along to the table where her sister sat. They squeezed in beside the other kids.
Marigold wiggled closer to Toby and leaned against him. “Do you like waffles?”
“I do.”
“That’s good. Liking waffles is important.”
Brooks smothered his grin. Toby had no idea just how important waffles were to the girls.
“It is?” Toby asked.
“’Course.”
“Hmm. But what if I didn’t like waffles?”
Marigold looked extremely confused by the question, which cracked Brooks up even more. “You can have blueberries or strawberries or plain syrup,” she offered.
Toby smiled. “Plain syrup for me.”
“Hmm.”
“No good?”
“Plain syrup is good. I think I want plain syrup too. But with strawberries. And whipped cream.”
“You could put the strawberries and whipped cream on the side.”
“Is that what you want?” Marigold asked.
Brooks’s heart did a funny skipping-beat thing when he looked at them. She stared at Toby with such open trust, and Toby clearly didn’t know what to do. He glanced at Brooks, who widened his smile.
“Marigold likes to try things other people like to see if she likes them too.”
Toby nodded. “That’s a really good idea. You can learn some new things that way. Like, one time, my friend dunked her French fries in mayonnaise, and I was so grossed out. But then I found out that it was common in the Netherlands, where she’s from.”
“Did you like it?”
“Well… that’s a trick question. Because I only like it with the special mayonnaise from the Netherlands and not the kind we use here. But that’s okay too.”
Marigold nodded, her brain working overtime as she pondered Toby’s words. Brooks could imagine so many conversations like this. His heart filled, and he snuggled Daisy closer. If Brooks wanted to adopt the girls and Toby accepted his place as Brooks’s mate, then that meant the girls would be his too.
“I’m going to get waffles with everything on the side. I think experimenting is in order. What do you girls think?”
“Yay for experiments!” Daisy beamed and jumped off Brooks’s lap. “Brooks, what’s experiment mean?”
“Trying things to see what we like,” Brooks replied.
“Or what we don’t like,” Toby added.
Brooks smiled over at his mate. “Exactly.”
“Hmm. I want to experiment. I like Toby!”
“I like Toby too,” Marigold said.
“I like Toby three,” Brooks added.
Toby blushed and stared down at the empty spot where his plate would be as soon as Brooks tore himself away from them to go get breakfast. “I like you all too. Very much.”
“I don’t like carrots! They’re orange!” Daisy’s statement came out of nowhere.
Toby grinned and looked up. Brooks couldn’t help but laugh. “You don’t like them because they’re orange?” Brooks asked.
“Nope.”
“That doesn’t make sense. You like oranges, and they’re orange.” Not much got by Marigold. Toby liked her so much.
Daisy, on the other hand, scowled at her sister’s logic.
“I don’t like celery,” Brooks said, intervening before Daisy grew too frustrated. He’d seen it happen.
“I don’t like cucumbers,” Toby said. “They make me burp.”
Daisy giggled. “Eww, burps.”
Brooks laughed again as he finally went to get their breakfast. He quickly made plates and hurried back to his… family. They all watched him with smiles on their faces. Even Toby. Brooks’s heart fluttered as he set plates of plain waffles in front of them all, along with the extra plate of toppings and a bowl of syrup.
Toby began instructing the girls on the scientific process of experiments, which basically involved dunking a chunk of waffle into the bowl of syrup. They both watched him with rapt attention. Brooks couldn’t take his eyes off his mate either. He wanted nothing more than to touch Toby’s face, to hold his hand, to kiss him and claim him. His heart filled, and his eyes followed. Toby looked up and noticed, then reached out and touched his hand.
Brooks laced their fingers together before lifting his fork and stabbing a piece of waffle. He’d figure out how to win a place in Toby’s heart. The Goddess had given him all the gifts he needed to do it, as long as he was patient and found the way.
He’d waited this long. He’d wait as long as it took.
“Hey, Brooks?”
He glanced down at Daisy with a smile. “Yeah, bug?”
“If dragons burp fire, do they toot fire too?”
Chapter Seven
The next several days passed in a blur for Toby. He’d given himself a week with the pack to get to know them, and even though he was halfway through the allotted time, he wasn’t any closer to making a decision about his future.
On the one hand, they needed him. He currently sat out in the field in