Unfortunately, I saw Raphael’s reaction to the little pet name. He jerked his head around to Isiah with a shocked expression on his face, then glared at him.
Had Izzy only called me that to make Raph angry?
Sensing Raph’s eyes on him, Isiah turned to him, and when their eyes met, Isiah’s went wide and his mouth fell open… so maybe he hadn’t done it on purpose after all. Still, he didn’t let go of my hand. He did reach over and place his free hand on Raphael’s cheek, though. Raph closed his eyes and sank down, relief evident on his face and in his body language as he leaned into Izzy’s touch. Maybe they’d had a fight before they got here, and now they were getting over it. I hoped so. Even if I was a bit jealous of their relationship, even if I wished Isiah was looking at me the way he was looking at Raph right now, or that Raph craved my touch as much as I did his. Even if I wished I could squeeze myself in between them and soak up their comfort. It was ridiculous, I knew, but the thoughts of both of them kept me up at night.
Chapter 4
Raphael
When Grady walked into the dining room with a huge platter, he froze at the sight of us. His mouth fell open as he took the three of us in. I could only imagine the thoughts running through his head. Isiah still had his hand on my cheek, which let’s face it, him touching me wasn’t unusual considering he was my soul-pledged. But the fact that he was holding Laz’s hand in his other one was… strange. Well, not strange, just… atypical. I had to admit that I kinda liked it.
Okay, maybe I’d been a little jealous at first, but after Isiah had reached for me, too, it felt… nice. The three of us connected like that was nice. More than nice. It was actually kinda magnificent.
What the fuck am I even thinking about over here?
Why would that even be in my head? The three of us connected is magnificent? Seriously?
“Uh…” Grady blinked a few times, then shook his head and placed the platter in the middle of the table before turning on his heel and walking back into the kitchen.
After a pause, Laz let out a little laugh that made Izzy laugh, too. A moment later, I joined in. Isiah took both his hands back and shared a grin with me before shooting Laz a bright smile. Laz returned it, but when his eyes met mine, I saw him swallow thickly and turn his gaze down to the table. He reached for his water glass and took a sip.
My little brother walked in with another dish, eyed us all, and set it on the table before joining his soul-pledged in the kitchen again.
Isiah cleared his throat, then asked, “So, Laz, how’s the store going? Is it busy this time of year?”
Laz nodded. “It can be. A lot of people come in looking for gifts. I’m putting out a bunch of signs for a pre-Christmas sale next week, so I’m hoping I’ll bring in more customers.”
I asked, “Is business bad?”
Laz shook his head. “No, it’s not that. I’m fine, but I’m trying to think of better ways to market myself so I can sell more. At the moment, I’m breaking even. Well, a little better than even, but that’s fine. I like what I’m doing so…” He trailed off with a shrug.
Breaking even? That didn’t sound fine. That sounded like it was one step too close to being in the red. “Iz and I will stop by tomorrow, if that’s okay? I need to Christmas shop.”
Isiah said nothing, so I was glad he didn’t disagree with me volunteering him to come along.
Laz sighed. “You don’t have to do that. That’s not why I said that. I shouldn’t have said anything. Don’t come out of pity.”
I waggled my eyebrows. “I never come out of pity, baby, you know that.”
“Oh my god,” Grady breathed out as he walked back into the dining room and caught the tail end of that conversation. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, then muttered, “Nope, not yet,” and high tailed it out of there.
Isiah sighed. “You’re going to scar your brother and his partner for life if you don’t stop doing this weird flirting thing with Laz.” He looked at Laz. “Sorry he’s so bad at flirting. He gets nervous around pretty boys.” He lifted a shoulder. “Well, and pretty girls, but right now, you’re making him nervous.”
“Izzy!” I elbowed him.
Laz chuckled and tilted his head to the side. “You think I’m pretty?”
At first, I thought he was asking me, but then I realized he was staring at Isiah. Izzy lifted a shoulder again. “You know you are.”
Laz smiled, a little shyly, then looked me in the eyes. “Don’t come to my store because you feel bad for me. If you want to visit because you want to, that’s fine, but I’m not a charity case.”
“I didn’t mean it like—”
Izzy cut me off. “We’ve been wanting to stop by, anyway. You know we love seeing the things you find from when we were younger and the things from before our time.”
“I hardly ever find anything that old,” Laz said.
Izzy chuckled and gave him a little push. “Funny man.”
Laz shrugged with a smile. “I think I have a few things you might like, actually.”
“Great. We’ll come by tomorrow, then.”
“Sounds good.”
I threw my hands in the air. “Why do you so easily accept it when he says it, but give me shit when I want to?”
“Because he wasn’t making suggestive comments at me while he said it,” Laz said, making me roll my eyes.
Alaric called out from the doorway, “Is it safe to come in?”
“Yes,” Isiah called back, barely containing his grin.
Alaric and Grady walked in with even more dishes, and I asked, “How much food did you cook?”
Grady said, “You three eat like pigs, so we wanted to make sure we had enough.”
“Hey,” Laz said, “That’s not nice.”
Grady stuck his tongue out at him before he settled in a seat with Alaric sitting beside him.
I smiled over at my brother, and a sense of rightness flowed through me. He’d been absent from my life for such a long time. He’d been living a nightmare for almost two centuries, and now he was here. He was safe. He was happy. He was loved. Not just by me or Izzy or even Laz. He was loved by Grady, the human that saved his life and brought him back to me. His soul-pledged. The love they shared was palpable. They were happy, they cared about one another on a level as deep, maybe even deeper, than Izzy and me. I couldn’t even imagine how amazing it was to share that type of love with your soul-pledged.
Without preamble, I leaned over and kissed Isiah’s cheek. He only paused for a second before continuing to serve himself from one of the many dishes of food. Maybe I wasn’t being fair, but I couldn’t help it. My love for Isiah was deeper than anything else I’d ever had in my entire life. I just wished he’d give me a second chance to prove to him that I could be what he needed me to be. Okay, it wasn’t a second chance, more like a fourth or fifth, or… fifteenth. Fuck. The last time, I’d messed up huge, I knew I did. I hadn’t thought… if I would’ve known what was going to happen, I never would’ve done what I did back then, but I couldn’t go back in time and change it no matter how badly I wanted to.