Page 83 of Daddy, Sir

“Shit,” Reggie said, also pushing back while the ones at the end of the table lifted laptops, pads of paper and their electronic tablets off the surface.

“Towe—” Tommy was in the process of barking while I practically did the splits to span the distance of Landon’s arms and legs when he abandoned the chair. Somehow, I ended up with one leg hooked over his arm and would have faceplanted if he hadn’t made some superhuman Daddy move and flipped me upright.

“Thanks!” I bent forward to kiss his cheek while squirming to get loose.

“Go.” He set me on my feet and then swatted my ass as if I needed additional encouragement.

By the time I found what I was looking for and returned, the spill had been soaked up by what looked like an entire roll of paper towels. Normally, I would have reminded them spillswere why dish towels had been invented, but decided I didn’t particularly care.

I didn’t even bother trying to reach my chair again. Instead, I climbed onto Landon’s lap and slapped the book I’d retrieved down on the table where the slip had been.

“In Service of My King,” Reggie read before looking up at me. “And that helps how?”

“Not the title, Reggie, the author,” Audra said, not even looking at the book. “It’s a book written by Augusta Beshum. A very good book, I might add.”

“You read it?”

“I did,” Audra confirmed with a smile.

“I’m so glad you liked it!”

“Hello? Are we invited to this book club meeting?” Reggie asked, waving his hand in the air to remind me he was waiting for an explanation.

“Sorry. I’m Augusta, I mean, Augusta is my pen name. I wrote it,” I said.

“You’re Augusta?That Augusta?”

“She is.” Landon looked over at me and grinned. “It’s an anagram made of our names.”

“Okay, but may I point out the obvious? There is no ‘F’ and no ‘L,’” Matt said.

“Right, that’s because I used our middle names.” I borrowed Landon’s pad and wrote the letters as I continued, “Méabh is my middle name and Augustus is Landon’s. If you rearrange the letters”—I demonstrated by crossing out each letter and writing it on another line—“you get?—”

“Augusta Beshum,” Zeke said, grinning as if he’d solved the Enigma Code.

“Correct! Even though we weren’t together when I started writing books, I always felt we should be. If I couldn’t bewitha Westerly in my real life?—”

“You could be in your fantasy life,” Reggie provided.

“I’ll be damned. How long have you known you created an author, Major?” Matt asked.

“Since a few weeks ago when Fiona asked for a bedtime story.” Landon looked at me. “I had no clue she was the author until I opened that book.”

I reached for the book and opened it, turning pages until I got to the dedication page I’d had watched Landon read the night I shared the secret my loving him had inspired. I’d seen the recognition of himself in the words. Placing the book back on the table, I read:

To the only king I ever wish to serve… my heart and soul belong to the king of the hill.

“Landon and my brothers played that game all the time?—”

“And Fee always cheered for me,” Landon said.

“That’s pretty fucking awesome,” Zeke said.

“It is,” Landon agreed and leaned down to kiss me.

Tommy grinned and reached for the book. “I do love a good fantasy world. Is it futuristic or set in the days of wizards and dragons?”

“It’s contemporary.”

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