Page 42
You want to? He would love no more sandwiches today and no tavern.
I do. Brayden lifted him up out of the water, carrying him toward the house. You know I love to cook, and I know we have some lovely steaks in the cold room. That and a salad of all the amazing veg we’ve been given…
With the hoala fruit dressing?
Yes.
His stomach snarled, audibly. “I would like that, very much.”
“I’ll make it for you, baby. I love that salad, you know the one that has the things that I call tomatoes and then the greens that you get from the market?”
“That is what I want.”
“Cool.”
They got to the house in no time, considering that they weren’t flying, and Brayden laid him in the lounge chair, pulling the shade cover over top of him to keep the last rays of the day’s sun off of him. Goosebumps rose on his skin. That’s what Brayden called them. He thought it was his scales protesting that it was a tiny bit cold.
Brayden dropped a kiss on his lips, lingering and perfect, and then smiled for him, pushing his braids back from his face. “You just stay right here. I’ll start dinner.”
“Do you think it will matter if I doze a little bit?”
“It’s not going to matter at all. I checked on the ysidri in the barn when I was putting the puppies away and two of the ciucui are watching over them. Everything is gonna be fine.”
His eyelids felt so heavy so he yawned, curling up his toes and tensing all of his muscles for a moment before releasing everything and letting himself melt.
Sleep came hard, his entire body giving way to it. He trusted Brayden that everything would be just fine.
Brayden sent a message to his brothers as soon as he got inside the house.
Riley, Sloan, I’m going to need you guys to find somebody to take my shift tonight.
Cade says that that young dragon Faelon is perfectly capable of doing a patrol on his own and since you’re taking the middle of the territories, it’ll be a great place for him to start.
He loved that Sloan never even asked him why he needed the night off. He just believed it.
Riley, of course, had to ask. You okay, bro?
Harden is really tired, and I’d like to stay with him tonight. I feel like he’s pushed himself beyond what he’s capable of doing while he’s pregnant.
You have to take care of him. Don’t stress the next few nights. Riley, for all that he was young and impulsive, was a caring dragon.
I would love that. That way I can get up in the morning and do some of the work with the bwostfol and around the yard and stuff and let him have a day of sheer rest. He headed for the kitchen, grabbing knives and vegetables and fruit, before going to the cold storage area and taking out two of the big steaks.
Take at least the next two days and then we’ll talk about rearranging the schedule, maybe giving Zeke a couple days off as well. Sloan was always the planner.
Gavin says he’ll give Zeke time off to be with his mate, and I think probably Samuel is also a good candidate to fly.
Samuel is supposed to come here, too. Maybe Harden needs a friend. Tyr’s so busy right now…
And so is Cade, but really what it comes down to is he doesn’t want to go to the tavern anymore to eat and he doesn’t want to be hot and tired all the time. That’s got to be hormones, right?
He got the steaks sizzling on the inside fire grate that Harden had shown him how to work. He went ahead and threw a couple of the fruits on there too to roast a little bit before he juiced them for the dressing. Then he started chopping, his knife flying. Cooking was one of those things that took him out of himself and didn’t let him be too much in his own head.
Okay so maybe we see about hiring somebody to help him with the farm.
He winced at Riley’s suggestion because he had talked to Harden about that only last week and gotten a bit of a profane response.
He doesn’t want anyone else handling his animals except maybe his parents, but they own their own farm so that’s not going to work. Now if Sebby was to come back from college and volunteer to do it, Harden would be ecstatic, and I’m sure Samuel would make him happy as far as someone to talk to about it all.
