Welcome to the Family

Part 6

Boomer ran over to me and laid down, bowing his head a little bit. He knew he was in trouble. "I promise I didn't kidnap your dog." Damon said with a smirk as he held up his hands in mock surrender. "He joined me and Sasha when we were on our walk."

I mulled over my answer while looking around the clearing. I never knew it was here before. Well I have never really spend time at this park, but I've been here once or twice. It had hedges all around and a black iron arch for the entrance. The clearing wasn't exactly beautiful. It didn't have any flowers or color; just plain ol' green and a little bit of black that came from the benches and arch way. The grass was a little bit over grown, but not terribly and the hedges could use some trimming.

"I guess this is where I thank you for not doing anything spiteful to Boomer." I nudged Boomer with my shoe so he knew that he could get up now. He bounded over to Sasha, Damon's dog I'm guessing, and started to play. "Thank you for taking care of him." I gave Damon a little bit of a smile. I stayed where I was at the opening of the clearing, not daring to get closer or sit down on a different bench. As there was two in the clearing.

"No problem. Sasha really enjoyed his company and she usually hates dogs so it worked out well." Damon's voice was velvety and husky with his Hispanic accent as an undertone. He was wearing his usual attire: jeans, t-shirt and his black Family jacket.

I felt relieved to have Boomer safe and in my eye site, but it was weird that Damon was the one that would be getting my gratitude for this. "I owe you one now. Boomer's important to me."

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind." Damon didn't even try to hide the smirk off his face. Great. What have I gotten myself into?

Sasha wandered over to me with Boomer. She was a gorgeous dog, looked a lot like Boomer but her tale wasn't docked. Sasha got even closer and I bent down to pet her. Her fur was soft. "Good dog." Sasha backed away and ran off with Boomer. "How come you aren't in school right now?" I asked before I could stop myself. It had just dawned on me that he should be in school still, considering he was the same age as me and all of the schools in this district ended their school days at the same time.

"She is and I skipped today." he told me sarcastically, "good thing I did too, or I wouldn't be the one that has Boomer right now. Why aren't you in school?" He retaliated.

"I left to go have brunch with my soldiers." I signaled Boomer to come here and then bent down to put his leash on. I silently thanked myself for putting on jeans this morning because kneeling in the grass is a very itchy experience.

"So do I get your number?" Damon inquired as he got off the bench and stretched his arms above his head. "You know, since I'll need to get a hold of you when I figure out what I want my award to be."

I steadied him for a solid two seconds before giving him my reply, "Number no, but I can give you my email. I don't feel like going through the process of changing my number again."

"Fair enough. I wouldn't expect anything more from a Queen." There goes his sarcasm again. That's the thing with new Leaders. They kind of just expect to have every King or Queen on their speed dial. I never went through that phase. My father taught me better than that. "Espera un Segundo." Damon told me. He dug into his pockets and brought out a black touch screen phone.

Damon walked a little bit closer to me and extended his arm with the black phone out to me. I took it confidently, all the while his brown eyes were following my every move. His eyes were dark and piercing, but not the kind that saw through your soul. More like they have hope, confusion, and yearning all in one. I looked down at the screen and typed in my back up email for things like this under the contact info.