As I set the oven to preheat, I heard a knock on the back door.
“Almost perfect timing,” I congratulated myself. “I hope dinner comes out as well.”
I went downstairs and to the back door. When I opened it, I was greeted by four smiles and an unexpected hug.
“Uncle Pin! I’m so glad to see you!”
I smiled and hugged Piña back. “I’m glad to see you too! This is a nice surprise.”
“Barrel was feeling under the weather,” Berry said, giving me a look that made me think the previous night’s activities had contributed to Barrel’s condition. “Piña was visiting us, she and Pinch are having a sleepover, and we thought you wouldn’t mind a substitution.”
“I don’t mind at all.” I leaned my head closer to Piña’s ear and stage whispered, “Don’t tell Barrel, but I think I got the better deal out of the trade.”
Piña giggled and added more to her hug.
“I’d like a hug too,” Pinch teased and poked Piña in the shoulder.
Piña reached out with a foreleg and pulled Pinch to her. “There!”
Piña and I shifted and brought Pinch into the hug.
“Hello, Pinch, I’m glad to see you too,” I told her.
“Hello Uncle Pin,” she said. “You and Piña are both crazy.”
“I can’t argue that. I hope it’s a good crazy though.”
Pinch grinned. “It is.”
I let the fillies go. “Good evening, Berry.”
“Do I get a hug too?” Berry kidded.
“If you’d like one,” I said with sincerity.
“You are a crazy thing,” she said, and we shared a hug.
Piña hopped up and down in place. “Miss Rarity said you had flowers in your shop. Can we see?”
“You’ll have to ask Miss Coco,” I told her. “The flowers are hers.”
Before Piña could ask her, Coco said, “You can see them.”
Piña smiled up at her. “Thank you.”
“Come on in,” I invited everypony. “The shop’s looking a lot better, thanks to Coco.”
“Because she brings flowers?” Piña asked as we entered the storefront.
“Pin was the one who brought the flowers,” Coco said.
I heard Piña’s hoof steps stop behind me.
“He bought them for you?” she asked.
“He did.”
I turned in time to see the smile on Coco’s face and Piña’s look of happy surprise.
Piña leaned towards Coco. “So you’re his special somepony?”
“I am as of this morning.”
Piña squealed with glee and trotted in place “Congratulations! Uncle Pin is the best! He’s needed a special somepony for a long time too.”
“You could have phrased that better,” Berry told Piña, “but he has.”
Piña stopped her joyous display and pointed a hoof at me. “Be good to Miss Coco. She is a very nice mare.”
Coco giggled and told her, “He’s been nothing but wonderful since the moment I walked into the shop.”
“Those are pretty,” Berry said, admiring the flowers.
“They’re from Rose’s, if I had to bet,” Rarity said.
Piña and Pinch moved closer to examine the flowers.
Pinch asked, “They mean that the giver is feeling love towards somepony new and they hope are looking forward to a long relationship, right?”
I nodded. “That’s what I was trying to say.”
“How did you know?” Rarity asked Pinch. “There aren’t too many ponies that know what flowers mean from memory.”
“I read about their meanings in a book in the library. The meanings stuck in my head.”
“You’ve got a better memory than I do,” I complemented.
“I wish I could do the same thing with my schoolwork,” Pinch huffed in annoyance at herself.
I could just hear the oven chime from the apartment.
I nodded towards the back of the shop. “It sounds like we’re ready to cook now.”
Piña turned her head from the flowers. “What are we having?”
I held my foreleg out as a head waiter with a serving towel would. “On tonight’s menu is a fresh garden salad followed by vegetable stuffed cannelloni. For dessert, if anypony is interested…”
Piña and Pinch held up their hooves. “We are!” Pinch said.
“There will be brownies. According to the kitchen’s tradition, any fillies or colts who help prepare the brownies also get to help clean the mixing bowl of any brownie batter.”
Piña stretched and raised her hoof higher in the air. “We’d like to!”
“Nana used to let us have the leftover batter too,” Pinch said, with a touch of sadness in her words.
“We all miss them,” Rarity said, rubbing Pinch’s shoulder in comforting circles. “They were special ponies to all of us.”
Piña tapped Pinch on the nose. “Nana said we weren’t supposed to get sad when she was gone. Remember, we promised.”
“You two knew Pin’s grandparents?” Coco asked the fillies.
