Page 79 of Knot in the Wedding Cards

"You've agreed with him three times now," August observes.

"Whose side are you on?" He snaps back.

"Amber's," August says. "That was meant to be the point."

Interesting…

Out of the three of them, at least I feel as if one of them is truthfully on my side when they need to be.

I set the rules before anyone's boots hit the cobbles, because I have learned exactly how fast good intentions become a cage.

Nobody speaks for me unless I ask. Nobody calls this romantic. Nobody touches me without permission. Nobody promises an official anything that could permanently rewrite my legal status.

Sawyer signing does not make him part of the old pack. The three of them do not interrogate Sawyer about his estranged one in the middle of my emergency. Every answer given in that building protects Golden Hour Vows without handing over one inch of my autonomy.

Sawyer raises a hand like a schoolboy.

"Does charming the clerk count as speaking for you?"

"Depends," I say. "On whether the charm works."

Cade mutters that he already dislikes him.

"That would trouble me more," Sawyer says pleasantly, "if you had jurisdiction."

He seems to always get a smile out of me.

We have a game plan.

We go out into the morning together, and Honeybell Harbor does what Honeybell Harbor was built to do.

Gossip.

I walk in front with Sawyer. Beckett, August, and Cade fall in behind. Marlowe, Juniper, Priya, and Niall peel off to run documents and phones. We are half a block up the hill before I feel the town turn its head.

This is a place where changing your standing pie order can be a rumor by lunch. One Omega walking toward Town Hall with four striking Alphas at her back is public record before we reach the second corner.

My shoulders climb toward my ears.

I can't help it.

Sawyer notices. He doesn't reach for my hand. He shifts a half-step closer on the street side, putting his shoulder between me and the widening stares, and asks, low, "Would you rather have space, or cover?"

"Cover," I say. "Not contact."

He obeys instantly. He gives me nothing to argue with.

I hate how much the plain competence of that steadies me.

He protects without assuming the protection has bought him anything.

Behind us, Cade is not managing his volume.

"One day. He's been in town one day, and he already knows the correct vocabulary."

"Then learn it," Beckett says.

"I'd rather walk into the harbor."