As more laughs followed, I glanced at each of them. At the men who owned my heart and the knights I’d come to love and see as my family too.
Callum and I locked gazes from across the table.
All the voices around us muted. He’d looked at me countless times over the past year, but it felt different now. There was a softness to his eyes that hadn’t been there before. And when the faintest hint of a smile touched his lips, heat rushed through my veins.
“Who’s ready for dessert?” I pushed from my chair and dashed toward the kitchen without waiting for a response. Once alone, I slumped against the counter and took deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart.
Why had Callum looked at me like that? Almost like he…no.
I was just a brother in his eyes. Nothing more than clumsy and awkward little Evan who rambled too much and lived off sweets and coffee. Not someone like that pretty brunette.
Once composed, I returned to the dining room with a platter of pecan sweet buns. It was then pounced on like the knights hadn’t eaten in weeks. Silly boys. Briar took one before kissing my temple. He smelled like berries and magnolia. The berries came from the wine.
“Someone looks relaxed,” I said, gently patting his flushed cheek.
“Quite.” He gave me a lazy smile. “Relaxed and suddenly ravenous for this sweet bun.”
As he tore into it, I giggle-snorted. It was a side to Briar I rarely got to see.
He drained the last of his wine before pouting at his mug. His hazel eyes were glassy and heavy lidded. Dude was sloshed. He’d been working his ass off at the clinic lately and deserved to let loose. It’d do him some good.
“Unhand that sweet bun!” Quincy pointed at Baden. “It’s the last one.”
“As if I’d give the last one to you,” Baden responded. “I’ll arm wrestle you for it.”
“We could always have a duel,” Callum chimed in. “To make it fair, I’ll even tie one hand behind my back.”
They booed him. Because they knew he’d win, even with only one hand. No one matched my cinnamon roll when it came to swordsmanship.
“Charge!” Quincy ducked his head and barreled toward Baden, shoulder-slamming him.
Baden stumbled backward into a table, his grip loosening on the bun. Callum took advantage of the distraction to snatch the pastry from him, but before he could take a bite, Quincy lunged forward and slapped it from his hand. The three then dove after it.
“Enough,” Maddox told them. “Gods, you’re not youths anymore. You’re men of twenty.”
“He’s, like, forty.” Quincy nodded to Baden.
Baden sneered. “Thirty four, you bastard.”
Quincy elbowed him in the ribs, which triggered another round of shoving. Maddox sighed and looked at me, shaking his head. I couldn’t help but laugh.
Nights like these made me forget about all other worries. Doom flowers included.
“We should take our leave,” Callum said, grabbing his cloak from the back of a chair. The other two were still bickering over the bun. “Gratitude for the meal, Ev.”
The line in Maddox’s brow deepened as he regarded his second in command. More than that—his friend. One he trusted with his life and mine. “Have I given you permission to be dismissed?”
Callum paused, caught by surprise. “Sir?”
Hell, he’d caught me by surprise too. Maddox never treated his men that way when we were at the cottage.
Maddox’s blue eyes shifted to me, then back to him. “The hour is late. All of you should stay here tonight. Eat. Rest. We’ll return to the barracks at first light.”
“Yes, sir.” Callum’s brown eyes met mine and crinkled in that way I adored before he averted them.
“A relief, really,” Quincy said as he chewed. “I wasn’t looking forward to the ride back to the castle at this time of night.” He then paused. “What? Why are ya glaring?”
He held a half-eaten sweet bun in his hand. The one they’d all been fighting over.
