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There’s wine and food in the fridge.

Hawk, Lincoln, Damon

They’d all signed it.

“I’m going to hug that man again,” Lyric declared,tears in her eyes, knowing as he did that Hawk had been the instigator in this.

“Me first.” Then he took her in his arms and held her close, staring down at her. “This is all because of you.”

“All I did was love you.”

“And that’s everything.”

***

Hawk opened his front door at the god-awful hour just past dawn and fell back three steps when he was practically tackle-hugged by Lyric and Mason. Their arms tightened around him and held him up before he fell on his ass.

“What the fuck!”

He knew they were heading back to Blackrock Falls this morning. He didn’t expect them to say goodbye in person.

Mason held him with a hand around his head and kissed his cheek. That startling gesture woke him up even more. “Thank you.”

Lyric was snuggled into his shoulder, her head resting on his chest, one of her arms around his back, the other around his cousin. “The flowers were beautiful. All my favorites.”

Yeah, he’d had the most bizarre conversation with her about flowers after he’d been assigned the task of ordering them for June at work for her five-year anniversary with the company. Lyric had helped him out, telling him what she liked.

So he remembered. Not a big deal.

But by the way she held him, and them showing up like this, it was to them.

Lyric squeezed him again, not seeming to care that he was practically naked. “I’ve got them packed in the car. I’m taking them home.”

He didn’t expect her to go through all the trouble. They were just a bunch of dead flowers. Or would be soon. So why bother? Except the grin on her face when she looked up at him told him how much she loved them, and his cold heart might have melted a little.

Mason released him first.

Lyric stepped back when Mason gave her room. Her eyes roamed over him. “Damn, Hawk, I seriously do not understand why there isn’t a horde of women camped outside your door.”

Mason covered her eyes with his big hand and pulled her back. “That’s it. We’re never coming back here. That’s the last time you hug him.”

Lyric chuckled and gave a mock frown.

Hawk didn’t want to admit that the thought of Mason reining in her freedom to spread her affection with abandon, which seemed to give her so much joy when she foisted it on him, irritated him. “Leave her be. She’s perfect.”

“I know. That’s why I’m trying to keep her away from you.” The grumbled words held a world of fondness, because Mason knew Hawk would never tread on his relationship.

“Hawk?”

“Lyric?”

“Whoever gets your heart will be a very lucky woman.”

Because Mason still held his hand over her gaze, she couldn’t see Hawk glare at her. His heart was a solid chunk of ice wrapped in barbed wire with atoxic symbol sign hung up as a warning that he didn’t have the capacity to feel anymore and would more than likely hurt anyone who dared to come close. He couldn’t even shut out the nightmares anymore.

And although he pretended well enough to be a normal human being, the fact was he was a messed-up pile of broken bits and pieces inside. Someone dug too deep they’d cut themselves to shreds on the shrapnel.

“You’re the only one brave enough to confront such a feral beast.” He felt that way most of the time, like he was one step away from losing it.