“Okay, this is a very important question.” I motioned to the gingerbread men. “How would you eat this cookie?”
Lake’s wolf ears perked up, and he sat forward in the chair to get a closer look. “The cookie is in the shape of a man?”
“Yep. A man made of yummy gingerbread. The chewy kind. Not the ginger snaps that break off your teeth. I don’t like those.” I handed a cookie to each of them and waited.
Briar smiled down at his. “How charming. You gave him a little face. Oh, wait.” A short laugh left him as he examined it further. “This one has glasses.”
“And mine has a grumpy face,” Maddox said, scrutinizing the one I’d given him. It had an exaggerated downturned mouth and eyebrows in an angry slope. “Are you hinting at something, muffin?”
I grinned. “I bet it’s like looking into a mirror, right?”
His blue eyes narrowed before he bit off its head.
“Man down,” I said, curving my hand around my mouth for effect. “I repeat, gingerbread man is down and in the captain’s stomach.”
Maddox coughed, trying to cover up a laugh but failing. He had a nice laugh. Deep and gravelly.
“This one has ears like mine,” Lake said, still with that shy smile. “I’m not sure I can eat him.”
Briar bit into his cookie, going for the arm first.
I gasped.
“What?” he asked with a jolt, slapping a hand over his mouth to prevent any of the cookie from falling out. “What’s the matter?”
“You ate his arm first.” I tapped my chin. “Interesting. Do you like your patients to suffer before you kill them, Doctor?”
Briar shook his head with a snort. “This was a test?”
“Mhm.” I put my hands on my hips. “I thought Maddox would be the psychopath, but how fitting that it’s you instead. It’s always the quiet ones you never expect.”
“Did I pass the test?” Lake’s tail wagged once and brushed the back of the armchair.
I couldn’t fight it any longer. I went over and landed on his lap before bringing our mouths together. He slid his arms around me and emitted the softest of sounds.
“You taste like peaches,” I said against his lips.
“And you taste like home.” Lake skimmed his fingers up my spine before burying his hand in the back of my hair.
“Enough of that,” Maddox grumbled. “You’ll get enough time with Evan during your travels. He’s mine and the physician’s for the next two nights.”
“Now, Captain.” Briar adjusted his glasses. “Patience is a virtue.”
“I have no virtue when it comes to our muffin.” Maddox scooped me up in his arms and shoved his face against my neck, giving me raspberries.
I giggled and thrashed around. “That tickles!”
“Good.” He did it again.
Only two more nights before I left Bremloc for three or so weeks. Not seeing Briar and Maddox for that long would be damn hard, so I soaked up as much time with them as I could.
We cuddled by the fire and sipped hot apple cider, ate cookies, and talked late into the night. I didn’t remember falling asleep but woke in Maddox’s arms sometime later as he carried me upstairs. I laid my head on his shoulder and drifted back to sleep.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
I woke with a start and glanced around the bedroom. It was still dark outside. The fire burned low, needing to be stoked, but I was too comfortable to move. Maddox lay to my right and Briar to my left. Lake rested on my legs, his snores like faint puffs of air.
Something had woken me. But what? My sleep-muddled brain couldn’t figure it out, so I closed my eyes again, already forgetting about it.
