Page 104 of Moody as a Minotaur

“That’s terrible.” But I was smiling now whether I wanted to or not.

“Parks, talk to me.” Levi pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “You know we can take the fish with us, right? That was the plan before Finley decided to stay here.”

“I know. But honestly, I think Fin needs the fish more than I do right now. They’re great listeners.” I traced myfinger down the side of the tank. “And it isn’t like I can’t visit them.”

“We can always move them later too.”

I nodded. But would I? The temperatures had dropped well below freezing this last week. And the forecast suggested we wouldn’t get a break from this cold spell for a while.

Winter was well and truly here now. We didn’t have much snow yet, but it was coming. I wouldn’t want to take the fish outside in this. Even if I took all the precautions in the world, it would still be too much of a risk.

“You know,” Levi said, resting his chin on my shoulder. “You never did explain why Finley calls you Pow.”

I groaned.

“Come on. It can’t be that bad.”

“Fine, but it’s ridiculous,” I said. “When I was a little kid, just learning to talk, I couldn’t say my name very well. It sounded more like Pow Cow than Parker.”

“Pow… Cow…” Levi repeated slowly. Then he started to laugh.

“Hey.” I elbowed him in the side. “Be nice.”

“Come on. That’s funny.” He was still laughing. “Pow Cow and the Minotaur. We could be leads in our own Saturday morning cartoon.”

Then I laughed too. Because yeah. I could see it.

“I’d always thought Pow came with automatic exploding speech balloons,” I confessed, wiping a tear from my eye.

“Exactly, Pow Cow is totally the type to have a flashy spandex suit and a cape.”

“And what about the Minotaur?”

“Well, he’d obviously be the reasonable one.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “No way. You’d have to trade your loin cloth for a bright red speedo with a massive belt. Oh, and your horns would be tipped with gold. And…”

“Enough already.” Levi snorted. Then he was tickling me, and I damn near pissed my pants with laughing.

“You better be keeping things PG out there,” Fin shouted from the other room.

That made us laugh harder.

“Come on,” Levi said. “Let’s get out of here. Carter is waiting for us.”

I met Sushi’s eyes one last time, and a moment of understanding passed between us. I nodded. It was time.

“Nana has something planned tonight too,” I reminded him.

“Can I hitch a ride with you guys?” Fin asked, poking his head out of the hallway.

“Sure, come on,” I said.

“Do you know what Nana wants to talk to us about?” Fin said, as he grabbed his jacket from a hook at the top of the stairs.

“Um…”

“Oh my God, she told you, didn’t she? Why doesn’t she trust me?”