Page 23 of Little Fangs

He took my hand, keeping me from leaving. “But what if I like being in yours?” he whispered back.

“Then I guess I’ll have to buy myself some new ones, if we’re sharing. We don’t want to be caught without,” I said, winking at him.

Micah’s giggle was adorable, infectious to a point. He was going red under the hat, and I wanted to reach out and touch him, but if people saw that, it would be gossip before the afternoon.

I grabbed a small basket, hooked it over my arm, and while I finished the coffee, I looked around, staying close to Micah, wanting to keep an eye on him and make sure nobody else was around. I watched as he picked up at a teddy bear, placed it in the basket, then removed it and put it back on the shelf. It solidified some ideas I had about him, but we hadn’t spoken about them yet.

Doreen arrived at my side, startling me. “I’ll take that off your hands,” she said, grabbing the used coffee cup. “I’m not sure if you’re going to be able to shop with it in your hands.”

Micah looked right at me, as if shocked I’d caught him looking at the toy section. “I was looking at board games,” he said, almost as a defense.

“Get anything you want,” I reminded him as Doreen patted my arm.

“Very strong,” she noted. “Are you just out there all day, chopping down trees?”

“No, it’s—sometimes,” I said. “It’s a lot about taking care of the woods and making sure to plant trees too.”

She puffed out her lips, shaking her head. “I don’t know how you do it,” she said. “All that time out there alone, you’ll have to find yourself a lady friend.” She wiggled her brows at me. “Lorna’s daughter is coming back to town soon, and she’s single.”

Her husband called from the cash register. “She’s a divorcee with a kid.”

This is what I dealt with whenever I came into town. If it wasn’t about Lorna’s daughter, it was about Julie’s daughter, or Meena’s daughter. I’d met each one, but I was glad I hadn’t grown up here, otherwise everyone would’ve known my business, and being gay wasn’t anyone else’s business but mine and whoever I was with.

I shook my head. “I just don’t have the time right now,” I told her. “Besides, I’ve got a cat. And she takes up most of my time.”

She patted my arm and left, as if offering me some sympathy.

Trying to find Micah again, I realized he was right behind me, snorting laughter and pulling the cart.

“How often do they do that?” he asked.

“Like, every single time I’m in town,” I told him. “How much did you hear?”

“Well,” he said, shrugging. “Everything.”

“Right, of course you did,” I said.

“Even your heart,” he giggled, staring into my basket. “I thought you were buying things too.”

“I am. I was perusing, you know.”

We stared at each other for a moment, his pupils expanded looking deep into mine, and my heart thumped in my ears. I knew he could hear it too. I liked it that he knew it was beating hard just for him.

“Do you want me to start getting rung up?” he asked in a softer tone.

“Sure,” I said. “I’ll be over in a minute. They know I’m paying.”

“Okay,” he said, nodding, and his mouth opened slightly as if he wanted to say something else, but the words never came as he walked off, tugging the cart behind him.

I went down the clothing aisles to find something to bring us closer. Not like there was anything closer than him ingesting my blood, though, or at the very least trying to bite me, like my skin was the outside of a hardened peach, and he could go at it with the side of his face and those little fangs.

My basket contained new underwear, in both our sizes, the teddy I’d watched him pick up, and a onesie. Those were covered by the new underwear, and he didn’t see them as I placed my basket on the counter.

“Do you want to go sit in the truck while I finish getting rung up?” I asked as he stood, nervously squeezing the front of the cap over his face as he stood in front of Doreen and Mark, fending off their questions with shrugs and mumbles.

He nodded, fleeing the store like he’d robbed it.

I then had to fend off questions about him, my stock phrase being about how he was new in town and nervous. Neither of them mentioned that they’d seen him before, because I genuinely didn’t think they had. He really had been stuck in that house for years.