Pinch’s smiled returned, and she nodded. “When we were little, Nana and Grandpa would take care of us if Mom and Dad were busy. She would hold Piña and me in her wings and read us stories.” Pinch seemed frustrated with herself for a moment. “I sort of remember what she looked like.”
“I don’t remember her much at all,” Piña said, looking down. “We’re in the same grade, but Pinch is almost a year older than I am.” Piña perked up. “I remember her wing hugs, though. They were great.”
“You usually fell asleep when she read to us,” Pinch teased.
Piña blushed. “I couldn’t help it! Nana’s wings were so comfy and her voice was so nice.”
Everypony followed me into the apartment.
“Make yourselves at home,” I invited. “I’ll pop the cannelloni in the oven, and then we can get started on the brownies.”
“I’ll follow you,” Berry said. She patted her saddlebags. “We’ll need to find a place for these.”
“You didn’t have to bring anything,” I told her.
“We’re going to have an evening of fun and gossip and you think I’m not going to bring wine?” She pointed a hoof at me in an over dramatic fashion. “You have to be a changeling! Confess! The real Pin would know me better!”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Your first pet was a cat named Bottle Cork, you placed second in a spelling bee in primary school, and for the longest time you have a crush on-” Before I could finish my sentence, Berry used her hooves to close and hold my mouth shut.
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” Berry warned. She glanced towards Piña and Pinch, who were looking at Berry with intense curiosity.
Pinch grinned in a too enthusiastic way and asked me, “Who, Uncle Pin?”
I tried to say the name, but Berry’s hooves held firm.
“Dear, he needs to breathe,” Rarity reminded Berry.
“He’s fine; I don’t have his nose.” Berry looked me in the eye and added, “For now, anyway.”
“But I want to know,” Pinch insisted in a lighthearted tone.
“I could tell you who he had a crush on instead,” Berry offered. “Would that work?”
“I’d be interested in that information,” Coco said.
Pinch nodded and agreed, “Sounds good.”
Berry looked at me as if asking permission. I shrugged and nodded as best I could with Berry’s hooves still on my muzzle.
“June Bug,” Berry named.
“Isn’t she the mare that helps ponies with bugs in their gardens?” Piña asked.
Berry let go of my muzzle, and I affirmed, “That would be her.”
We spent the next half hour kidding around, talking, and relaxing. While the cannelloni cooked Piña, Pinch, and I prepared the brownies. After we poured the batter into a baking pan, the fillies each used a spoon to scrape the last of the batter out of the mixing bowl we had used for the brownie batter while I prepared the salads for everypony.
“The salads are served,” I said, placing Piña’s and Pinch’s salads in front of them. “Enjoy!”
“Thank you!” the fillies said together.
I served the mares their salads. “Which wine should we start with?” I asked Berry as I put her salad in front of her.
“The white, it will go well with the pasta,” she said.
“Which sparkling juice would you two like?” I asked Piña and Pinch.
“Apple!” and “Grape!” were their responses.
Berry put a hoof to her chest. “Daughter of mine, how could you?!”
Pinch’s ears fell. “I’ve had a lot of grape juice today.”
Berry gave her a comforting look. “I was kidding; you can have whatever you like.”
As I uncorked the first bottle, I asked Rarity, “What was the grand inspiration you mentioned earlier?”
“I’m going to open another shop,” Rarity declared.
“You opened a shop in Canterlot not too long ago, though,” Coco said, sounding stunned. “Won’t you be too busy?”
“I don’t plan to open it right now. I’m thinking ahead, darling.”
“What made you think about opening another shop?” Berry asked Rarity.
“The inspiration struck while Sweetie and I were on the train to Manehatten from Fillydelphia. I thought about how much traveling and seeing the different cities and the ponies that lived in them had given me several great ideas. Knowing I don’t travel without a reason all that often, I wondered how I could coax myself to do so.”
“Having a shop you would have to check on would make you travel,” I ventured.
Rarity nodded. “That was my thought.” She held up a hoof. “I would have to travel, which I enjoy and gain inspiration from.” She held up her other hoof. “It would also open a new market for me.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” I told her, as I gave the fillies their sparkling juice. “I’m worried you will stretch yourself too thin. There is only one Rarity and there are hundreds of ponies who want your designs.”
“Thank for the compliment and your concern, but I’ll be fine. Unlike a certain somepony I know, I don’t do everything on my own till I can no longer function.”
