Lucas studied Robin for another moment, his smile not going anywhere. “I wish that when you worry about me, you would tell me instead of looking away from me.”
“Sorry,” Robin said immediately. He couldn’t seem look away from Lucas now. “It’s my blood, you see, which I was trying to avoid. The Blessing-Redfernes like a romantic tragedy and we are often fools for love.”
A loud bang from upstairs made Robin jump but he wasn’t going to apologize because he’d spoken the truth.
Lucas said, “Love?” hopeful and light.
Robin needed to pet him and to warm up.
“Get in here,” he ordered, then amended his instructions. “Come down here and get inside. I want to kiss you and make you breakfast and kiss you.”
Lucas stepped across the threshold. Robin had to move back but didn’t mind. Lucas followed, ducking his head so Robin could sweep his thumb across his cheek and stare up at him in wonder.
There was a point that needed clarification. Robin was sure there was, and he’d remember it in a moment. But it felt much more imperative to have Lucas close.
Lucas seemed to agree.
Epilogue
The front door cracked open the smallest amount before Robin could reach for the handle, which was helpful, since his arms were full. Persephone, behind him, made a funny sound but then continued with the commentary she had been making since their last stop in town. They both paused to wipe their feet but couldn’t remove their coats or anything else until they’d gone to the kitchen to unload the parcels weighing them down.
Robin sniffled a little on his way down the hall; hiding from the world then going back out into it while still recovering from illness meant catching a cold. It hadn’t amounted to much under Lucas’ care and watchful eye, but the wet, chilly March air wasn’t helping Robin’s runny nose go away.
Lucas was going to try to force him to take a nap. Robin didn’t feel like napping. If anything, he was wound up from sugar and caffeine and what had happened in town. But… curling up might be nice. He could usually persuade Lucas to join him.
Didn’t take much persuasion, actually. Lucas needed the rest too, no matter what he said. And maybe he also liked Robin next to him when that happened.
“It makes so much sense now,” Persephone went on. She had been railing against certain coven members as they’d gotten into the car, then the extolling the virtues of a few others, and had moved on to Robin himself, it sounded like.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she continued, plopping her bags onto the kitchen table while Robin put his on the center island. “It’s not you.”
A comment that made Robin look over at her. Persephone was focused on pulling her items from each bag of their joint purchases from the drug store and consolidating them into one bag.
“I just didn’t think about it.” Persephone had a lace collar sticking out from her sweater, indicating she was a lacy shawl sort of person after all. Her current redand pink hair was done up in a sort of beehive, which matched the general old-fashioned look of the lace.
“Think about what?” Robin quickly put two cartons of ice cream in the freezer.
“His bad moods make sense now.” She gestured while holding a box of tissue. “I should’ve seen it. Mama did.” Persephone briefly looked sour. “And I kind of wonder about Rixon now that I’m thinking on it.”
“Do you mean Lucas?” Robin realized out loud. “Lucas has bad moods?”
Persephone paused just to roll her eyes. “You two are still allhoneymoon, so he’s nothing but smiles for you right now. But he does. Not as much anymore, but he does. It’s not like he has a temper, though. He goes even more wild man, that’s all.”
“Oh.” Robin stopped with a tall jar of vanilla extract in one hand and shelf-stable oat milk in the other.
“He’ll disappear into his shed with projects for days on end—not that any of us ever get to see the results unless it was something for the business.” Penelope opened a bag of maple candy and ate a piece despite having had ice cream not half anhour ago. “Or he would take Flint, and then Flint and Flax, and drive off to visit some friends of his that live in the woods. I wish I was making that up, but he really would go brood in the woods for a while until Mama would ask me to call him to make sure he was all right. He hasn’t done it in a few years, and he did it less and less as he got older, but it still happens.”
“Okay.” Robin put down the nonperishables, stared at them for a moment, then moved his attention to things that needed to be put in the fridge now and could be organized later. He was a bit stuck on the image of Lucas tearing off into the woods to live like a hermit. Lucas had said he had questioned and fought his destiny for a while. This shouldn’t be news. “But…”
“Now, I’m like,ah. It was after he’d come over here to see you.” Persephone put away her grandmotherly taste in snacks to continue separating their drug store purchases that they had both carelessly shoved into their reusable bags. “I should’ve known sooner—how he felt about you, I mean.”
How Lucas felt about him.
Robin felt his gaze drawn to the window but Lucas was nowhere to be found.
Persephone was talking about all the times Robin had shut the door in Lucas’ face, even if she didn’t know she was. Robin turned back to her. “I wasn’t trying to…”
She waved him off. “I’m curious, don’t get me wrong. Lucas was upset and I don’t like that. Butreally,none of that is my business, and I….” She glanced down and then looked up again. “I am not my mother. And anyway, whatever it was, it’s probably better now.”
