* * *
“Imagine growing up here.I’d be afraid of breathing and breaking something,” Kyle said.
Jamie watched his husband lean over to better study the details on a porcelain vase on a nearby display stand. “You’ve seen my parents’ residence in Manhattan.”
“Yeah, but your mom’s interior design skills have nothing on a palace.”
“She paid someone to decorate the penthouse.”
“She still had to decide shit.”
“I could always buy you a castle and you can decorate it however you like. They come up on the market from time to time,” Jamie said with a straight face.
Kyle straightened and stared at him with narrowed eyes. “Do I look like I know what the fuck to do with a castle?”
“Target practice from the towers?”
“That’s really not a selling point.”
“You say that now.”
Kyle laughed, returning to where Jamie sat on a couch that might have been the same one he’d spilled tea on once as a teenager. Kyle sat beside him, and Jamie wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
“I don’t need a fucking castle when I have you,” Kyle told him.
“Offering your husband castles now, are you? Has his love of long-range weaponry run out?” Liam asked from behind them.
“Never,” Kyle replied fervently.
Jamie craned his head around to watch as Liam crossed the room to them. The other man looked less troubled than when Jamie had picked him up earlier for the meeting. The tension in his shoulders had eased, the thoughtful look in his hazel eyes was far less worrisome than the blankness in his gaze that had been there recently.
“Finished already?” Jamie asked.
“It went better than I thought it would,” Liam admitted.
Jamie rose to his feet while Kyle remained seated. He went around the couch to meet up with Liam. Jamie studied his friend in silence for a couple of seconds before pulling Liam into a hug.
“It’s a change, but you get used to it,” Jamie said quietly.
Liam hugged him back tightly, letting out a heavy sigh. “I know.”
Jamie pulled back and smiled at him. “Let’s get you home.”
“Cheers to that.”
Liam led the way out of Buckingham Palace and back to the portico where Jamie had left his car. Their escort of Secret Service agents immediately started their cars once they appeared outside. His security detail was trading off with the UMG’s when it came to Liam’s safety right now after everything that had happened.
They were halfway back to Kensington Palace when Liam finally broke the comfortable silence that had settled over all of them.
“They want me to oversee the UMG in the future,” Liam said.
Jamie blinked, somehow not surprised with that announcement. “You’d be a good candidate. Just think of it as leading a bigger team.”
“How did you come to terms with leaving the field?”
“The transition wasn’t easy,” Jamie said after a moment’s pause. “And my team left with me.”
Liam nodded, staring out the windscreen. “Samaira will do right by them.”
