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took him a moment to realize his date was talking to him.
Umm, what?
Where did you go? Laughing green eyes watched him with amusement.
Sorry. I was thinking of all the places to taste butter.
Brian choked on the bite of corn he d just taken. After a minute of coughing and several
sips of water, he glared at Landon. Warn a guy next time!
Landon smiled. Sorry. They both knew he wasn t.
He innocently picked at a mussel before he started his interrogation. The urge to know
everything about the man across from him made him twitchy like an itch he needed to scratch.
Brian dressed like a man who felt confident and wanted to be noticed, but in reality, he was a lot
shyer than Landon had expected when he d spotted the man feeding birds.
So, tell me a little about yourself, he invited.
Brian shrugged and, as the silence lengthened, Landon wondered if Brian was going to
answer.
I work as a bicycle courier, he began.
Landon nodded encouragingly because that seemed to be what Brian needed.
Brian gave a great deal of attention to the crab he was cracking. I m the youngest of
three children.
Really, I m the oldest boy of seven children.
Seven? Brian looked up at him Really?
Landon nodded. I have one sister and five brothers.
Brian s green eyes went wide as he looked Landon over. There are six of you?
Landon laughed. No! We re all different like any other group of brothers.
Actually, they were more different looking than most siblings. The magic in Aria caused
genetic anomalies, which is why his youngest brother had white-blond hair and his brother
Adar s hair was a striking red. The rest of them had black to golden-brown hair. Even their
builds weren t the same. The only thing all the princes had in common was the swan-shaped
birthmark on their right shoulders.
Strangely, Taylora didn t receive one at birth like the others, so maybe it was a male
descendent type of thing.
What was it like growing up?
Loud! Even with a castle to run around in, the brothers tended to gather together to
play games, hunt and ride horses. When they all got together, the volume tended to rise. It used
to drive their mother insane. Memory of his mother brought a shadow to his heart.
Hey. Brian reached across the table and covered Landon s right hand with his own.
Are you okay?
Yeah, sorry, I was thinking about my family. I lost my parents a few years ago.
Brian gave Landon s hand a sympathetic squeeze before letting go. I lost my mother a
year ago. It still hurts.
Landon shrugged. I miss my father more. My mother wasn t a warm kind of mother.
He resisted a shudder. Since he d come to Earth, everyone always talked about loving their
mother but frankly, the queen had always scared the crap out of Landon and as far as he could
tell, everyone else, including his father, had been frightened of her, too. Taylora had their
mother s cold eyes.
Shaking away the bad memories, he looked up into Brian s warm gaze. Enough of that,
tell me about your brothers. Are you close?
Brian looked away. No. I mean, I live with them, but we don t really get along.
Then why don t you move out?
Surely, Brian was old enough to live on his own.
Brian shrugged. Picking up a mallet, he smashed a crab a little harder than necessary.
Pieces of shell splattered everywhere. Brian blushed.
Landon laughed. Hey, you don t have to talk about it if you don t want to. This isn t an
interrogation. I was just trying to get to know you better.
I-I know. I stay to take care of the family, you know? My father is disabled, and my
brothers are deadbeats. I might not always like them but they re family.
I can understand that. I love my brothers, but I m not too close to my older sister.
Brian gave him a shy smile. Sometimes families are difficult.
Yeah. Unfortunately, it only got more complicated when there were royal expectations.
They spent the next hour chatting and eating the feast piled between them. Landon
couldn t remember the last time he had such a fun afternoon.
* * * *
Landon was in love.
After several dates with nothing more than a heated kiss or two, he could unequivocally
claim that Brian had stolen his heart.
The shy messenger met him by the lake every day for lunch, and they d spent almost
every night together sharing dinner, going to the movies and even attending a play over the past
few weeks.
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