I looked around the room as if searching for somepony. “Who in Equestria could you be talking about?”
“I think she means you,” Piña said, not buying my act.
I put a hoof to my chest. “She can’t mean me, I have somepony helping me.”
“Now you do,” Berry said. “What about the other times we’ve had to check on you because you worked yourself till you all but collapsed?”
“I might have had a bad habit of that, but I think I’ve kicked it now.” I placed Coco’s glass of wine in front of her. “Somepony special has shown me how much getting help during a tough stretch makes every aspect of life better.”
Coco looked up at me with a tint of a blush on her cheeks.
The oven’s bell chimed.
I turned to look at the oven. “It sounds like the cannelloni is ready.”
“He’s stopping right there?!” Pinch whispered, as I walked from the table.
“Pinch, this isn’t one of your books,” Piña chided.
Rarity asked, “What books has she been reading?”
“I’d like to know too,” Berry said in a mother’s tone.
During their exchange, I removed the cannelloni from the oven, adjusted its temperature setting, and put the brownies in.
“I don’t know if it will taste any good, but it looks good,” I said putting the cannelloni on a metal rack on the counter. “About the time we finish our salads, it should be cool enough to eat.”
Berry gave a light snort. “You mean when we finish our salads. You haven’t even sat down and had a bite.”
“I have to look after my guests first.” I gave Berry and Rarity their wine.
“We’re friends having dinner, not patrons of a restaurant,” Berry pointed out. “We can fend for ourselves.”
“He’s being a gentlecolt,” Pinch said. “If we don’t let him wait on us, it would be rude.”
Piña gave her a look.
“What?” Pinch asked her.
“Nothing.” Piña smirked at Pinch. “I’m just wondering if Miss Coco is the only one that has a crush on Uncle Pin.”
“Piña! He’s too old for me to have a crush on!” As soon as the words left her mouth, Pinch slapped her hooves over her mouth.
I let my ears fall, slumped into my chair, and sighed. “Thanks, Pinch. I am getting over the hill.”
“No, Uncle Pin, I didn’t mean it like that. You’re hard working and wonderful. What I meant is that you have to be close to Mom’s age, since you were in the same class, and that would be weird.”
“Now I’m old!” Berry said with mock indignation. “I’ll remind you of this conversation when you get my age and we’ll see who’s ‘old’.”
“Please, let’s talk about something else,” Pinch begged and looked towards the rest of us, “anything else!”
Rarity smiled in an amused way and turned to Coco. “While Sweetie and I were in Manehatten, we saw fliers for a community show close to your place. Could it have been the one you volunteer for?”
Coco nodded. “This would be about the time they would advertise it, so it probably is.”
“Are you planning to go up there and help this year?”
“I was thinking about it,” Coco said. “But if you or Pin needs me, I’ll stay here.”
“I’ll be fine, darling,” Rarity gave me a sideways glance, “others, perhaps not so much.”
“Thanks to you, I feel like I can breathe again,” I told Coco. “Your contract with me is almost done too, so you don’t have to worry about that either.” I sat down beside her. “Speaking of which, I wanted to ask you and Rarity about something.”
“You want to keep her,” Rarity guessed.
I gave a light snort. “That’s the second time today that the word ‘keeping’ has come up in connection with me.”
“Mares want to be kept,” Pinch said. “Not to bar us from leaving but in a way that makes us feel shielded from the world and loved.”
Everypony turned to Pinch, who all but ducked under the table at the attention. “I guess I have been reading too many of Princess Twilight’s books.”
“Twilight’s books?” Rarity asked her eyebrows raised high in surprise.
“When I asked about where the romance books where in the castle’s library, she recommended them,” Pinch explained. “I guess they’re not actually hers, now I think about it.”
“I might have to have a little chat with Twilight,” Rarity said. “I had no idea she had any interest in romance.”
Rarity grinned in a way that made me feel sorry for Twilight.
“Which series have you been reading?” Berry asked.
Pinch blushed and looked towards the tabletop. “They aren’t anything bad, I promise, and Twilight said they were age appropriate.”
“That sounds like Twilight,” Rarity said. “I doubt she would recommend anything that would be too risqué.”
“I’ll get the cannelloni,” I said, hoping to help take the attention off of Pinch.
“Can I help?” Piña asked. She glanced at Pinch. “I think being close to my niece is not the safest place to be right now.”
