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I was delaying, and they all knew it.
“Enough, guys. Give Jeff his privacy.” Chris’ maturity still surprised me. Before his capture by the Dark, he’d have been the one heckling me the most.
“Come on, really, Chris?” Dalt wasn’t in the mood to back down, it seemed.
They were glaring at each other when I turned back to the guys. While Chris had matured during the time he’d been missing from us, Dalton had grown a backbone during his forced separation.
“When was the last time Jeff called you out on a fib?” Chris asked the Air Elemental beside him.
“And how do you know I’ve told any fibs in the last ten years?” Dalton feigned being appalled at Chris’ accusation, but his smirk gave him away without my element needing to do the deed.
Chris gave a long sigh with a smile on his face and eyes closed. “Sophie’s waking up. I gotta go if I wanna catch sight of her sexy bedhead.”
A blinding flash followed, but we’d all become accustomed to its comings and goings when Chris teleported, so we looked away.
“Please tell me I wasn’t that sappy after I bonded,” Drew groaned.
“You’ve had your moments,” Carmon confessed.
“Not like you haven’t,” Adam threw in a comeback. I smiled recalling Sylee’s request for a foot rub the other night after her run. Cal had been more than happy to do the job.
Carmon stood and stretched, derailing any other comebacks we’d thought to make. “Adam, you’re still leaving tonight to pick Victor and Torres up, correct?”
“Yup.”
“Drew, is their temporary hive ready?”
The big guy also rose to his feet. “Yeah, it’s good to go when they get here. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Red’s having trouble finding the blueberries she put in the fridge an hour ago.” As he walked to the door, I heard him mutter under his breath, “Elementals help me. That girl is going to drive me crazy.”
Dalton followed Drew out, voicing his need to start waking Grace so they could be out the door in time with Chris and Sophie.
While Carmon had stood, he made no attempt to leave.
“Something you need?”
“You’re okay?” he asked. “I honestly can’t take another brother falling apart on me, so I need you to talk to me.”
“You don’t have to worry about me, Cal. I’m not broken. I have trouble sleeping sometimes like any other person. No one’s perfect.”
“Okay, but of everyone, I can’t have my healer falling apart.” He smiled. “Get some rest while you can.”
“Any news from Nate on who he’s bringing with him?”
Carmon shook his head as he and Adam headed for the door. “Nope, so good luck with the new guy when he arrives.”
The alarmnext to my head buzzed a high-pitched tone over and over as I lay tangled in my bedding. My eyes had stared at the same spot on the curtains, which hid the sliding glass door to the two person balcony, for over an hour. The rate at which my heart pumped had slowed twenty minutes after waking, but I couldn't fall back asleep. However, my body still craved rest after two hours.
"Does that never get annoying?" a deep voice asked from my doorway, but I didn't bother moving to look at him or turn off the alarm. "Guess not."
Drew moved into my vision and picked up the phone, turning the alarm off.
"You know," he said, setting the phone down, "I've been waiting for you to turn that thing off for ten minutes. What's up?"
My eyes rose when he sat on the side of the bed.
"I can guess from the way the bed's all pulled apart that you had about as good a night of sleep as Dalt or Chris probably did." His eyes took on a look of concern that wasn't Drew's usual style. "You won't talk to Cal or Adam, and we all know something's up, but I want you to know that you can talk to me if you can't bring yourself to talk with them."
This comment had me turning away from the curtains. "First you tell Chris he can talk to you about anything and now you say the same to me. Where is the ornery brother I used to know?"
