Perfect Pet

Ch. 40: Sunny Skies

"Hey, I'll be out by the pool if you need me." I leaned against the door outside of Malik's office where he was busy doing some paperwork for his father, the laptop he'd gifted me not long after moving back to his place tucked under one arm.

I knew technically it was our place, Malik constantly insisting that what was his was mine too, but it would take some time to get used to. Especially when the house was so large that I was still getting lost after being here almost a month.

Even though our bond let us sense the general area of one another, I preferred to let him know when I left the house so he knew exactly where to look if something happened. I also found that by doing so, the tether between us didn't bother me as much. Almost like Malik's moods affected it in some way.

He paused whatever it was he was writing to look up at me, a sweet smile gracing his face."Sounds good. And before I forget, my mother called and invited us over for dinner tonight if you want to go."

I couldn't resist returning his smile with one of my own."That would be nice." So far I had only gotten to meet his parents once, several days after leaving Rigryce and they had been super sweet. His mother in particular had been the exact opposite of my own and when giving me a tour of her greenhouse, had offered her help if I ever wanted to start my own.

I had never tried my hands at gardening and had no idea if I would be any good at it. Just picturing me killing one of her beloved plant babies had me internally cringing in despair.

"Great. I guess we'll head over there about seven. My mother is cooking so we're in for a treat."

"I can't wait," I told him, genuinely meaning it, and was getting ready to leave when a sudden question stopped me in my tracks.

"Has your brother gotten back to you about visiting?"

I'd called River once I had gotten settled in to let him know everything was fine and we were set to have him whenever he was ready to make it out to us. I'd told Malik how long it had been since I'd seen him and he knew how much I missed him which probably explained why he encouraged a visit so soon. That and he wanted to meet the only tie to my family I had left since I refused to count the woman that had given birth to me in that category.

She didn't deserve to be there.

"He's got a flight booked for next week," I told him, unable to keep the excitement out of my voice. There was so much for us to catch up on and just being able to see him in person after over a year apart was thrilling enough. "He's gonna text me the details once he's got his end-all tidied up. We'll pick him up from the airport, right?"

The look Malik shot me told me what he thought of that question but he soothed the sting of it by joking when he said, "What else would we do? I would like to make a good impression. I'm sure you already told him that we'd be there anyway."

I had indeed but I'd only asked because I knew Malik and his parents had a driver that they used from time to time when going to events. He'd been the one to pick us up from the airport and drive us back to the house. I hadn't seen him since because the house was in the middle of the vampire city and everything was essentially within walking distance.

I honestly just wanted to be there to greet him straight away after his long flight. He'd mentioned it at one point but I couldn't for the life of me remember where his tour was ending so I wasn't completely sure how long he'd be in the air. I'd had so much to think about that my brain couldn't hold it all.

"You've got nothing to worry about. Just between you and me, you'd win in a fight. Hands down."

"Damn straight," Malik snorted, shooting me an apologetic look. "Not that I would ever let that happen."