Shortbread and Shadows - Amy Lane Page 0,7
he have let them all down so terribly?
And how could he look Lachlan in the eyes and say, “Oh my God, I am so glad you’re here. I’ve needed someone—you!—so badly, you will never know,” when he hadn’t even had the courage to name Lachlan as his heart’s desire?
“Okay,” Lachlan said, swinging around to the front of Bartholomew’s booth and gesturing impatiently. “Kate, my tablet with the Square on it is on the front of the table, the cash is in the box underneath. You watch the booths, and Bartholomew and I will round up what you need, okay?”
“Absolutely,” Kate said, with a side-eye at Bartholomew. “Josh and Jordan should be back soon. Barty, could you get some candles too? I can smell amber and lavender from here. I’m pretty sure Sheila and Gretel are on the far corner of the floor.”
Bartholomew stared at her. “You can smell what?” Yes, Sheila and Gretel’s candle and soap booth was distinctive, but they were seated by the people who sold popcorn balls, and all Bartholomew could smell was chocolate, caramel, and butter, glorious butter.
Kate shrugged irritably. “Don’t ask me how I know! Now shoo!”
Bartholomew checked his wallet and trotted around the back of the booth and to the front to join Lachlan. He was not prepared for Lachlan to snag his hand and tug him down the end of the row to the little tunnel behind the booths that led between the bathrooms and the food court.
“But Ellen is down the row the other w—”
Lachlan gave him a patient look. “What happened?” he asked after Bartholomew got hold of his runaway mouth.
“I don’t know what you—”
Damn. Lachlan’s patient look held a lot of heft. “Bartholomew,” Lachlan said into the silence, “spill.”
Bartholomew shifted from foot to foot. “I… okay, so Jordan had a… a romantic setback last night. He’s….” He looked around, terrified Jordan would hear him. “He keeps looking to date people who aren’t worthy,” he muttered. “Or at least not ready for him. Jordan’s so intense, you know? Party girls and flirty guys aren’t going to cut it. He needs someone serious.”
“Like you?” Lachlan asked, and Bartholomew blinked.
“No. Me and Jordan… just, no. But he was so sad last night. So after a few bottles of wine he said, ‘We need to make a wish spell to get our heart’s desire!’ And we did.”
Lachlan tilted his head. That’s all. Just tilted his head, and Bartholomew felt the pull to confess everything to him—from what he’d said he’d wish for to what he’d actually wished for, to the weird way his friends were acting, to the starlings and the squirrels and oh my God the homicidal cats!
He swallowed hard, and as the silence thickened, he became acutely aware of all the things about Lachlan that he’d been trying not to think about.
The faint dark blond stubble at his sideburns, as though he’d shaved a little too quickly and had missed, and the faded freckles over the bridge of his nose.
The fact that he smelled like cedar and cinnamon and a little like lemon oil, and that the width of his shoulders seemed as impossible as the smallness of his waist.
And his eyes had these amazing flecks of gold in them, and the gray and green were equally blended.
“Bartholomew?” Lachlan’s full lips curved into a small smile, like he was aware of where Bartholomew’s thoughts were heading and didn’t altogether disapprove.
“I’m sorry?”
“You were going to tell me what happened?”
“We cast a spell,” Bartholomew said stubbornly. “And… and we raised a cone of power, and it looked like it was going good, and then—” Edit, edit, edit. “—we were all knocked on our asses and the power whooshed up, and some of the others cleaned up, and I went to bake, and this morning there were… complications.”
Lachlan tilted his head the other way, like a dog appalled and fascinated by the bizarre customs of humans. “Explain complications,” Lachlan said, his patience going grim.
“We all overslept, for one thing,” Bartholomew muttered. “And I know my alarm was set for early. For another, when I say we all, everybody was camped out on our floor. Even me and Alex, and we have our own rooms. Nobody remembers falling asleep. I don’t even remember getting the final rack of bread out of the oven. We just… dropped, and everything was prepped. So we’re running around, freaking out, and nobody’s acting right—Alex squealed—”
“Alex?” Lachlan asked, and the surprise in his voice was incredibly validating.
“Right? And there were starlings,