This small, thoughtful gesture hit differently. It wasn’t anything dramatic, but it was just for him. He wasn’t sure if no one had ever thought to do that before or if he simply had never let them. Yet somehow, Tom had seenhim.
And yeah, that left Bryce feeling warm and squishy. And maybe a little ridiculous.
“Can’t believe I’m calling security installation relaxing,” he said, aiming for casual, like a pack of sandwiches hadn’t just quietly knocked him sideways.
“Manual labor,” Tom said, uncapping his water bottle and taking a swig. “Oldest therapy in the book.”
“The thing that’s worrying me is Tristan’s damn goats,” Bryce said. “There’s no way they should come out this far, but they do everything else they’re not supposed to, so it’s probably too much to hope for. Any way to make the sensors goat-proof?”
Tom blinked. “You’re asking for a goat-specific override code?”
“You’ve met them. You really think wedon’tneed one?”
“Good point,” Tom admitted. “I’ll program a low-sensitivity mode for small, overly confident quadrupeds.”
Bryce grinned, and as he forced himself to look away from Tom’s face, his gaze met Colby’s. Oh, that was definitely a small smile trying to suppress itself at the corners of Colby’s mouth as he watched the two of them.
“Guess we’d better get on, if we’re going to finish before dark,” Tom said, standing up and stretching.
Bryce stood too, brushing his hands on his jeans. “Right. Let’s go make the place goat-proof.”
Tom laughed as he slung his pack over one shoulder. “Honestly, that might be the most impossible job I’ve ever taken on.”
As they moved back toward the trail, Colby fell in step a polite few paces behind. When he first came to them, he usedto do that to show respect, but Bryce didn’t think that was the reason now. He was trying to be tactful, giving him and Tom space without drawing attention to it.
They didn’t speak much as they worked that afternoon, hard, repetitive work that swiftly established a rhythm between the three of them. Tom was skillful and decisive, identifying choke points with an ease that spoke to his sharp mind and calm control.
Bryce swallowed. Damn if that wasn’t hot.
TOM
He stayed for dinner again, and tried not to think how he could get used to it, how it compared to a sandwich at his desk buried underground while he worked late before heading back to the empty, cold apartment.
They were all tired—the good sort of tired from a day’s hard work outdoors—and the atmosphere was quiet and easy. Karl hadn’t joined them for dinner but had gone out to patrol overnight.
“It’s not that he doesn’t trust us not to do a good job,” Bryce had explained. “Just, he can’t leave the pack’s safety to anyone else.”
Sounded suspiciously close to a trauma response to Tom, but for all he knew, it could be a need for control rooted elsewhere in his personality. None of the pack seemed to find Karl’s absence strange as they tucked into Jason’s comfort food—meatloaf with mashed sweet potatoes and sautéed green beans. God, Tom was going to find it hard to go back to takeout after this.
He used to cook sometimes, but between their long hours and Zack’s martyred sighs whenever a carb appeared on a plate, it had stopped being worth the effort.
Matt had already inspected the base station and made sure he understood exactly how it worked. “I guess the lessons for everyone else can wait until tomorrow,” he’d said, as Bryce yawned, and Colby looked a little droopy around the edges. It wasn’t the physical labor that had worn them out so much as the fresh air and constant focus—aligning beams, double-checking coverage, and making sure the power nodes were well hidden.
And now Tom was leaning on the rail of the porch, because if he sat down, he thought he might fall asleep. Bryce was stretched out in a chair, mug of coffee balanced on his stomach, though Tom hadn’t seen him drink from it in at least ten minutes. He kept an eye on it, just in case he needed to dive over and catch it.
“You’re coming back tomorrow?” Bryce asked. His voice was low, a little rough with sleep, andGod,it made something in Tom shiver. Both the voice and the need in it.
He should have kept it professional and simply said yes, reminding Bryce he’d be bringing Jax with him. But something in Bryce’s voice—it had sounded like longing, Tom was almost sure of it. Just for him. Maybe.
Only one way to find out.
“If you want me to,” he said, and waited for Bryce to turn his neediness into a joke.
Maybe Bryce knew what that had cost him to say, because he didn’t laugh. He held Tom’s gaze and said quietly, “Yeah. I do.”
Tom’s heart thudded unevenly as he saw the unaccustomed seriousness in his eyes. This, between them, itwassomething. It wasreal.
Hooves clattered on the porch steps, startling him for an instant.
