“Who likes me?” Alistaire asked, looking away from the cat.
“My granddaughter,” he pouted. “She hasn’t stopped looking at you. I’m jealous as hell right now. I haven’t gotten her to smile for me.”
Everyone that was sitting around the table snickered at Barret’s childish behavior, including Alistaire.
“You’re a grown man, Barret. Don’t pout,” Aria gently chastised.
“Do you want children, Captain Vale?” Moressa asked.
“Alistaire, please,” he smiled at her. “And to answer your question, I did at one point in my life.”
“What changed?”
Alistaire turned to face Crevan Hannigan, who’d ask the question.
I lost the man I loved, even though I never told him.
“Just like time, things change,” Alistaire answered instead.
“So, does that mean you’ll change your mind one day?” Crevan asked.
What’s with the damn interest in my fucking life?He mentally mumbled.
“I don’t know,” he looked at the baby in his arms who hadn’t looked away from him. “Having a child is a lot of responsibility. Kids need stability—something I’m in no position to provide right now.”
“I see, and how does your partner feel about that? I assume a man of your stature would have a partner waiting for him at home.”
Alistaire didn’t miss the smirk on Crevan Hannigan’s lips or the way his eyes trailed from his face down to his chest and arms before moving back up again.
“No offense to the wonderful meal I just ate, but do you think I’d be here if I had a partner waiting for me at home?”
Crevan Hannigan chuckled. “I stand corrected.” He tilted his head to the side and pulled his bottom lip between his teeth. “Are you a hard man to please, Captain Vale?”
“In what way?”
A throat cleared, and Alistaire looked at Zev, who was glaring at him with intent to kill in his eyes. Shrugging off Zev’s glowering eyes, Alistaire looked back at Crevan Hannigan, who had just set the cat down. The cat walked around the table then hopped up onto Rosemary’s vacant chair. The cat leaned closer to him, rubbing her head against his elbow while purring.
“It seems Emma has also taken a shine to you.” Crevan Hannigan chuckled, leaning forward. “Tell me, Captain Vale. What is it about you that makes my daughter smile and my cat want to be close to you?”
Alistaire mentally scoffed.He sounds jealous.
“Maybe it’s my wonderful personality,” Alistaire said, not able to stop the conversation happening between them. He didn’t understand how things suddenly changed when they were yelling at each other a couple of hours earlier.
What a confusing fucking day.
“Maybe,” Crevan Hannigan responded.
* * *
“What are you up to?”Dilen asked Fox.
“What are you talking about?”
Rosemary and Vale had left not long after dinner. Other than their tension-filled conversation at lunch, they barely said another word to each other. Vale had stayed close to his grandmother, as if using her as a shield. But throughout the day, he could feel the captain’s eyes following his every move.
“I’m talking about Vale. First, I walk in and see him pinning you against the wall and then that awkward flirting thing around the table. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Fox wrapped his arms around his waist, recalling the way Vale’s thick fingers had held him in place. Vale’s touch was gentle, yet asserting. However, Fox could see and feel the other man’s confusing emotions—he found it hard to rein in his own feelings. From the moment Vale had touched him, Fox’s body had been sensitive to the other man’s presence and touch. Fox turned away from the window to look at Dilen.
