Page 28 of Through the Veil (Endangered Fae #2)
“They are so happy.” Finn watched them with a soft smile.
Are you happy? Diego kept the uneasy thought shuttered and instead said, “I thought we’d take the boys out to dinner tonight. You and I, Sionnach and Angus, Nathair and Faolchú.”
“To Annie’s?” Finn’s eyes lit up.
“Yes, to Annie’s. Would you like that?”
“Oh, I would lie down and kiss her feet for one of her steaks. But you think it wise? All of us out in plain sight?”
Diego squeezed Finn’s hand. “I’ve already told people you have friends visiting from Ireland. Americans expect foreigners to be a little odd, and everyone has the glamour thing worked out so it’s convincing. Not that Angus needs to do much more than hide his ears and his eyes.”
The old wariness lurked in Finn’s eyes for a moment, but Annie’s steaks won out. “Very well. You know these people best.”
Two hours later, everyone piled into the 4x4 for the trip to town.
Faolchú had to sit up front with Diego, his bulk simply too much for the back seats.
Finn explaining how to work the seat belts for the safety of everyone involved was just too surreal, but they managed the trip without any major incidents.
To protect Finn from the steel frame, the truck’s interior had been lined with silk, a request the auto upholsterer had found bizarre but had accepted once he’d found out Diego was a writer.
Apparently, writers were allowed to be strange.
Annie’s Restaurant occupied the old train station, a charming nineteenth-century building she had renovated a decade previously, though she had kept the old ticket windows so customers could have a glimpse of the kitchen in the back.
Annie’s was the only real restaurant in town, and since the other two establishments serving food were bars, several customers always occupied the ten-table dining room, even in the slow season.
Annie, herself, manned the front that evening.
Her broad face broke into a bright smile when she caught sight of Diego.
“Hey, stranger! Where the heck have you been keeping yourself?” She bustled over, her gaze running up and down the bodies to Diego’s left and right. “You definitely need to come more often if you’re going to bring so many handsome men. From Ireland, I think I heard?”
Diego chuckled. Something said to one person in town eventually got around to everyone. “Hi, Annie. Good to see you. Yes, this is Sean.” He put a hand on Sionnach’s shoulder, then pointed around the group. “Angus, Nathan and Falco. Of course, you know the good-looking troublemaker in the back.”
“Evening, Annie,” Finn said with a little waggle of his fingers.
“I do, and I see you haven’t been feeding him properly again.” Annie shook her head with a mock-scowl. She took Finn by the arm to lead him to the round table at the back. “That’s all right, sweetheart. We’ll take care of you since Diego doesn’t know how.”
“Shameful how he mistreats me.” Finn put the back of one hand to his forehead. “I am fortunate, indeed, that you are here to rescue me.”
“We’ll get you fed up, don’t worry.” Annie patted his arm and waited until they were settled. “Are you boys all artists like Finn?”
The fae shifted uncomfortably, casting glances around the table to see who should answer. Diego came to their aid. “No. Sean and Angus are in…communications. Nate’s a horticulturist, and Falco’s a fighter.”
“Oh, sure, I can see that.” Annie nodded, letting her eyes run up and down Faolchú’s hard body in a brazen fashion. “Though he looks like you’ve been starving him, too.”
Faolchú raised his head to give her a devastating smile. “I have been quite ill, beautiful lady. Diego has been nursing me back to health.”
Her flirting melted into maternal concern. “Oh, hon, did these boys drag you out of bed too soon? Are you warm enough?”
“I’m well on the road to recovery, never fear.” Faolchú caught her hand and brushed his lips over her knuckles.
Annie blushed, and Diego helped her cover up her flustered state by ordering for them all, steaks, rare, for the three big men, and roast chicken for himself and the little ones.
“You’re a dreadful flirt,” Nathair murmured when Annie hurried off to the kitchen.
“She likes me.” Faolchú smiled and licked his teeth. “She smells delicious.”
