Spycraft Academy by B. Miles (little readers .txt) 📕

29

Sam thought he might have been done with the forest after yesterday, but when the girls wanted to go for a stroll with him, he couldn't refuse. It was a beautiful day anyway. Autumn was slowly ebbing away and making way for winter’s chill. He didn't like winter when he lived in the city. But now he had food, a roof, and a warm fireplace. Maybe winter would be nice this year. Maybe the snow would be fun to play in when he wasn’t worried it might kill him.

Drina skipped through the leaves, grabbing saplings as she went, swinging around the slim trunks and goading Rosin into frolicking with her. Although the blonde probably felt silly acting like a child, Drina’s elation was contagious, and she ended up doing it anyway.

Mattie seemed content to just hold his hand and walk, their feet crunching gently through the leaves. Eventually they arrived at their clearing and Sam stopped abruptly.

“Are you alright?” Mattie asked.

“Yeah,” Sam said, looking around. “I just realized that all this time, we've been so busy with our watches and studies in class that we never really got to talk about us.”

He didn’t realize the other two were listening until Drina skipped to him, dragging Rosin with her, and skidded to a stop before him. She gave him a bright smile. “No better time to talk about it than now!”

Sam smiled and grabbed her waist, pulling her and Rosin to him at once. The girls pressed into him, wrapping their arms around him, around each other.

He rested his chin atop Rosin’s head, gathering his thoughts, savoring in the warmth surrounding him. “It doesn't even feel like it's been a semester,” he said. “It feels like we’ve just begun, like I'm just getting to know you. Like I’m just now getting to explore what it means to love you.”

“To love us?” Rosin peeked up shyly through her lashes.

Sam kissed her forehead. Love was a powerful word. It wasn’t something to fling around, but what other word existed for this? It was more than sex with them. They were his crew, his family, his best friends, his lovers, the people he would die to protect, the people he wanted in his life until the day it ended.

Mattie nuzzled into his shoulder and for once, Drina didn’t have a smart comeback, only a sweet, dreamy smile.

“I feel the same way.” Rosin sighed, closing her eyes and resting her head against his chest.

“Yeah,” Drina said. “Me too.

“Does that mean we're together? All of us?” Sam looked at each of them, searing their content smiles into his mind so that he never forgot them.

“For such a smart man, you can be incredibly dense sometimes. Of course we’re together,” Drina murmured. “It didn’t even have to be said.”

“But it does,” Sam said, “I would never just assume it. What kind of man would that make me?”

“But do you want to be with us, Sam?” Rosin asked. “People will talk, you know.”

Mattie snorted. “Let them.”

Sam didn't answer, not because he had to think about it, but because he just wanted to step back and look at all three of them and recognize the individuals that they were, the strengths they brought to the crew, the way they supported him and stood beside him, even when he was being ridiculous.

“This is something more than just a crew,” Sam said. “We're in this together, now. You’re my girlfriends, and I'm your boyfriend…if you'll have me, that is. As for me, I’m the luckiest man who has ever lived, and I don’t deserve any of you, but I’m going to do my best every day to be the sort of man who does.”

Drina made a rare, girlish sigh and stood on her toes to kiss him. Rosin and Maddie were quick to do the same, and in seconds, the four of them dissolved into one incoherent mass of kisses and laughter. Sam closed his eyes and rested his cheek on top of Mattie’s head, inhaling the mixed scents of their hair, absorbing the sounds of their intermingling giggles and sighs. He wished he could stay in this moment for all of eternity, but of course, he couldn't.

They had to keep going. They had more semesters to go, more life to live, but he hoped they would always be this way. Maybe that was painfully optimistic and ignorant, maybe it was childish, but he couldn't imagine his life without all three of them. He couldn’t imagine ever tiring of holding them, being with them in moments like this.

He pictured them old and gray, the girls still beautiful and full of life no matter how many wrinkles they had. The four of them would live together in a small cabin, somewhere along the Pel Mountains. They would be too old to be spies, but not too old to stand like this, underneath the sun together for the rest of their days.

That was the silent wish he sent to the spirits, anyway.

30

“Sam!”

He sighed and closed his eyes, praying for patience when the sound of Delcan’s voice echoed somewhere behind him, demanded his attention.

“You go ahead,” he said to the girls—his girlfriends. “I'll be along in a minute.”

He opened his eyes.

Mattie was glancing past his shoulder with a cocked eyebrow. “Are you absolutely sure about that, Sam?”

He nodded. He had to face the blonde sooner or later, he supposed.

“All right,” Mattie said. “I'll hear you if you call for us.”

“I know.” Sam cupped her cheek.

“I'll always hear you.” Mattie kissed the inside of his wrist.

Sam smiled. “I know.”

He dropped his hand from her face and she gave him a last, lingering look before she and the other two girls turned away, heading to Drina and Mattie’s room.

Sam counted to ten for patience, then counted to five for understanding before he swiveled on his heel and faced Delcan, who was nearly upon him.

“I don't know what the hell happened the other day, and