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I know. Do you like music?

Cullen smiled, eyes lighting up.Oh, I’m half fae. We love everything that’s beautiful. I can’t help it.

I want to take you home. I’m going to take you home and do unspeakable things with you in your bed. For hours.

Oh, I imagine you should shoot for more than hours. Decades. I promise to change the sheets at least once a year.

I do love how you think.

Cullen kicked him from under the table. “Yarrow was telling me about this amazing store that’s close by. It’s a toy store, like an independent toy store. Maybe we should go there. Get some games and just look around.”

Yarrow nodded, obviously pleased. “I make wooden puzzles for them, for everyone from little ones to adult. They’re a good, good place, they do fair business, and they pay their artisans very well.”

Cullen perked up. “Oh, do they? Those are some of my favorite words ever. I love those words. Fair. Good. Pay. We should totally do that. Also, I think we should stop at the bookstore. Get books for the winter. I know it’s summer, but we need to start thinking about things we’re going to get—”the kids“people for the holidays.”

He knew that there were worlds that could be reached via this amazing nexus that the triplets had, and he was desperately curious to see which ones he could slip into and which ones he couldn’t.

But honestly, his big focus was his dragon fae.

So when you shift, are you different from a regular dragon?Orion asked.

Cullen nodded.We are. We’re smaller, by like quite a bit. And I think we’re significantly more scaly and sparkly. We don’t fly as well, either. You ought to think of the difference between a bird and a butterfly. Or maybe even a bird and a dragonfly. We can fly, but we really need it to be pretty good weather and not terrible winds. And we have lots of scales, but they’re tiny, so they sparkle. Of course you know, we have our own particular skills.Cullen relaxed as he warmed to his subject, staring into him.Dragons, I think are, totally magic. Completely. Fae, on the other hand, are physical, and the magic flows through them. They’re not made of magic; they control it and use it. It works for us, I think, because we get to be both. We’re in our bodies, way more than most dragons, but we have a huge well of magic to draw from, because we’re not just accessing it, we are it. Magic, I mean. Of course there’s three of us. I can’t imagine just being one.

No, I understand. I can’t imagine you only being one either. You three are a set, and I can see the connection between you.

I love them. They’re my family.

I want to be a part of that.Maybe he needed to. Orion wasn’t sure.

All of the sudden, he realized that the table had become very quiet, and Corbin and Yarrow were both just staring at them.

Oops.

They must have been having their little talk longer than he’d thought.

Corbin offered him a mild smile. “Did you both fall asleep? The food is here.”

He heard that rebuke, loud and clear. “Sorry. I think I must have. It’s so warm in here.”

Cullen nodded. “You know I nod off, sonny.”

Orion turned a hoot into a snort, and Corbin rolled his eyes. Yarrow narrowed his, head tilting.

Shaking his head just the tiniest bit, he dug into his food, glad for the distraction.

“Can I get a grilled cheese and a vegetable soup to go?” Yarrow asked when they were all finished. He grinned, those front teeth so cute. “I want lunch for later too.”

“Oh, that sounds like an idea.”

“We’ll grab something on the way back home,” Orion said. He had a feeling Cullen and Corbin might prefer that hamburger they hadn’t gotten the other day. He’d call ahead to the Colorado Roadhouse and get them a burger and himself a collection of yummy fried things like mushrooms and onion rings as well as some mac and cheese…

How could he still be hungry?

“Would anyone like a cinnamon roll while you wait?” the server asked.

“Goddess yes,” they all moaned at the same time.

“Should we get a half dozen to go too?”