Page 29 of Moody as a Minotaur

It was exhausting.

I gave up the pretense by about noon and tackled some of my paperwork.

Finally, around two o’clock, Parker strolled into the reception area. Through my new one-way mirror, I watched as Jasmine, my front desk clerk—or hospitalityspecialist, as she had dubbed herself—welcomed him and told him to go right into my office.

I wasn’t expecting anyone to check in today, so normally I would have left Jasmine to run the place on her own. But not today.

Jasmine couldn’t see me through the one-way mirror, but she still waggled her eyebrows in my direction and fanned herself after Parker walked by her. I sighed. It would soon be all over town that Parker came to talk to me this afternoon. Supes were a bunch of gossips and Jasmine was one of the best.

She was a chipmunk shifter, who spent more time chattering on the phone than doing anything else. But people liked her cheerful smile, so I kept her on.

I wished I had remembered she was working this afternoon when Parker had originally suggested talking. I would have…

What? Suggest we go to my house?

No way. I couldn’t have Parker in my house. I’d never be able to control myself if I led Parker to the heart of my maze. And what if the hunters returned?

I shoved the paperwork I’d been pretending to work on into a pile and dragged my gaze away from whatever other gesture Jasmine might make.

“Hi,” Parker said, as he stepped through the doorway. His cheeks were that pretty pink color again. Had he seen Jasmine’s gestures? Or was he chilled from his walk over? The wind had picked up in the last few hours and it was bitingly cold.

“Hi.”

I stood quickly, knocking my chair back abruptly.He’d never been to my office before. I didn’t quite know what to do. I wanted to show him around, which was ridiculous. My office was dull and drab and, well, an office. So, uh, yeah. A tour would be weird.

What if I gave him something? My gaze darted around, looking for a suitable offering. Coffee wouldn’t work because there was a reason I bought coffee every single day. Mine was terrible. We had a box of cookies kicking around somewhere from a gift basket our soap supplier had given us last Christmas, but they would probably be stale. And what did that leave? Water from the tap? Were the glasses clean?

Then I realized he was carrying a small cardboard box, a handful of paper napkins, and a tray with two coffees. I wasn’t surprised he’d shown up with food; he was always trying to feed me. It was a thing he did for his friends. Although now that I thought of it, I couldn’t remember anyone else talking about that. Maybe he just did it so often that people didn’t bother mentioning it. Maybe it was just that common.

Yeah. I wasn’t convinced that was it.

“Is this a bad time?” he asked.

And now I’d made it awkward.

“No. Not at all,” I said quickly. I waved him forward. “Come in…”

“I, uh, brought something…” He held up the box and the coffees. He set the offerings on the corner of my desk before casting his gaze back toward the reception area. “Can I shut the door?”

“Of course.”

The door snicked closed, and we stared at oneanother for a beat. Other than the car ride through Willow Lake last night, we hadn’t been alone together since I’d walked him home from the park a few weeks ago. That day, the town supes had gathered for an impromptu track and field day. Magic was supposed to keep humans away from the event, but of course that hadn’t worked on Parker, and I’d had to intervene.

Parker fiddled with the zipper on his jacket as his gaze darted around my office.

“Do you want something? Water?”

“No. I’m okay.”

He stripped off his jacket and flung it over a chair. Without his zipper to fidget with, he played with the cuff of his shirt instead, rolling it up to expose the fine smattering of ginger-colored hair on his forearms that I always found so fascinating when we played pool. It always led me to wonder if all his body hair was that color, and that was a dangerous thing to think about. I dragged my eyes away.

“So, what did you bring me?” I nodded to the box.

“I made these this morning.”

He opened the box to reveal two Danish pastries filled with cream cheese and thinly sliced apples. They smelled heavenly with a touch of cinnamon and something a bit savory. Rosemary maybe? Parker slid each one onto a napkin. He set one treat and one coffee cup in front of me. He turned it so the hole in the cup’s lid was facing me. Then he did the same for himself.

Once he was done, he sat down in a chair in front of my desk and took a sip of his coffee. I went to sit back down again too, but it didn’t feel right. I grabbed my treatand coffee, then I rounded my desk so I could sit beside him. Yeah. That was better.