The Curse of Redwood (Ivy Grove #2) - Jaclyn Osborn Page 0,105
shoulder as we walked. It was more than his looks, though. The very air shifted in his presence. He was power, confidence, beauty, and charm wrapped up into one sexy body.
Once we reached the table, all three of my friends stood to greet us. Taylor was the first to pounce. Of course.
“Hey, I’m Taylor,” he said, shoving out a hand toward Zeke. “C’s told me a lot about you.”
“Pleasure to meet you.” He shook his hand. “I’m Ezekiel, but please call me Zeke.”
Ben greeted him next. “We’ve somewhat met before, I believe, though we didn’t get a chance to speak. I’m Ben Cross.” He then stepped back a fraction and put a hand at the small of his lover’s back. “And this is Theo.”
“Hello,” Theo said. The deep lines on his forehead, caused by him frowning, took away some of the politeness in his tone. “Do excuse my staring. I have not met another like me before.”
“It’s all right,” Zeke responded, examining Theo in the same way. “I regret to say I’ve met many like us.”
The waiter chose that moment to interrupt, asking Zeke and I what we wanted to drink. We both ordered coffee before taking our seats at the table. Zeke sat between me and Taylor, while Ben and Theo sat across from us.
“May I have a refill on coffee?” Theo asked the waiter when he came back by to drop off our drinks.
“That’s your third cup already,” Taylor said to him. “You better slow down or you’ll be bouncing off the walls.”
“Well, you go a year without coffee and tell me then how you feel,” Theo responded, before dumping creamer into his newly filled cup and taking a drink. It was then I noticed what he was wearing; a navy-blue sweater and skinny jeans. Ben must have bought him some new clothes so he wouldn’t be walking around town in his old timey ones.
Ben chuckled and rested his arm on the back of Theo’s chair. He then looked at me. “What time do you need to meet Callum?”
“He’s coming over around seven,” I answered, nerves fluttering in my belly as I thought about the ritual. I wanted to change the subject. “Do you and Theo have anything fun planned for today?”
“We do, actually,” Ben answered. “I’m taking him to New York right after breakfast. The drive is a little over two hours from here, so he’ll get a nice road trip along the way.”
“I’ve never been to the big city,” Theo said with excitement in his brown eyes.
I was surprised to find Zeke and Taylor deep in conversation when I looked over at them. I heard the words classic literature and knew they were talking about books like two nerds.
“I let C borrow my copy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but I don’t think he read it,” Taylor said, then winked at me over Zeke’s shoulder. “He has no taste.”
“He seems to enjoy it when I read to him,” Zeke said, placing his hand on my leg beneath the table, even as he faced Taylor. “Though, he has a tendency to fall asleep. Have you read any of Mary Shelley’s works? The Modern Prometheus, or Frankenstein as it’s more commonly known, is among my favorites.”
“Dude, I love that one,” Taylor answered. “Did you read about how Shelley got the idea for that book? She was staying at a manor for the summer with Lord Byron and some other writer. Anyway, Byron suggested that each of them write a ghost story. But she was having trouble inventing an idea. Get it?” Taylor laughed like a goofball at his own joke. “Supposedly, the three of them had a conversation about electricity being used to bring the dead back to life, and then she had a dream about Frankenstein’s monster and started writing her story the next day.”
“Nerd,” I said, coughing.
“Like you’re one to talk,” Taylor countered. “When you get to talking about anime, I can’t shut you up either.”
When the waiter came to take our food orders, we made it simple by all getting the breakfast platter. Theo got extra bacon with his, then snorted a laugh when Ben asked if he intended to save any room for chocolate when they visited the bakery later.
“I always have room for chocolate,” Theo answered.
“We should visit the bakery as well,” Zeke said, leaning over to me. “For William and the other children.”
I smiled at his kind heart and looped my arm through his, resting my head on his shoulder. The