Page 136 of Gift from the Tree

“Fuck, that’s awful when it creeps up on you like that.” She wipes the remainder of her tears away, still chuckling. “To answer your question, yes, that’s what upset me. I don’t want to live in the dorms.”

“Okay, well, we can figure this out. You may just have to share beds with us nightly until we can move some things around and make your own room, and we will—”

“It’s taken care of. You all can move into the Nexus house meant for us tomorrow. We won’t be living on campus. We’re much more comfortable here,” Corentin cuts San off, typing away furiously on his communicator, no doubt getting everything in place for them.

“Corentin, you’re serious?” Ry asks him in disbelief.

“Yes,” Corentin responds, not bothering to look up from his communicator.

“Oh, this is amazing,” Oakly exclaims, hugging all her guys, then me. “Thank you so much.”

“I didn’t do anything. Corentin did,” I tell her, not comfortable taking any credit for this.

“He’s doing this because of you. He knows it’ll make me happy, which will make you happy,” she argues like she can’t believe I don’t know this.

“What? No. Tell her, Corentin.” I look at him, finally getting him to glance up from his communicator.

“She’s right. I wouldn’t give that house to anyone other than people we trusted. So it works out perfectly it’s your Perfecta Anima who’s found her Nexus. Otherwise, no, I wouldn’t be offering it.”

“I told you.” Oakly hugs me tighter, jumping up and down.

I give Corentin a grateful smile and mouth, “Thank you.” I nearly faint when he smiles and winks back at me. I step into him once Oakly lets me go, leaning my head on his arm as Tillman, Draken, and Caspian gather around us, and I smile as I watch her gush over all her Nexus, even Ry, and they all smile at her like she hung the moon.

The scene overwhelms me with the feeling of family, and emotion clogs my throat.

I finally have a family.

Twenty-Eight

Tillman

Me and my brothers stand back and watch Willow and Oakly tell each other bye for the fifth time in the last thirty minutes since we finished dinner.

Every time they say bye, one of them starts another conversation about something they forgot to tell the other. Ry and the guys mirror us, shuffling back and forth on their feet, waiting for this to be over, without rushing them.

Those two small women have whipped eight grown-ass men into silence with just looks every time one of us have tried to hurry this along, so we’ve just resorted to standing here, waiting. Ry’s impatience is obvious from here, but he won’t say anything. Apparently, Oakly’s been giving him the cold shoulder since he yelled at her on the mission, so when she embraced him tonight for the first time when she got upset, he’s kept any of his smart-ass remarks to himself.

“I’m about to wrap her in my shadows and drag her over here. I’m tired of entertaining other people,” Caspian grumbles from beside Corentin.

“You won’t. If she wants to say good night twenty more times, then she will. And you didn’t entertain shit. You barely spoke unless it had to do with Willow or research San or Jamie talked about,” Corentin mumbles back to him, keeping his voice low so the girls don’t hear them.

Draken snorts beside me, drawing my attention to him.

“What?” I ask.

“It won’t be much longer. She’s starting to tilt a little. Soon, she’ll let out a yawn and then they’ll finally call it a night,” Draken says with a know-it-all smirk.

Sure as fuck, not even thirty seconds later, Willow’s covering her mouth to hide her yawn.

“How the fuck did you know that?” Caspian leans forward to get a look at Draken.

“I’ve watched her damn near every waking moment since she got here. I know my little wanderer,” he gloats proudly, still wearing that grin, not like it’s fucking stalkerish at all.

“I’ll see you in the morning at Gaster’s office. Be safe,” Willow calls out to Oakly as she walks backward until she bumps into me and Corentin, both of us wrapping an arm around her waist to hold her steady. She leans her head back on our arms and covers her mouth as another yawn escapes her.

“You tired, little wanderer?” Draken asks as he comes to stand in front of her, boxing her into us more.

“Exhausted. I had a great time today, but it’s exhausting entertaining other people all day,” she says, basically parroting what Caspian said just a moment ago. From the corner of my eye, I notice the slightest twitch of his lip.

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