Page 66 of Dragon Charmed

“Thank you for coming to see me. I needed it.” He hadn’t realized how much.

She beamed at him again. “So did I.” Sienna left and he leaned back on the couch and sighed.

A knock at his door had him sitting up. Had Sienna forgotten something?

Instead of Sienna, Tessa peeked into the room. “Hello. I was going to check on you earlier, but then I saw Sienna heading here. Did you have a good talk with her?”

“Yeah, it was great. She’s amazing.”

Tessa smiled. “She is. She has kicked ass-paragus as clan leader.”

“Asparagus?” He chuckled.

“Yeah. Sorry. I’ve tried to curb my truck-driver mouth with Bella and Lily around, and I can’t just turn it off and on depending on the audience.” She grinned. “Would I have hurt your tender ears if I’d said ‘ass’?”

Oh, the things he wanted to say. “No. I can take it.”

The grin on her face turned wicked, and his heart ticked up.

“Good to know,” she said.

“I thought you were coming to check on me, not give me a hard time,” he said.

She chuckled. “This is nowhere near a hard time.”

He laughed as well. Why did he feel like he could truly breathe when she was close?

“It’s good to see you smile,” she said.

He nodded. “Yeah. To say things have been overwhelming is an understatement.”

“I know. Try not to stress about your memories right now.”

That wasn’t going to work for him. “How can I not? I might have something in my head that could help us find Mia or maybe even break the curse.”

“Ben. This curse is over four hundred years old. This situation isn’t all on your shoulders. You need to learn to let your family help you.”

He stared at her.

“What?”

“When I was talking to Sienna earlier, it sounded like I have a tendency to try to do everything myself,” he admitted.

“Yes. I’ve heard the same thing. But that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Maybe you forgetting who you are is giving you an opportunity to reinvent yourself. That’s not a bad thing.”

“I agree. I said something similar to Sienna.” Especially if he didn’t like himself once he could remember.

“Plus, even though Jonas is digging through things online, I was thinking that we should talk to Evelyn again. I know that Mia didn’t tell her where she was going, but Evelyn knows her better than anyone. Maybe something from her past could help. That’s how we found Evelyn to begin with, right?”

“Right.” This woman was so smart and kindhearted. And so damn sexy when she had a twinkle in her eye.

“You up for playing detective for a little while longer with me?”

“Yes.” Detective, doctor, anything you want, his inner voice said. But he wasn’t sure how she would respond to that suggestion. She’d already told him of her attempts to bludgeon Eric on more than one occasion when he was misbehaving.

“What’s that smile for?” Tessa asked.

“You. Your enthusiasm is contagious.”