Pinch scrunched up her nose and gave Piña a look. “Don’t act innocent, Auntie. Should I tell them who’s read a couple of the books after I finished them?”
“Piña, I would love for you to help,” I said, doing my best not to laugh as Piña gave a guilty, weak grin to Berry.
“Thank you!” Piña said and scrambled from her chair.
“If you would get everypony’s plates, I’ll divvy up the cannelloni.”
“This conversation isn’t over for either of you,” Berry promised, giving each of the fillies a look.
With Piña’s help, the cannelloni was served in little time.
“Dig in!” I encouraged, while checking on the brownies. “I’ll be right there.”
After trying a bite, Berry gave a satisfied hum. “This is good.”
“Thank you.” I shut the oven and retook my seat. “It’s not Grazing Meadow quality, but I hope it’s edible.”
“It’s good Uncle Pin,” Piña said and took another generous bite from her portion.
“Slow down,” Rarity told her. “A lady should show proper decorum and enjoy her meal at a stately pace.”
“What are you going to be working on with Miss Coco?” Pinch asked Rarity.
“This and that, since I’ve been away I will have back orders I will need to fill along with everything else.”
“So, what’s she’s been doing with Uncle Pin pretty much,” Pinch said.
“There will be more dress making involved,” Rarity said, “but yes.”
Piña put on a mischievous grin as she took a strong swig of her grape juice.
Berry pointed her fork at Piña. “I know that look. What are you thinking?”
Piña put down her cup. “Maybe they’ll have a duel for Coco. The winner gets to have her at their shop for three days a week, the loser only two.”
“Coco can make her own decisions who she will work for and when,” I said.
“So you don’t her around every day?” Pinch asked me with an impish grin of her own.
“I didn’t say or even think such a thing.”
“Rarity has an unfair advantage,” Pinch pointed out. “Coco is staying at her place.”
Piña shrugged. “Uncle Pin has a second bedroom.”
I did my best not to look at Coco but I end up glancing over at her. Her face was as red as I felt mine was.
“Piña,” Rarity said with restraint, “such an arrangement would be scandalous.”
“I don’t see why,” Piña said. “It’s not like rumors couldn’t start with her staying with you. You don’t share your house with any of the other ponies that work for you. Ponies will wonder what makes Coco so special to you and the gossip would start.”
I took a quick bite to avoid laughing as one of Rarity’s eyebrows twitched.
Berry tried to hold her laugh in, but failed.
“There is a difference because she and I are friends, but we haven’t been romantically involved like Pin and I have,” Coco said.
Piña’s ears perked. “I thought you two had become special someponies today.”
“We did, but Pin has been courting me in his indirect way for weeks now, and I’ve done my share of flirting back.”
Pinch leaned forward, seeming hungry for more information. “What has he been doing?”
“All kinds of sweet things, he’s made my lunches most days, walked me home holding an umbrella for me, made me tea during the day, things like that.”
“Not to be a buzz kill,” Piña said, “but Uncle Pin does that for everypony.”
“Even before that, he paid attention to who I am and made sure I felt welcome and appreciated. He’s made sure I was comfortable with our arrangement, negotiated with me and paid me generously, and even got some very expensive wine for me because he was told by an expert I would like it based on what he picked up from being around me for just a few minutes.”
With a self-satisfied smile, Berry held one hoof up and pointed at herself with the other.
Coco grinned at Berry then continued, “But even when he’s tried to be professional he’s slipped up and complemented me, which means he meant what he said from the subconscious level.”
Pinch’s tail swished back and forth through the gap in the back of her chair. She asked me, “What did you say to her?”
For the first time that night, as everypony looked my direction, it occurred to me that I was the lone stallion in the group.
The oven’s bell chimed.
“The brownies are ready, we don’t want them to burn so I better hurry and take them out,” I said leaving my chair. “I don’t have any ice cream, but I have the stuff to make homemade whipped crème.”
“Get back here!” Pinch commanded.
“What’s more important, your answer or the brownies and whipped crème?” Piña asked, as if Pinch’s choice should have been simple.
“I vote for the brownies and whipped crème,” Rarity said.
“Now I’m wondering if you’re a changeling,” Berry said.
“Oh no, darling it’s me. We all know how skittish Pin can be about such things, so let’s not traumatize him when there’s no need.” Rarity made a graceful gesture towards Coco with her hoof. “We have another viable source, and it gives us an excuse to have a girl’s night together at my place tomorrow evening.” She looked towards Pinch. “We need be but patient and we’ll get our answers.”
