Which wasn’t what he’d meant at all, but Robin didn’t bother to argue. If he was going to protest anything, it would be their apparent belief that he needed a sitter. But if the Greysmiths were already on their way back, Robin couldn’t do anything until they were here. He would bring up his points to Lucas while Lucas stared at him in stunned, handsome confusion, since the wise man was returning just to sit with him.
Silly of Lucas, really. To feel the need and then to do it. But there would be no stopping him, even if Robin wanted to. Lucas was going to sit in that chair and do as he saw fit. For some reason, that was taking care of Robin.
At the sweet, half-realized thought, Robin slipped peacefully back into unconsciousness.
Three
When Robin opened his eyes again, he spent several moments considering how someone had moved him so that he was lying on his side on the couch and was now facing the room. The fire was crackling, and that combined with the warm air—the heat had to be on and Robin tried not to think of the cost of it being cranked up so high—and the blankets layered over him, should have had him sweltering.
Yet he was actually cozy. Perhaps alittleoverheated, but mostly perfectly fine where he was. He could have drifted off again in this comfortable nest someone had made for him.
He didn’t because he wasn’t alone, and his minder this time was not Mallory or Persephone Greysmith.
Lucas sat in the well-stuffed, if faded, armchair beneath the reading lamp, his socked feet on the equally faded ottoman. He frowned at the book in his lap.Always frowning in this house, Robin thought with sleepy irritation. There was nothing that confusing here to frown that much over.
But the reading lamp over the chair was on, so despite the dim light in the rest of the room, Lucas’ expression was easy to see. His hair as well, which he’d cut some time very recently. From what little Robin remembered of their meeting on the porch, Lucas had had hair to at least his shoulders at that time. UnlessRobin had imagined that. He didn’t think so, but Robin was not especially well, apparently.
He didn’t dislike Lucas with long hair. Lucas would tie it up sometimes in a bun near the top of his head that made him look like a yoga instructor or one of the hipsters at the brewery. Worn up, the gray strands in Lucas’ hair, which had nothing to do with his white streak but probably something to do with the strength of the magic he worked, or the things he’d been through, were more noticeable. Overall, the long hair was striking, not displeasing.
It was more that Robin had always thought the impressive fall of dark brown and silver, and that blaze of white near the temple, were more suited to an older man, maybe one with a stylish beard like Robin could never manage. In another decade or so, Lucas should let his hair grow out and keep it that way, then add a gray-flecked beard for distinction. The coven would have to listen to him then, looking like that. They wouldn’t be able to help themselves. Robin certainly wouldn’t.
With his hair cut short, Lucas looked his actual age. In less light, without the gray so visible, he even almost looked as he had at seventeen when he’d spent a summer interning here, helping John and Phillip with the work around the house and the remaining sheep, or whatever those few months had been for him. Lucas’ curiosity had led him to learn a lot of skills and maybe the farm work had been part of that.
His hair was longer than a buzzcut, but still quite short. The texture would probably feel amazing against Robin’s palm.
That was a thought to makeRobinfeel seventeen again, and once more stalking-not-stalking Lucas Greysmith around the property while he worked.
They’d gone to school together in town, of course, but there was a difference between seeing Lucas dressed and quiet in the halls of the high school and seeing Lucas in a dirty shirt and jeans, sweating at some manual labor. The shoulders had been the same, even if the rest of him hadn’t filled out yet. Robin had been embarrassingly giddy to have someone his age around, and it hadn’t helped that Lucas had once or twice removed his shirt in the heat.
Robin had been very obvious about his combination hormonal teenage lust and actual crush. So obvious that Lucas, not known for making jokes, had finally attempted to tease him about it.
Really, the teasing had been gentle, even if it hadn’t felt gentle at the time. It also felt like a million years ago now, too long ago for it to matter anymore. Robin shouldn’t even be thinking of it; swooning at Lucas’ feet had him reflecting on past humiliations.
But older and hopefully wiser, in the quiet of the living room, with the distant sound of rain on the roof and the taste of an Athenais Sibley tisane lingering in his mouth, Robin considered that it was possible Lucas hadn’t been teasing, and his remark had been the sort of awkward, out of place thing that someone blessed or marked would say because they didn’t think in the ways other people did.
Lucas was special and had trouble talking to insignificant people like Robin. Robin recognized that now. Lucas probably had forgotten the incident, in any case.Robindidn’t even think of it these days. Not all that much, anyway.
When he thought about it, in passing, it was to cringe over his equally awkward teenage response. Which had been to run off and then barely speak to Lucas or look him in the eye for the rest of the summer, which thankfully, had been almost over by then.And then how Lucas, in turn, had gone as withdrawn and quiet with Robin as he was with strangers.
They did talk now, at least. Polite conversation at the few gatherings either of them went to. One of them showing up on the other’s porch every couple of months on an errand. That sort of thing.
It was fine, except for the stilted way Lucas interacted with him, as if afraid Robin was going to accuse him of something inappropriate, or treat him like the others did. But that honestly could also be Robin making Lucas uncomfortable. Lucas was often silent, even with his family. It wasn’t his fault that Robin’s nerves assumed it meant he was waiting on Robin to do something.
There was possibly a way to find out, if Robin wanted to take the time to have an extremely embarrassing conversation with him.
He’d been too busy for years, other things on his mind. The other things were all gone now. Even the knocking from upstairs had gone quiet.
That was probably why the rumbling from his stomach was so loud.
Lucas sat up sharply and turned his head until their eyes met. Then he smiled.
A gentle,littlesmile that was nonetheless so unexpected and disarming that Robin smiled back without thinking and said, “Lucas,” in a tone that implied he had been waiting impatiently for Lucas’ return.
The part of him that had been raised on tales of Blessing and Redferne daring-do and romance thought it was exactly the kindof thing to say to one’s lover as one met them in the dead of night to board a ship to America one step ahead of furious pursuers.
Robin pulled one of the crocheted blankets up over his face, which didn’t conceal much, but hopefully hid enough.
“Are you all right?” Lucas clearly thought Robin was still out of it.
