m guessing? Baby, wait, why are your feathers falling out?” she gasps, eyes horror-stricken.
“Mysetae,” I correct, even though I know they look and feel like feathers.
Cindy kneels and clutches a handful of soft black feathers. “Honey, are you going bald? Is it because you’re living indoors?” Her voice is a mournful squeak.
I love this woman. I bend down and scoop her up. Even though she proudly declares herself an overpacked hourglass, her thick, plentiful curves are light in my arms.
“No. Feel?”
Cindy nuzzles her face into my cheek and runs one hand over my shoulder.
“Oh. Ohhh, my gosh. You’re so silky! Like, brand-new-baby-kitten silky!” She buries her face in the crook of my neck and sighs.
This broken vacuum thing isn’t turning out as bad as I thought.
My boyfriend feels amazing. If silk lingerie and a cashmere sweater mated—Lennox would still feel even softer and smoother. As I knead my hands all over his broad biceps, he purrs like an overgrown cat, and the sound waves rumble through my middle.
I just want to get naked and rub my body all over him.
As soon as I figure out why my sweetheart has black fluff all over the living room floor.
With an effort, I pull myself out of his embrace and put my hands firmly at my sides to stop from groping him. “Start with the feathers. Move to the vacuum.”
“Well, remember I lost a lot of ‘feathers’ at the end of May? Or was it June?”
I don’t, but I was starting a new job full-time, and Lennox was crazy busy because, as the gardener/landscaper at White Pines, he was in full wedding season swing. Still, I think I would have noticed if he suddenly covered the floor with black fluff.
“As much as this?” I demand.
“Nooo, but a lot. I shed my heavier, fluffiersetaefrom the winter in preparation for summer.”
“Okay, but—”
“Well, this is a little different. This is a full molt. All mysetaewill be pushed out, and my winter ‘coat’ will come in. Don’t worry. I’ll be thick and fluffy again in no time.”
“Good.” I love him thick and fluffy.
“Was there a bad cold snap?” Lennox asks. “As a gardener, I can usually predict, but—”
“We had a sudden cold front move in earlier today.” It’s early October in the mountains, but Pine Ridge moves into sweater weather in September, like a cultural thing. I guess, if you’re a “monster,” Halloween and Spooky Season get raised to an art form.
“You were gone when I woke up, and I started feeling off right away.” He rubs his hand sheepishly over his broad chest. “I called Wes and Gloria and told them I had to stay home, and I spent a lot of the day sleeping.”
“A mini-hibernation?”