zone. Something he didn’t oppose at all. The only thing was, he already had lots of female friends, and he wanted more than that with Dawn.
‘Then do something about it,’ Dana urged, startling him by speaking in his mind.
Knox pursed his lips, informing Dana, ‘I already did.’
‘Oh, please, you call that trying? Even Ryker did better than that. He said some crap about butterflies and dying – it was really romantic,’ Max chimed in.
Knox looked at Max only to find her watching him along with Dana. ‘Dead butterflies are romantic?’ he queried.
‘You’re missing the point, dad.’
Kane then joined the conversation, because why not? Knox thought. He was beginning to get a headache. ‘And what is the point?’
‘The point is, Dawn may be a little slow on the uptake. But you aren’t. Get flirty with it,’ Kellan urged.
Knox grumbled to all the voices in his head, doing his best to ignore the suggestions that ranged from dead butterflies to tequila to basketball. ‘Basketball?’ He raised his eyebrows at Kai, who was working in another section of the garden.
‘I like basketball,’ came the mild response.
Before he could respond to that random comment, Dawn reached over and grabbed his wrist. The warm touch startled him, and had sparks shooting through his hand. He looked up only to get caught in Dawn’s hazel eyes.
“You’re doing it wrong,” Dawn informed him after clearing her throat and releasing him.
Knox raised his eyebrows, looking down at the hole he had just dug with his small spade. “Wrong? How the hell do you dig a hole wrong?”
Dawn laughed, “Before I met you, I would have wondered the same. But you’ve just demonstrated it.”
Knox mock-scowled at her, delighted she was bantering with him. Perhaps he had been premature with his friend zone assessment. He was doing just fine on his own without all the asinine pointers from well-meaning friends and family, he assured himself. “Fine,” he said. “What’s wrong with my mighty hole?” To his dismay, several people around them paused what they were doing and looked at him.
‘Mighty hole?’ Max’s question bounced around in his head and he could see her laughing her butt off across the garden. Her paladins asked her if she was okay, clearly not privy to their conversation and thankfully not hearing his comment. Max waved them away.
“Mighty hole?” Dawn repeated, humour in her eyes. She was clearly holding back laughter as she pointed to it. “Well, that is precisely the problem. It is too mighty. You’re planting pansies, not an oak tree.”
Knox looked down, realising he had been so distracted by the ingrates in his head that he had dug a hole nearly a full metre deep and almost half as wide as that. Not wanting to look like more of a moron, he hastily said, “Actually, I was thinking we could put a pond in here.”
“A pond?” Dawn’s face lit up and she smiled wide. “I love that idea! Maybe Blu or Caspian could help with that. What do you think?”
Knox cleared his throat, begging his dick not to get hard when they were surrounded by all these people. But it was a battle of wills when he had Dawn’s amazing cleavage to contend with. “For sure. That’s exactly what I was thinking. Great minds think alike.”
‘Nice save,’ Max said, giving him a thumbs-up.
“I know we are trying to be inclusive and do things largely without our powers, but I think in this instance, enlisting a water warden would be helpful,” Dawn was saying.
Knox agreed. He knew less about ponds than he did about gardening. It was true that the earth wardens could have simply coaxed the seeds within the soil to grow, but Knox felt Slate had a good idea when he suggested they involve everyone and do it by hand. There were still a few earth wardens there overseeing the planting – and doing some coaxing – Slate included. But overall, wardens, paladins, and chadens were all getting their hands dirty equally. Knox was beyond content as he looked around the growing garden. Just then, he saw Ryker frown at something on the ground and then pick it up. To Knox’s surprise, he called Slate over, moving away from Max and his Order, and the two bent their heads in what looked to be an intense discussion. “What do you think that is all about?” he nudged Dawn. “I thought Ryker didn’t like Slate.”
Dawn looked over and squinted at the pair, a smile gracing her face. “Ooohhh,” she said.