Pinch smiled and nodded to Rarity. “Brownies first, questions later.”
“There’s no need to worry Berry,” I told her. “It’s Rarity all right.”
*****
“It’s been such a wonderful evening,” Rarity said. “Thank you.”
I opened the back door for everypony. “Now that things are manageable again, we should make this a reoccurring thing.”
“I feel bad we left you with the dishes, after you cooked for us and all,” Berry said as she walked past me.
“Don’t worry. I’ll get them in the morning after they’ve soaked.”
“Thanks Uncle Pin.” Piña stopped and gave me a hug. “It’s been fun.”
I returned the hug. “I didn’t realize you were such a card shark.”
Piña grinned. “Barrel taught me.”
I chuckled. “That figures.”
As soon Piña let go of me, Pinch took her place and gave me a hug. “Thanks Uncle Pin. Dinner was delicious.”
“I’m glad you liked it.” I gave her a hug back. “It’s nice to cook for other ponies. I get to fix things I normally wouldn’t and share with friends.”
“That hug is going on a little long,” Piña kidded.
Pinch stepped back, making a show of taking her hooves away from me. “I gave him a thank you hug, Piña. That’s all.”
“Maybe to you, but Miss Coco was looking jealous.”
“Don’t tease them,” Coco said. “I can always ask Pinch for a hug too,” she said in a playful tone.
I followed them out the door, shut it behind us, and locked it.
“Are you going to walk us home?” Piña asked.
“I was planning on it, if you wanted me to.”
Pinch tapped Piña’s shoulder and motioned for her to lean close. Pinch whispered something in Piña’s ear. The pair of fillies then rushed over to Rarity and whispered to her.
“I believe you’re being conspired against,” Berry said. “You two better brace yourselves.”
The trio of conspirators turned towards us and gave us unsettling grins.
“Since Rarity’s tired from her trip, we thought we could all walk her and Miss Coco home first,” Pinch said.
“We’re being set up, if I had to bet,” I whispered to Coco.
She gave me her wonderful smile, and I felt my chest warm.
“I don’t mind if you don’t,” she whispered back.
I shook my head.
“They don’t mind,” Berry said for us.
Our small herd moved towards Rarity’s. Piña did a great impersonation of Pinkie as she bounced along the road.
Rarity shook her head. “She never slows down.”
“It will catch up with her,” Berry said. “Even with the brownies and the candies she won off of us giving her a boost she’ll collapse before too long.”
“You don’t mean that literally do you?” Rarity asked sounding concerned.
“Don’t worry,” Pinch said. “She goes till she can’t go anymore and then finds someplace to curl up and goes to sleep. We’ve found her in all kinds of places. It’s kind of cute.”
“The castle looks nice tonight, with the lights in the windows. Twilight must be working late again.” Berry gave Pinch a look and prodded, “Maybe she’s giving advice to someone about which books to read.”
Pinch dropped her head in resignation. “She recommended the Young Fliers series. Piña liked them more than I did.”
“They were okay,” Piña said. “I liked the Daring Do series better, much more action, much less ‘does he like me or not’ stuff.”
Berry tilted her head. “We have the Young Fliers series at home. Why would check them out from the library? You know I grew up with them as a filly, so also know I wouldn’t be upset about them.”
Piña bumped shoulders with Pinch. “Tell her about the other books Twilight gave you.”
Pinch looked back at Berry with uncertainty.
“Everypony stop,” Berry ordered in a commanding tone.
Without hesitation we all did.
I looked around at everypony. “How did she do that? I didn’t even think about it.”
Berry grinned. “It’s something mothers can do.” She held her forelegs out to Pinch. “Come here.”
Pinch nodded and gave Berry a hug.
Berry hugged Pinch back and nuzzled her head. “First, I am not mad at you, if that is what you are worried about. I wouldn’t tease about something if it upset me. Second, I will not take the books from you, no matter what they are. I trust you and all I ask is that you trust me enough to talk if you need to.”
Pinch nodded with her head against Berry’s chest. “I trust you.”
Berry continued: “Third, and most important, is that I have a slight concern you will be exposed to something you might need to discuss with somepony to put it to a realistic perspective to keep you from getting hurt. However, I know that by forcing an issue I could do just as much, if not more, damage. If you really don’t want to tell me, I won’t make you, but please be careful and talk to somepony, even if it isn’t me, if you need to.”
