Josh swallowed.“I do, Uncle Danny,” he said, his heart on his sleeve.“I… feel like he’s everything I’d ever hoped for.It really is like magic.Like you couldn’t be there for me, so you created my perfect mate by telling a witch all about me, and she made me a Liam to patch any holes you might have left.”
“You,” Danny said with a smile, “are getting a wee bit daffy.I’ll be sure to tell him about it when he gets back.”
“Where is he?”
“Felix took him to the hotel to wash up.Grace wasn’t wrong about him getting a bit ripe.”
Josh frowned.“How long have I been here—wait, Felix?Who’s with Mom?”He tried to push himself up on his elbow and fell back against the bed, partly because Grace was holding on to him and grumbling, but mostly because his arm—oh fuck, his arm.What in the hell had happened to his shoulder?
“No-no-no—no getting up,” Grace growled.“Stop talking and listen.My God, let me sleep.”
Josh scowled but did as commanded.
“The train pulled into Prague the morning before yesterday—”
“I lost two days?”Josh gasped.They’d only had two weeks to plan!
“And your mother is here.She adores Prague, and she made me promise to take her around to show her the sights.She says she owes me for seeing it without her so many times.Also, she has plans to decorate my apartment—says it’s ‘bland.’But she’ll have to wait until all our fellow miscreants clear out.Right now half our party is there, and half of them are at the Mozart, courtesy your rich Uncle Leon, who apparently owns a great deal of stock in that one.”
Josh blew out a breath.“We know a lot of rich people, Danny.”
“And a lot of people not so rich,” Danny agreed.“I don’t know what to tell you.But what’s to do?”
“So what’s everybody doing?”he asked, the exhaustion suddenly hitting him hard.
“What you’re about to do,” Danny said softly.“Sleep.Don’t worry.We’ll plot next week.”
What was he not saying?
“What’s next week?”
Danny sighed.“They took a biopsy of your bone marrow this morning, which is why your arm hurts.Tomorrow we’ll know if your cancer’s back.If it is, by next week we’ll know how we’re going to treat it.”
“No…,” Josh mumbled.“No… plan without me.Please.”His eyes were closing.“Liam… tell Liam….”
Liam could take care of the family while Josh was sick.But Josh had fallen asleep as quickly as Grace.Goddammit.He had so much left undone.
HE WOKEup to bright morning sun, and a… a different presence at his back.A little bulkier, snoring softly, and something about the scent—clean, yes, but a little darker, more cedar….
“Liam?”he mumbled, and his mother, ethereally lovely as always, moved to close the blind so the sun was deflected to the ceiling and not in Josh’s eyes.
“He’s sleeping, darling,” she said, turning toward him now that her task was done.Impeccable.Julia Dormer-Salinger always looked impeccable, he thought proudly.She was wearing a pale blue pantsuit, with a cream-colored blouse and a rope of pearls at her throat.Her hair was done up in a twist, and her makeup—always subtle—had masked some of the ravages of sleeplessness and worry.
But not all.
“Sorry to drag you out here,” he mumbled.
“Not at all,” she said sweetly, taking a seat next to his bed and picking up a paper cup of tea.“It’s nearly September, and Prague is just breathtaking.It’s a treat to come out this time of year.”Her expression dimmed.“Unless, of course, I’m worried about my child.Not so much of a treat then, is it.”
“Sorry,” he said again.
“The person you should apologize to is lying right behind you,” she said gravely.“You promised the world to him, Josh—do you understand that?”
“I don’t want to let anybody down,” he said.
“Oh, bollix the rest of us,” she said sharply.“He’sthe one who’s been waiting for you.We’ve had you.Do you want to break his heart?”
“Uncle Danny yelled less!”he complained, somewhat unfairly, and she gave a ladylike and delicate snort.
