Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“They make the cutest couple,” Goldie said and sighed. “And me still single.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” I confessed. “I always thought there was time to find someone later but it looks like later is here and I have no one.”
“You think you’ve got it bad—look at me,” Goldie groused. “With a name like mine, you’d think I could have my pick but here I am without a single bear in sight—let alone three of them!” We both laughed together and she gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Don’t give up, sweetie. It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.”
“Yeah, well…” I shrugged. “I’d like to believe that but practically the whole town is here tonight and I don’t see anyone I’d want to date.”
“What about H’rux?” she asked, nodding at the Minotaur who was standing across the room, bellowing in Chester the deaf Centaur’s ear—it was really the only way to have a conversation with the elderly Creature.
“He’s okay, I guess,” I said, shrugging. “But he doesn’t like sweets or pastries which is kind of my whole life. Plus, I’m a little freaked out about the idea of kissing a guy with a bull’s head.”
“Ah, you’d get over that soon enough—I hear he’s hung like a bull, too,” Goldie said, elbowing me in the ribs.
I hid a snort of laughter behind my hand.
“Goldie! You’re so bad!”
“Not bad—just horny, sweetie,” she said frankly. “Did you know that women our age sometimes get a second burst of hormones that make them hot to trot? I mean that literally—I might even be interested in a centaur. Not Chester but maybe his nephew Nathan—he’s on the Town Council, you know,” she added, nodding at a handsome Centaur who had dappled gray flanks and a thick chestnut beard that reached far down his muscular chest.
“Uh, I’m not sure how you could make that work,” I said doubtfully. “I mean, anatomically, you know?”
“Oh, you can make it work,” Goldie said with confidence. “There’s a certain kind of sex sling you can use—of course, you need an enlargement spell too, in order to accommodate something that big.”
“Oh my God—Goldie!” I slapped her arm and felt myself turning red as I giggled helplessly.
“I’m serious, girl—you can’t go in there unprepared,” she said, laughing along with me. “And of course you need a good birth control spell too. If you get preggers with a centaur baby, it’s over.”
We spent some more time eyeing the other eligible bachelors in town: Jackson the Kraken, whose tentacles were mostly hidden since he was in his human form that night, Dave the werewolf who had to leave early before the full moon came out, Christopher, who was a Dragon and immensely wealthy in the Mortal Realm. He was handsome in a gleaming, scaly way—he was also in human form but the scales couldn’t be hidden. Unfortunately, Goldie told me all he cared about was money and making more of it.
“Cold hearted,” she said, shaking her head. “Nothing but hoarding more gold on his mind. It’s a shame because he’s really good looking if you don’t mind the scales.”
There were various other men and Creatures too, but none of them was appealing and many of them had already found their Heartmates—which made them permanently off limits. Once you find your Heartmate, you’re tied to them for life. It’s one of the magical parts of living in Hidden Hollow that I wished I could experience for myself.
“Hey, let’s change the subject—this is getting me down,” Goldie said after a while. “Let’s talk business for a minute—are the pears ripe yet? I have customers asking me all the time when I’m going to get your special tarts in.”
She was talking about a special kind of pastry I only made once a year—mainly because the pears that went into it were only ripe for one day. They grew on a magical tree I had discovered on one of my early morning walks when I had first moved to Hidden Hollow.
“I’m checking them every day,” I promised her. “In fact, I’m going to check again tomorrow morning.”
“You do that.” Goldie nodded. “You don’t want to miss them. Folks around here look forward to those tarts something fierce. They’ll be damn disappointed if they don’t get them.”
“Don’t worry—they’re coming,” I promised.
If you think we were being too serious about a simple fruit pastry, let me try to explain. The pears in question were a special variety that can’t be grown commercially—they only sprout in the wild on magical lands like the ones around Hidden Hollow.
They’re called “Golden-Skinned Warblers” because when they’re ripe they have a golden, satiny skin that glows with magic and they give out a warbling, trilling note when they’re picked. If they don’t sing, they’re not ripe and they taste as bitter and chalky as chewing on an aspirin tablet.