“They’re books on emotional intelligence and relationships by Princess Cadance,” Pinch revealed. “Twilight said they were advanced for a filly my age but she knew I could handle them. She said she would recommend that I keep out of the deeper psychology stuff till I was older.”
“I recommend that too. Some of that stuff can really mess with your head.” Berry kissed Pinch’s temple. “What made you think I would be upset about you having those books?”
Pinch’s ears folded back in worry. “Isn’t it weird for a filly my age to want to read something like that?”
“That doesn’t sound weird to me. I was reading books on horticulture and wine making techniques at your age.” Berry brushed a strand of mane from Pinch’s face. “What made you curious about emotions?”
“The attack on the Canterlot wedding started it. I got curious about what made pony emotions so appealing to the changelings. Twilight was looking into the same thing, on the magical level, and things just clicked. I liked looking at how ponies can create positive emotions for themselves and others and I kept reading.”
“Pinch sandwich!” Piña hugged Pinch from behind and nuzzled the back of her head. “That wasn’t too bad was it?”
Pinch let go of Berry and turned to give Piña a look. “No, it wasn’t, but I wasn’t planning on having this conversation in the middle of the road and with everypony watching.”
Piña giggled and took point for our group. “Come on, everypony! We’ve got to get Coco and Rarity home.”
Berry smiled and shook her head. “Yep, she’s going to crash hard tonight.”
Piña led us to Rarity’s boutique and made a grand gesture towards the door. “Taa-daa! We got you home safe and sound.”
“Ponyville can be such a dangerous place,” Rarity teased. “Without you being here who knows what could have happened.”
As Rarity unlocked the door, I told Coco, “Thank you for staying for dinner. It was great having you and everypony else over.”
“I enjoyed it,” she replied. “I haven’t had this much fun in a while.”
There was a pause and an unusual amount of silence. Coco and I looked around.
“What?” I asked.
“That’s it?” Piña said, sounding disappointed.
“I hope you have a wonderful rest of the night,” I said to Coco, giving her a subtle hint to follow along.
“You too,” she said. “Should I show up at the same time in the morning?”
“I’ll have everything ready then.”
Coco smiled and turned as if she was going inside.
Piña waved her hooves around in a display of frustrated dismissal. “Nope! Nope! Nope! This is not how things will end tonight!”
Coco put a hoof to her chest and acted surprised. “Piña, whatever could you mean?”
Piña narrowed her eyes at Coco. “You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you?”
Coco grinned. “Maybe, but I don’t know what you’re expecting.”
Piña pointed towards me with both her hooves. “It’s your first night as special someponies! Hug him! Kiss him! Do something!”
“It is our first night, and we haven’t even had our first date yet,” I pointed out. “We don’t want to rush anything.”
“What about tonight?” Piña asked looking incredulous. “You cooked for her.”
“This was a group fun and catch up with Rarity thing, not a date. Besides, I’ve made lunches for her for almost a month now, and those didn’t count either.”
Piña groaned and tilted her head back. “Oh come on! It was a date with an audience and a sideshow!”
Rarity gave Piña an offended look. “Excuse me? I am not a sideshow.”
“What do you want from Coco?” Pinch asked me, with a neutral expression.
I grinned at her. “That was tricky. If I say nothing, then it looks like I’m not interested. If I name something, I look selfish.”
Pinch shook her head. “It depends on what you want. This is a special occasion, the rest of us being here or not. It should be celebrated.”
“A hug would be wonderful,” I said.
“I can do that,” Coco said.
I turned to Coco and hugged her around the barrel as she hugged me around the shoulders. She was warm and the right size for me to embrace. I turned my head a little at the scent of her shampoo, which had a light touch of mint to it. I had an impulse to give her mane a nuzzle but suppressed it.
“Now I would like something,” Coco said.
I pulled back just enough to see her blue eyes.
“Hold still,” she told me and touched her nose to mine. She smiled and nuzzled me. “There. It’s not quite a kiss, which would be too much for a first date, but appropriate for how much I appreciate what he’s done.”
“She got him!” Piña cheered. “He’s blushing!”
“He’s not pulling back either,” Pinch pointed out. “I think he’d stay like that all night.”
Coco, blushing herself, giggled and broke contact with me.
With reluctance, I let her go. I smiled, looked in her eyes, and told her, “Sleep well.”
She smiled back and said, “You too.”