{"id":3340,"date":"2016-08-14T08:31:16","date_gmt":"2016-08-14T13:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/?p=3340"},"modified":"2016-08-14T08:31:16","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T13:31:16","slug":"sneak-peek-sunday-from-book-5-of-the-mb-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/?p=3340","title":{"rendered":"Sneak Peek Sunday! (from Book 5 of the MB Files)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry put a glass of orange juice in front of me, patted my head, and reminded gently, \u201cYour gruel is getting cold, dear. I cannot imagine a more cruel task to put before you, but please do eat your oatmeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, okay,” I said. “You don\u2019t have to twist my nipples about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways a lady,\u201d he remarked pleasantly. \u201cAnd now I am afraid that it falls upon me to inquire: what tomfoolery might you be planning today, love?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNone at all. Just being a good little DaySitter and staying here to guard you like I\u2019m supposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hardly believe my ears,\u201d he murmured, sweeping into the chair opposite me and giving me a knowing cluck of his tongue before snapping open the New York Times. \u201cIn fact, one cannot imagine that you plan on doing anything like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

I slopped my spoon around in the oatmeal with a sigh. \u201cI might hit the gun range and show off my mad skills to Hood\u2019s new chief deputy.\u201d<\/p>\n

One corner of the newspaper flipped down so that Harry could display his thrice-pierced eyebrow arching up. He made a drawn-out, contemplative\u00a0mmhmmm<\/em>. \u201cPerhaps it is best he does not see your ludibrious quagswagging too soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

I narrowed my eyes at him, certain I\u2019d just been insulted. \u201cI think it\u2019s only fair he gets a heads up on who\u2019s Top Dog around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTry not to be perfectly absurd, darling,\u201d Harry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do<\/em> try,\u201d I said. \u201cWould you not describe my absurdity as imperfect?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose this plan is better than last Tuesday\u2019s lying about in your pajamas all day, drinking merlot and yelling at the TV meteorologist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pinot noir,\u201d I said, \u201cand it wasn\u2019t all day. You know Al Roker drives me crazy in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat utter rubbish. You have nothing but love for Mr. Roker when you are sober. How fickle is my pet\u2019s heart on a bibesy,\u201d Harry chided. \u201cYou kept me awake in my casket long past noon, what with your ill-tempered yowling like a red fox screaming in a trap.\u201d His lips turned up in a private smile and he shook with a silent chuckle, proud of his comparison. I stared at him until he looked up from his newspaper inquiringly; then, I glared to impress upon him that the too-close-to-home comparison did not go unnoticed. His smile widened until he was damn near grinning across the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t it time for you to rest, Harry?\u201d I asked him. \u201cI\u2019m almost sure it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He folded the paper and smiled. \u201cIf it pleases you, my cheeky one.\u201d He came around to plant a cool kiss on my forehead and then went to the pantry, where the cellar stairs were. \u201cPromise your companion now that you\u2019ll spend some time on self-care. A visit to the salon. A nice massage?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d I said, thinking of a pedicure.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee that you don\u2019t cause the sheriff more collywobbles than is typically expected of you. He\u2019ll be no good to us if he goes completely off his trolley,\u201d Harry warned. \u201cOnly fire, folly, and mischief can come of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

I frowned after him, listening to the soft pad of his Oxfords on the stairs. I took my mostly uneaten oatmeal to the compost bin and scraped the bowl, bracing for the cold chill that snagged my belly whenever Harry fell to rest. It took him a few minutes of settling in, getting comfortable, and feeling me out through the Bond to make sure I was all right, and then he died. Everybody\u2019s always dying on me<\/em>, I thought bitterly.<\/p>\n

\"Writing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harry put a glass of orange juice in front of me, patted my head, and reminded gently, \u201cYour gruel is getting cold, dear. I cannot imagine a more cruel task to put before you, but please do eat your oatmeal.\u201d \u201cOkay, okay,” I said. “You don\u2019t have to twist my nipples about it.\u201d \u201cAlways a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3340"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3341,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3340\/revisions\/3341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}