Page 46 of The Ruby Dragon's Unconventional Mate

“Hey, you. Did I forget something?” Lars asked.

“No. No, I had several questions, actually.” Hearing Lars’s voice made his heart soar again instead of being sore. Words were so weird.

“Okay, go for it.”

“First, would you like to come back for supper? Lach is in the mood to play cards, and I was thinking about surprising you by showing up at your place anyway.”

He loved that soft, husky chuckle. “What can I bring?”

“Some kind of bread?” He would make pasta and salad.

“Can do. What else?”

“Is there a wing healer here?”

“Uh.” Lars paused. “We have several. They all specialize, kind of.”

“Okay, cool. I’d like to talk about that when you come over.”

“Sure. Anything else?”

“Will you bring an overnight bag and let me feed you breakfast too?”

“Yes. Absolutely.” Lars sounded tickled as hell, in fact. “Is it okay if I bring Slippy?”

“Yes. Jarrel actually loves to play with smaller animals, and not in that eating-them-eventually sort of way.”

“So cool. So what time?”

“Yes? Whenever you want to come back. Lach is napping.”

“I’ll be over in ten-ish. I just dropped the girls off, but I need to get home and stuff things in a bag so I can fly to you.”

“I’ll be waiting, love.” He almost said, “I love you,” but he wanted to say that face-to-face the first time.

Bryant knew it was true, though. He loved Lars so much already. Lars was kind. Sweet. Fierce. Giving. And utterly the hottest thing he’d ever seen or touched. Just thinking that had his cock hardening.

Why did he feel like he wasn’t doing right by any of the people in his life that he loved. Lach. Lars. His friend Logan…

Bryant took a deep breath in, and then he let it out. Okay. He needed to stop crying in his iced tea and get on with making things better.

And he would start with Lars, loving on him while they had time this afternoon.

And then he would find out about getting his brother some damn healing help.

Chapter

Fourteen

“Fifteen-two, fifteen-four, and a pair is six.” Lars was over at Lachlan’s house to play cribbage while Bryant was out learning flight paths with Jake. Samuel had taken the kids to Dakota’s to help with some kind of craft thing, but Lars hadn’t felt like wearing glitter and glue, and besides, Lach played a mean hand of cards.

And he had a few questions to ask Lach.

“Lachlan, can I ask you something?”

“You’re my brother’s mate. That means you’re family, so I guess you can ask me something, yes.” Lachlan’s smile was super kind.

Lars didn’t want to be that person who dug for information, and he really wasn’t. He was just desperately curious. “It’s about Bryant, and if you don’t feel comfortable answering, please just say so because I’m not—I’m not. I don’t want any secrets. I just—” He shrugged, feeling a little uncomfortable. “Has Bryant changed to you? Because when he was here, before you got hurt, he seemed very different. He was much more laissez faire, I guess.”

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