“Wow,” I said. “That’s still a thing? And now it’s said about me? Sweet molasses.”
“Oh boy,” Ryan sighed. “This is something I’m never going to hear the end of.”
This might have been the greatest day of my life. “Babe! Did you hear that? He said—”
“Still standing right here.”
“But—”
“Don’t need to repeat it. Heard it enough the first time.”
And that’s when Tiggy decided to smash the table. But that was okay. He’d earned it.
“HOW’D YOU figure out we were gone?” I asked Ryan as we walked side by side toward the castle. The others were ahead of us, Gary and Justin bickering back and forth as Kevin tried to get them to agree to a threesome, Tiggy muttering to himself about his broom collection.
Ryan bumped his shoulder against mine. “Hadn’t seen you in ten minutes or so. I figured you were probably getting into trouble.”
Huh. That was… probably more accurate than I cared to think about. “I could have handled it.”
“Oh, I know.”
“Do you?”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t hurt to have backup.” He blushed a little at that, and I struggled to not launch myself at him and potentially be arrested for lewd and lascivious conduct in the streets of the city.
“You’re my backup?”
“Shut up, Sam.”
“Nah, it’s out there, dude. You can never take it back now.”
“I regret everything.”
And I doubted that quite a bit. I could see the way he was fighting a losing battle against smiling, his lips quirking, eyes crinkling. To the world, Knight Commander Ryan Foxheart was strong and brave, dashing and immaculate. And he was all those things, even to me. But he was so much more than that, more than what the people of Verania thought he was. For one, he was the world’s sappiest dork, something I never expected and would lord over him for the rest of our days.
“Came riding in to my rescue,” I teased him. “Someone might think you’re a knight or something.”
“I always have to rescue you.”
“Pfft. I think you’ve got that a bit backward there.”
“Probably. But that’s okay.”
“How’d you know where we were?”
He reached up and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close. My arm went around his waist and he tilted his forehead against me as we walked. “I always know where you are,” he murmured against my hair.
And my heart absolutely did not trip all over itself at that. Not at all, no sir. “Yeah, Gary was right. That does sound stalkery. You might want to curb that a little before someone gets the wrong idea that you want to put them in a hole in the basement. Pete told you, didn’t he.”
“Didn’t even hesitate when he narced on you.”
“That bastard. He needs to hurry up and retire so I can get away with things. I don’t know why he decided to stay on. I think it was probably just to stop me from doing amazing things.”
Ryan laughed in my ear. I didn’t think I’d ever heard a sound so wondrous.
“You guys coming, or are you going to be grossly in love some more and make everyone hate you?” Gary called back, sounding appropriately disgusted.
“HaveHeart forever, motherfuckers,” Tiggy said.