Free A Touch of Frost by S. E. Smith

fell all around Lacey and the puppies. Each one dissolved as they hit the ground.
    “If you didn’t, who did?” He asked as he threaded his fingers through his vine covered head. “And will it change back?”
    Lacey wrapped her arms around the pile of puppies on her lap and gazed up at him. Her fingers stroked the soft fur as she studied his blooming head. Her lips lifted and her nose wiggled as yet more petals fell. It looked like the spell was already fading.
    “You should be alright in a few minutes,” she observed. “Whoever spelled you isn’t very strong yet.”
    “It must have been those two boys,” he growled, shaking his head again.
    “Two boys?” Lacey asked with a frown. “You mean the twins?”
    He nodded. “Yes, the two that look identical except for their hats and the lizard,” he grunted as he pushed a vine back that was beginning to shrivel. “They should be banned from riding their transport. They are dangerous.”
    Lacey grinned. “They’re dangerous without it. Those two are incredibly strong for being so young and neither one of them has the fear gene in them,” she commented, pushing the puppies off her lap and standing. “So, how did you meet them?”
    “They came up behind me when I was escaping from your local law,” he retorted with a sharp look of reprimand. “He was not very helpful, but they were. They said someone named Sean sent them to help me.”
    Lacey’s lips pursed at the sound of Sean’s name. “Sean’s dead,” she said, turning and opening the door to the barn.
    “I know,” Frost called out after her retreating back. “They said that as well.”
    “Well, did they also tell you that he was my husband,” Lacey retorted over her shoulder as she walked stiffly back toward the house.
    “Husband,” Frost repeated, stopping to stare at her rigid back as she swept up the steps and through the doorway of her dwelling.

 
      Chapter 10
    Lacey slammed the door behind her. Running her hands through her hair, she tilted her head back and screamed in frustration. She blinked rapidly as she drew in several deep calming breaths.
    She would not give into the tears. She would not. She would not. She would not.
    “Oh hell,” she croaked as they began to fall.
    Walking toward the hallway leading to her bedroom, she stopped long enough to glower at the miniature alien gazing back at her with a hostile glare. Furious that he was the one that had started her day off so badly, she tapped the top as she stomped by.
    “See if you want to mess with me, you jerk,” she muttered as she continued to her room.
    Right now, she needed a good cry. She was so done with today. If she had known that her and Topper’s premonition would have turned out like this, she would have cast a sleeping spell and slept through the whole damn day. Now, she had two aliens, a nosy Aunt, her worried sisters, and the matchmaking spirit of her dead husband to deal with, she thought as she fell face first into her pillow.
    *.*.*
     
    Frost stood on the red-clay packed driveway staring at the front door to the dwelling. The mysterious Sean was her husband. Reaching up, he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. He paused when he realized that his hair was short again and back to normal.
    “Well, at least one bloody thing has turned out right,” he muttered under his breath.
    His eyes glittered with determination as he stared at the closed door. He had to find out what in the hell was going on! This had to be the most screwed up planet, with the most screwed up inhabitants, he had ever encountered.
    Breaking through the shock that had gripped him when Lacey threw that last little bomb at him, he strode across the yard and up the stairs leading to the front door. He pulled the screen door open and gripped the doorknob to the front door. He half expected it to be locked so when it opened easily under the pressure of his hand, he stumbled as he entered.
    Straightening, he turned and closed the door