Roam’s body jerked, not sure if Crowe was f**king with him in a good way or a bad way and I watched them both closely.
“No,” Roam answered hesitantly.
“Too bad,” Luke put in, “Shard won’t forget you anytime soon.”
Roam’s eyes swung to Luke and I saw hope fill them for a second, before he hid it. “Yeah?” Roam asked, trying to be cool.
“Yeah,” Luke answered. “Not sure that’s a good thing, kid. We let him go; he may come lookin’ for you.”
Roam’s body went stiff, whether from fear or what he thought was an admonishment from Stark, I couldn’t tell.
“That won’t happen,” Crowe offered casually but there was a fierce undercurrent to his words as if he would, personally, be looking out for Roam.
Roams eyes skidded to Vance and the hope in them lasted longer this time. I felt what was becoming a familiar warmth start to spread through me as I looked between Vance and Roam.
“You studyin’?” Vance asked him.
Roam nodded.
“You are not, Roam,” Sniff put in, ever the big mouth.
“Shut up, Sniff,” Roam hissed then looked at Crowe. “I’m gonna get my diploma. Then I’ll come lookin’ for you.”
Vance’s eyes moved to me. “Likely you won’t have to come lookin’,” he said.
Oh my God.
What in the hell did that mean?
I stared at him, the warmth had turned to fire and I stopped breathing.
Sniff was looking between Vance and me. “You guys gonna get married or somethin’?” Sniff asked.
My eyes unlocked from Vance’s and my head snapped around to glare at Sniff. I let out my breath in a whoosh using all my strength not to strangle the life out of him.
“Sniff!” I clipped, my body burning for an entirely different reason. “Why on earth would you say such a thing?”
“What?” he asked, all innocent, looking at me. “It could happen. I could be, like, your pall bearer or something.”
I heard Luke chuckle. I knew it was amusing, however, I thought it would be a lot more amusing if it was happening to someone else.
“Ring bearer, stupid. A pall bearer carries a casket,” Roam told him. “And anyway, you’re too old to be a ring bearer. You could be an usher, they seat people.”
“How you know all this shit about weddings?” Sniff asked and then didn’t wait for an answer but kept right on talking, as usual. “Just as long as I get to wear one of them fancy suits. Those are the shit.”
“Stop saying shit,” I cut in, having had enough. “Don’t you boys have an appointment with the tutor about now?”
Sniff grinned at me. “Yeah.”
“Well then, go.” I took a deep breath and turned back to the Nightingale Boys.
As I guessed, they were all looking at me with their amused faces.
Whatever.
I looked to Roam to tell him to go to the tutor but he was looking at Crowe.
“See you around?” Roam asked, not quite able to hide the craving in his voice and I sucked in a breath.