A true home.
I busied myself with dinner as their bantering filtered in from the parlor. More jabs at cranky Maddox. Duke said something about Hudson, the new recruit, and Callum chimed in to say he’d bested him in a one-on-one training match. That made Maddox laugh. He still had a grudge against the knight for threatening me.
My gaze periodically swept to the trees out back as I cooked, hoping I’d see a certain wolf. But Lake never showed.
Despite my disappointment, it was a great night; a rowdy home filled with lots of laughs as we sat around the table together. After dinner, I brought out peach cobbler for dessert and watched as grown-ass men scarfed it down and bickered over who got the last slice.
“Thane should,” I told them. “I promised to bake for him again.”
Briar smiled. “He’d love that.”
“I’ll take it to him when we leave,” Duke said.
“You lie.” Baden shoved him. “You’ll have the cobbler shoved into that ugly face before we even reach the castle gates.”
“I’ll take it to him,’ Callum said.
Quincy snorted. “Says the one who eats everything in sight. Not a chance.”
Callum smirked.
Briar brought out bottles of wine, and we drank. Well, they drank. I sipped to pace myself. It was a white wine this time instead of red.
“Is this one of your new recipes?” Maddox asked him.
My handsome physician became bashful. “It is.”
“I like it.” Maddox took another drink, a soft gleam in his blue eyes.
“I’m glad,” Briar said, mirroring that softness.
“How about a game of cards?” Callum asked before winking at me. “Winner gets to sleep with Evan.”
“Over my dead body,” Maddox growled.
Laughs erupted again around the table. Maddox might’ve been their captain, but it was clear how close they all were. More so now than when I’d first arrived in Bremloc.
“Your presence will touch many lives here for the better,”Lupin had once told me.
They had touched mine too.
My gaze then trailed to the large window and to the dark forest beyond it. Was Lake out there right now, watching from the trees?
“You in, Ev?” Callum asked after whipping out a deck of cards.
“Sure,” I responded, trying to push Lake from my head. “But don’t whine when I kick your ass and take all your money.”
“Spoken like a true Thorn Prince,” Duke said. “Stabbing foes left and right.”
“I assure you, I’m usually the one being stabbed.”
Maddox had just taken a drink and nearly spewed it.
“What’s wrong, Captain?” I grinned. “Can’t hold your liquor?”
“I’m not the one who’s already flushed.” Maddox grazed his knuckles along my cheek, a smirk playing at his lips. “How many sips have you had? Two?”
“I’m a lightweight but I’m notthatbad. Jerk.”
