“Starshoot to my front door?” I ask them, and they nod.
In a flash, we appear at my house and we make our way in. I honestly can’t remember the last time I was in here without any of my men.
It’s kind of strange.
“V, I’m home,” I holler as we walk to the kitchen, and he hoots from his nook. “Would either of you like something to drink? Coffee, tea, water?”
“I’d—”
“Coffee, and lots of it,” Yemi groans, cutting Rose off as she leans her head against my counter.
Rose and I share a look.
“Coffee okay with you, Rose?”
She nods and rubs circles on Yemi’s back.
“What’s wrong?”
“My head’s splitting open thanks to the lack of sleep, constant worry and tension.”
“You didn’t sleep last night after eating all that yummy food?” I ask, peering over my shoulder as I get the kettle with coffee grounds going on the stove.
“No. The way Sevryn’s been talking over the past two days has me freaking the fuck out that he’s seriously going to run off in the middle of the night and try to kill his father.”
I spin around, eyes wide. “Like you’re seriously concerned about that or you think it’s one of those girlfriend-over-imagination-type situations?”
“No, like serious, serious.”
Fuck…not good.
“V, will you please tell Creed what Yemi just said and have him talk some sense into Sevryn? But also take the blame and don’t tell him I asked you to say anything, please.”
“Of course.”
He glides from the bookshelves to the counter, and Yemi picks her head up as he waddles to her. She smirks as he rubs his feathers against her face.
“I thought he did okay at dinner. Did something happen when you all got back home?” I ask as I pull everything we’ll need out of the icebox.
“Not exactly, but nothing really has to happen. If silence stretches for too long, it’ll mess with him. Speaking of him and yesterday, can I ask you something?”
I arch my brow and smirk. “Finally looking for that advice on having four boyfriends?”
Rose snorts and shoots Yemi an apologetic smile.
“Yeah, actually. Well, sort of.”
My mouth forms an O, but the look Rose gives me has me zipping my lips and turning to the whistling kettle. I busy myself fixing our drinks while Yemi collects her thoughts.
“Yesterday before we left to go to the Akovas’, when you sassed back at Sevryn, I was thinking in my mind,fuck, here we go, he’s about to snap, but he didn’t. He almost smiled. I didn’t expect that. It dawned on me last night when we got home it was because…”
She trails off, and a long sigh pours through her lips when I slide her mug toward her.
“He said something snippy last night when we got home, so I went to pop off, but Iric stopped me. We both just looked at him, and I immediately knew what we did wrong. He saw pity on our faces just like yesterday, and that isn’t what he wants. He wants to be treated like nothing happened.”
I hum and nod toward the couch. Reluctantly, Yemi huffs as she drags her feet over there, and Rose and I follow behind her.
“It isn’t that he wants to be treated like nothing happened. He wants to be treated normally. Not like he’s one wrong word away from losing his shit,” I say.
