Kade stood there, tracking the wand still buried inside me, two full bags dangling from his hands. He didn’t wait for permission—he never did. He crossed the threshold in three long strides.
Dane slid the glass out of me in one agonizingly slow pull, leaving me empty. He shifted immediately, sitting in front of me, his broad back blocking me from Kade’s gaze as his brother approached the bed.
“What do you want?” Dane said, his voice clipped.
“I brought snacks for Fort Ghost,” Kade said, stopping at the foot of the bed. He lifted the bags with a small smirk, then began emptying them onto the sheets—he kept a slight distance, his presence impossible to ignore.
Dane’s tense shoulders melted as his brother stood in front of us.
“Fort Ghost? What’s that?” I asked, sitting up and folding my legs beneath me. Shyness crept in. I tugged Dane’s shirt down over my thighs, aware of how exposed I’d been.
I looked at Kade. He wore an oversized black t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off at the seams and a pair of low-slung charcoal joggers. The collar was stretched, hanging off one muscular shoulder to reveal a glimpse of a jagged scar. He looked like a beautiful, chaotic mess—a stark contrast to the rigid, military power that radiated off Dane.
“It’s something we did as kids,” Kade said, his tone softer. He tossed a bag of gummy bears toward Dane, who caught it without looking. “When our foster parents thought we were asleep, we’d build a secret fort and hang out.”
Dane’s jaw tightened. I reached out, my fingers brushing his back.
Kade hopped onto the corner of the mattress, his energy replaced by something heavier. “Sometimes we got lucky and had food—stuff we’d stolen before they locked the cabinets.” Hisvoice dropped, almost reverent. “We’d eat it while we played games or watched movies on a tiny, cracked screen.”
My chest tightened. I looked between them—two men who’d survived something I could only imagine. My Mother wasn’t the easiest to live with, but she never starved me. The food pantry was never locked.
“It was the only place in the world where no one could touch us,” Kade finished quietly. “The ghosts of the house couldn’t get into our impenetrable fort.”
The room fell silent, the weight of their past pressing in on us. A muscle jumped in Dane’s cheek until he finally drew a long breath, snapping the tension. He ripped open the bag of gummy bears and offered me one.
“We played a game last night. Let’s continue 21 questions,” I said, snagging the bear from his fingers and chewing.Pineapple flavor.
Kade didn’t answer. There was a spark in his eyes before he scrambled off the bed to grab a heavy, dark wool blanket from the corner. I watched as he dragged the fabric, which was frayed and riddled with small holes at the edges toward the headboard. With a practiced flick of his wrist, he hooked the edges into small, silver loops hidden in the ceiling and the bedposts. Hooks I hadn’t noticed earlier.
The blanket fell over the bed, shrouding us in darkness. It turned the massive mattress into a cave, cutting off the rest of the room. My heart did a slow, heavy roll in my chest. I swooned; the sheer intimacy of the gesture hit me harder than the wand ever could. This was the Fort Ghost.
The sound of a wooden drawer opened and shut, and a moment later, Kade popped back into the enclosure with a mini lantern. He pushed the button down on the top, bathing our fort in a warm, amber glow.
Dane leaned against me, his shoulders relaxed. The little lantern caught the charcoal mask on Kade’s face, making him look like a kid up to no good.
A sudden bubble of laughter caught in my throat and spilled out.
“What’s so funny, Lumberjack?” Kade asked as he grabbed two packets from the pile of goodies.
“I just…” I shook my head as I looked at the goop slime on his face. “The two of you, doing this together, with goop on your face?”
Kade grinned, his teeth flashing white against the mask. “Wedid. Every Friday for three years.”
Dane didn’t laugh, but the corner of his mouth tucked up. “Yeah, no. We haven’t done this in years.”
I froze. “Is that…eucalyptus?”
“Don’t make fun of me yet; I have more,” Kade said as he passed me a cucumber one and thrust a charcoal one into Dane’s lap.
“You start, Babygirl,” Dane said as he ripped the packet open. He smiled at me knowingly and my heart flip-flopped in my chest. Ismelledthat. It was brief, but it gave me hope.
“Okay. How old are you?” I asked.
“Twenty-eight,” Dane responded as he smoothed out the mask on the edges of his jawline.
“Kade?”
“Twenty-five,” he said as he leaned forward, his elbows on his thighs. “What about you?”
