Blind Warrior (The Weavers Circle #3) - Jocelynn Drake Page 0,103

“Damn Baer,” he muttered as he shot toward the kitchen with a lemur on his heels. He turned and drew water from somewhere and threw it at the animal, then jogged toward the table. He grabbed Clay’s mug and tossed the coffee at the lemur.

The lemur stopped and shook the coffee off its head, and Cort could swear the thing was grinning at Calder. Its long, striped tail came up over its head as it darted around the table.

“Hey!” Clay growled. “I wanted that coffee.”

“I haven’t even had any yet, and already Baer’s causing problems.” Calder glared at the lemur as it shifted back into Baer, who was laughing so hard, he had tears on his face.

“I can’t believe you ran from such a small animal!”

“You tried to bite me!”

“Aw, I just nipped at your jeans, you big baby.”

Calder shook his head and headed toward the coffeepot. “No more animals until I’ve had my morning caffeine.”

Baer headed to Wiley and leaned down for a kiss, and Wiley laughingly gave him one. “You’re such a scamp,” Wiley teased.

“I’m hungry,” Baer announced as he headed toward the kitchen. “Who wants pancakes?”

“Not if he’s making them.” Clay shuddered.

“I make a pretty mean pancake.” Cort stood and took his mug into the kitchen. “You guys want me to make some?”

“I never say no to someone cooking for me.” Baer went to the pantry and came back out with the flour. “But I’ll help. You shut up, Clay. If Cort’s directing, I’m sure I can help him whip up some good ones.”

Cort pulled the eggs out of the refrigerator, then went into the pantry to look for the baking powder and sugar. Once he had the rest of the ingredients, he told Baer to start adding the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl and gave him the measurements. “I’m going to make a well in the center of that and add the milk, eggs, and melted butter.” He stuck the butter into the microwave as Baer got busy.

It didn’t take long for him to make the batter, and he started up the griddle. Soon, the heady aroma of cooking pancakes filled the room. While he flipped the cakes, Baer started laying out strips of bacon into a frying pan.

“Well, this is a treat. I’ll go get Lucien and Grey,” Wiley announced as he stood up and left the kitchen. He walked out the French doors, obviously going after Grey first.

Cort made a ton of pancakes, keeping them warming in the oven as he worked. When Grey walked into the house, his attention was caught by the man, taking in his sleep-tousled hair and the way his gaze zeroed in on Cort. He was still getting used to the way Grey looked at him…and the fact that he could.

Grey walked into the kitchen and came up behind Cort, wrapping his arms around him. “Missed you when I woke. I didn’t expect to find you cooking for this hungry group.”

“I offered. You guys have fed me often, and pancakes are one of my specialties.”

“Love pancakes, so I’m looking forward to this.” Grey let go of him and got the maple syrup out of the refrigerator. “I’ll just heat this up. Are they ready?”

Cort opened the oven to show him the huge stacks of pancakes and Grey laughed. “That might be enough.”

When it was all done, they gathered in the dining room with their plates. Cort settled at the table with his own stack and began to doctor it with butter and syrup. He grabbed a couple of strips of bacon and bit into one, the salty goodness making him groan.

“So Cort can obviously cook.” Clay spoke around a mouthful. “We’ll have to put him into the rotation. What else do you have as a specialty? Because these pancakes are fantastic.”

“My mama’s gumbo, and I can throw together a decent lasagna. But I can cook most foods. My mother worked long hours, so I learned to cook for myself and my sister.”

“I haven’t had a good gumbo in years,” Baer said as he forked a bite of pancakes. “We’ll have to go out and get the ingredients for that.”

“We can make a store run today.” Clay picked up his coffee and took a swallow. “Maybe it’ll even be uneventful since John told Grey he would hold off on the attacks for a while.”

“He didn’t actually say that, but he sort of implied it.” Grey reached for a piece of bacon. “But I’d risk a store run for some