Page 66 of The Platinum Dragon's Courageous Mate

“Unless it’s a guardian thing,” Kieran teased.

“Now, that’s cheating.” He grabbed Kieran up and swung him around. “And you know that if you need me, I would be here. Bryant would cover, or Lars would, or Bea or Logan or Jake.”

Kieran kissed his nose. “I know, I’m just messing with you. I’d love your help putting up stars.”

“We also need to talk about what we’re going to decorate the baby’s walls with. What does she think? Has she got any opinions yet?”

“I know she likes music and cinnamon.”

“Yes.” He knew this, too. He made cinnamon rolls and cinnamon toast daily, and Alban made snickerdoodles and coffee cakes and churros.

That little girl liked her spice.

It was Kieran who craved things like Alfredo and other stuff with Parmesan cheese in it. That was his body asking for something it needed. But whenever it was their little girl who was making her desires known, it was cinnamon and sugar.

And in fact there were cinnamon sugar pecans and miniature cinnamon rolls on the charcuterie board.

Lachlan set Kieran on his feet. “I would love to hang out with you. After we eat.”

They settled together on the floor, Micah digging into his little snack box with these amazing sounds of joy. It was the sweetest thing he’d ever seen in his life and he adored that child so much. He could have missed out on this. He could have missed out on Kieran’s light and on Micah’s courageous happiness. But he hadn’t. He hadn’t let hatred destroy his life and he’d never been prouder of it because it had been hard to trust.

He knew it was hard for Kieran and Micah to trust to begin with, but they all seemed to be on the right path now.

Micah nibbled on the Little Smokies first. He was becoming such a carnivore, and it was helping him with his growth. Honestly Lachlan was grateful he was an adventurous eater, because he wasn’t picky. There was very little he wouldn’t try.

“Yummo!” Micah waved one of the sausages at Kieran, who wrinkled his nose.

“No thank you, sweetie. You have them all.”

“Oh?” Micah’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I good! Papa, all the?—”

He waved the meat.

“Sausages,” he helped out.

“Sawsigs. Sargzims. Sasasasaguses!”

“Right on, son.” He wasn’t going to argue with that. What good would it do? It wouldn’t.

Besides, it was adorable.

“He’s getting a way bigger vocabulary, don’t you think?” Kieran started tearing apart the cinnamon roll and eating it. “I remember I didn’t think he was ever going to speak, and now he’s just learning and learning.”

Lachlan nodded. Micah had needed friends and family input, but he wasn’t about to say that to Kieran, to make his mate have any kind of guilt. No, he understood why Kieran had lived as he did, and why he had been afraid to introduce Micah to something that might hurt him.

They had all had to come out of their shells in one way or another.

Well maybe not Alban. Their dragon of the house was open and loving and perfectly willing to zhuzh the rest of them along.

He nibbled on a piece of pickled beet to hide his smile. Alban had made all sorts of things possible for them.

They enjoyed their snack time, and little Micah ate most everything in his box before rolling to his back and kicking his feet in the air.

They still had quite a bit to work through on their charcuterie board so he winked at Kieran.

“Do I need to ask Alban for more cinnamon things?”

Kieran tilted his head to one side, pursing his lips. Clearly, he had to think about it, which meant they probably needed to get some more of those cinnamon buns up here. “I think I’d like to hang stars first but I would certainly take some more in a bit.”