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“I didn’t mean it as an insult, Rowan,” Rupert said. “It’s just a fact. A logistical thing you will have to think about if you want the two of you to work.”
“We all want it to work,” Raina said. “I’ve never seen you happier, Rowan, never seen you more settled than you are right now, with him in your arms.”
Milo preened. “I can be good for you. I can make you happy. I can learn to not be a burden, I promise.”
“Oh, darling,” Rowan’s mother said, “you are anything but a burden to Rowan. You made him shine. But your father is right, Rowan. You will have to think about what your life will look like now.”
“I won’t cause issues,” Milo said. “I just want to be with him.”
“I know that,” Rupert said. “But mating a half dragon brings responsibilities that clash with the life Rowan has right now. If left unsatisfied, half dragons have been known to get destructive, volatile. Dangerous.”
Milo wanted to protest. He wanted to push back and say he’d never, but he’d been away from Rowan for a couple of days and nearly imploded, so he didn’t know that he had any room to talk.
“He isn’t a danger to me, Dad,” Rowan said. “He won’t destroy the world, for fuck’s sake. He’s built like a twig.”
“Hey!” Milo said indignantly. “I am a very powerful twig.”
“All we’re saying is you will need to rearrange your life to fit this situation, and it will have to be done soon,” Raina said. “A lot of our work is traveling, Rowan, and as much as you might want him to, Milo won’t be able to go with you everywhere.”
“Might be time to come clean, bro,” Ruben said.
“Clean?” Rupert asked. “About what?”
“I just…” Rowan said, and Milo watched him struggle for a moment before he grasped his hand and met his eyes, trying to pour support and understanding into him. You can do it. You can tell them how you feel. You don’t have to let the weight of expectation drag you down like cement shoes. I’ll still be here with you.
Rowan swallowed like he was reading every thought and squeezed back before his expression settled on one of pure determination. He set his shoulders bravely. “I never wanted to run the company, Dad.”
The silence that fell over the room felt suffocating. Milo held his breath and caught Ethel’s eye before biting his lip in anticipation.
And then…
“Pay up.” Rowan’s mother held her hand out toward his dad. The man sighed long and hard before pulling out his wallet and slapping a fifty onto her palm.
“What…?” Rowan asked.
“We made a bet a few years ago,” his mother said. “I told him you only did this job because you felt obligated to. Because you didn’t want to disappoint him. He thought I was totally wrong and that you were just naturally grumpy.”
“He is my grump grump,” Milo said affectionately.
“You knew?” Rowan asked his mother, looking like he was frozen in shock.
“I birthed all four of you morons.” She snorted. “I know everything.”
Milo watched Rowan dart a look at his father and swallow before speaking. “And…you’re not disappointed?”
His father rolled his eyes. “I raised Ruben. I’m used to disappointment.”
“I’m gonna have the best time composing your funeral march,” Ruben said, earning himself a slap on the head from his mother.
“So, what do you want to do?” Rupert asked, and Milo perked up because…he wanted to know too. What would Rowan be doing if not all the fancy business stuff he had done thus far?
“That’s the thing,” Rowan said. “I do want to work for the family business—I think I’m good at it. I just…I don’t want to run it. I don’t want the high stakes, constant traveling, ass-kissing job. I want to take smaller projects. I want to help dragons display hoards that are more…unusual.”
“Like Milo’s?” Raina asked knowingly.
Rowan gave Milo the sweetest, gentlest smile he had ever seen. It melted him from the inside out. Made him turn into a puddle on his lap and coil closer.
“Jesus,” Ruben said, watching them.
