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“Do you want to live at the Callahan Estate?” Apollo asked me suddenly as we lounged on the sofa.
I spluttered my drink. “What?”
“She basically already does,” Valen offered from the other couch where he was busy comparing something from a map to something else on a tablet. He gave no indication of what he thought about the matter, if he even should have an opinion.
“Nah,” Apollo said. “I meant after the wedding.”
I didn’t know where to look, and I chastised myself for feeling foolish in front of them. All three of us knew I was marrying Apollo. Or else. It didn’t do me any good thinking I could pretend otherwise in front of Valen in case it hurt his feelings or something ridiculous. It was ridiculous to imply Valenhadfeelings to hurt in the first place. At least ones he’d admit to.
“I just assumed we’re expected to,” I answered.
“No. I mean, I know. But did youwantto?”
“Where else would we live?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m not sure it’s the place I wanna raise the kids. You know?”
A noise made us look over to Valen and I noticed he’d dropped the tablet on the floor.
“Butterfingers,” Apollo laughed.
Valen nodded to him but said nothing as he went back to whatever he was doing.
“Dad will freak, but I was thinking we could get our own place for a while,” Apollo continued.
“Is ‘our own place’ code for the old groundskeeper’s cottage on the other side of the estate?” I asked.
Apollo smiled at me. “Maybe. But it would still be somewhere we could call ours. We can have it redecorated and brought back to its former glory. You’d still want to take a car between it and the main house, so Mum wouldn’t be dropping in every five seconds. What do you think?”
“I think it sounds like you’ve thought about it a lot.”
“Ihavebeen thinking about things lately,” he admitted, sounding quite proud of himself. “The future. What it looks like. I’m looking forward to it.”
I noticed, in all his talk about the future, he didn’t mention anything about the present. Nothing about promises to each other. Nothing more than what we were at face value. As far as I knew, he was still hooking up with Magdalens. It made me slightly apprehensive about what that future would actually look like, but at the same time it meant that, in the practical sense, nothing had changed, and I didn’t have to feel bad about Valen.
Apollo nuzzled my nose with his and I smiled at him.
“I’m glad,” I said.
“Are you…not?” he asked.
“I’m not…not. I guess I just haven’t thought about it as much.”
He grinned. “I was thinking that we could call our daughter Amelia Florence and our son Harrison Valen.”
My throat threatened to constrict, but I hid it by widening my smile. “Were you now?”
He nodded. “Cliché I know, but I like it.”
“I need to meet Marco,” Valen said quickly as he stood up.
Apollo untangled himself from me and nodded. “Yeah. All good. I’ll see you later?”
Valen gave him a single nod in return.
“And cheer the fuck up,” Apollo added. “I’m naming our son after you!”
Valen gave him a withering glare. “Can ye not just get me an expensive bottle of Scotch?”
