Page 74 of Sovereign Oaths

“Chinese?” Marco offered, and I nodded.

“That sounds great.”

In the living room, Derek was already positioning the barstools while Cruz held up a fitted sheet.

“We need to set up the perimeter. Then we can layer.” He slipped one corner over a stool and moved to the side of the couch.

The stool began to topple, so I hurried over and held it in place.

Cruz grinned. “Thanks. I’ll have to find something to hold it down.”

“We have plenty of weights in the training room.”

He clapped once. “Perfect! Stay there.”

He jogged past me and disappeared down the hall.

Derek popped up behind the back of the couch. “One day, when we have our own home, we’re going to have to buy sheets that fit his ideal fort. Then we can set it up in seconds.”

“You already have a house,” Em said.

He shook his head. “It’s not ours. It’s the Pack’s.”

“One day, I won’t live with my parents, either.”

He grinned. “I said our home. That included you.”

I ducked my head as if that would stop him from seeing my smile. I loved and hated when they said things like that. Did they really believe in a future where we could all be together? It sounded more like a fantasy to me.

Maybe it was the fact we were already acting like kids, but I let myself buy in. “A second living room, one meant for moving things around and building a fort big enough for us all to sleep in comfortably.”

“Why not just one room?” he asked.

“So we don’t have to take it down. A room for watching movies or talking and another for the fort.”

“We’ll call it the fort room then. Reduce confusion,” he said very seriously.

“I don’t want a TV in it though.”

“No?” He cocked his head.

“No. A proper fort should have a projector.”

He nodded slowly. “You’re an expert?”

“Absolutely not, but that feels right. Like it should go onto a sheet or the wall instead of a screen.”

“Huh.” He pursed his lips. “I think you’re right.”

“I usually am.”

He rolled his eyes, and Cruz came back with his arm full of various weights. He sat a twenty-pound plate onto the stool I was holding and waved me back. It stayed in place.

“Perfect.” He moved to the couch and laid a dumbbell over the next corner.

“Em has some ideas for a fort room.”

Cruz perked up. “Yeah?”

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