Diego, on his left, leaned over to whisper, “You wouldn’t…would you?”
“What?” Faolchú turned puzzled blue eyes to him, and wrinkled his nose. “Devour her? Ugh, no. Humans taste foul. The cooking smells, I meant.”
A waitress brought beer and bread, and they chatted quietly, since Diego had instilled in them the need to use their ‘inside voices’.
When dinner arrived, Sionnach and Nathair picked at the chicken daintily with fingers and forks, humming and growling in delight at the flavor.
Angus possessed a basic grasp of knife and fork, though he speared the cut pieces with his knife and ate off the tip.
Faolchú appeared completely flummoxed, and would have picked up the entire steak in both hands if Diego hadn’t leaned over to cut it up for him.
For the first time in weeks, Diego felt truly relaxed. Back home, among friends who were now safe and well, he ate and drank and enjoyed the company.
Finn had learned not to lick the plate when they were out in public, though it was sorely tempting with all the lovely juices still pooled there. Instead, he excused himself to find the pretty young waitress to beg another basket of bread.
He had thought she had gone into the kitchen, but when he poked his head in, only Annie and her cooks were there.
Annie handed him the bread for the price of a kiss on the cheek and shooed him out.
As he sauntered back down the short hallway to the dining room, a snatch of conversation made his steps falter.
“That group over there,” a smooth baritone inquired. “Are they from around here?”
A young woman giggled, the little waitress. “Oh, no. I mean, Mr. Sandoval, he lives here. He’s like our resident writer, right? And his boyfriend, Finn, the tall, cute one. Guess he went to the men’s room or something. The rest are visiting Finn from Ireland. Isn’t that cool?”
“Yes, very.” The man’s voice seemed friendly but Finn sensed something underneath that stirred the hairs on the back of his neck. Some hidden intent lurked beneath the innocent questions. “Are they all paired off?”
“Sure seems that way.” Now Finn heard the frown in the girl’s voice. “You have a problem with gay guys, mister?”
The man laughed. “I think my husband back home would have a problem with that.”
A liar by nature, Finn knew one when he heard one. The waitress laughed, though, evidently relieved. “Well, okay, then. Guess there’s no harm in looking, though, huh?”
Finn breezed out of the hallway as if he had been walking at a brisk pace all along.
He winked at the waitress and stole a quick glance at the man.
Dark suit, close-cropped dark hair, clean-shaven, well-kept, something about him struck Finn as off, as if the suit and the urbane expression were a uniform.
He tried to still his shaking hands as he put the basket down and resumed his seat. Diego wasn’t fooled one bit.
“ Mi vida ? Everything all right?”
Finn tore off a hunk of bread and casually began to sop up the meat juices. “The man at the front table is asking questions about us. He gives me the…what’s the expression? The creeps.”
Diego’s expression tightened but he was too smart to turn around and stare. “Probably just a businessman passing through, caro . Man has a right to be curious if he wants.”
Every fiber of Finn’s being screamed that the man was dangerous, but he nodded, unwilling to spoil the evening for Diego, and made a good show of finishing his meal in contented silence. During dessert, a dizzy wave of relief sluiced over Finn when the man left.
They all thanked Annie profusely as they took their leave, promising to return again soon.
Most fae were wary of humans, but because Annie was Diego’s friend, they accepted her readily.
Emotion swelled in Finn’s chest as he watched Diego saying goodbye to everyone in the dining room, no one able to resist that earnest face and beautiful smile.
Gods, I love this man.
Later that night, when the moon had set and the night’s quiet settled in every corner and crevice of the house, Finn lay awake in bed, staring at the ceiling.
Diego lay in his arms, leg flung across Finn’s, his head nestled on Finn’s shoulder, his chest rising and falling slowly in deep, peaceful sleep.
Finn kissed the top of his dark, curly hair. I wish I could be more for you. Something was coming, something bad, and his heart sped with terror thinking he might not be able to protect his love from the storm.