My Lost Hero (Angels of War Series #1) REWRITING 2024

Chapter Thirty

The scrumptious curls of Scottish smoked salmon were rolled into the perfect bite-sized curls, displayed in the shape of a fish on the slate board. It was fancy to the extreme.

I took a few curls for myself, planning to toast some brown bread so I could spread on the homemade cream cheese. We waited beside the toaster with our hands still intertwined.

My head rested on Joshua's shoulder just as the toaster popped the pieces of bread up the top shoot. I enjoyed the attention he was giving the top of my head too much to pull away, so I let him nuzzle into my hair a little longer before grabbing the toast and pot of butter for him.

Our seats next to my sister were opposite Matt and Olivia who were looking rather sheepish once we settled in with our plates on the table. I have them both a friendly wave before building my toast tower of cream cheese, smoked salmon and sunflower seeds.

Matt cleared his throat. "Hey, you two."

"Morning. Did you sleep okay?" Joshua said before I got the chance to speak.

"Yeah, well, I think we did. I'm hanging out of my arse this morning," Matt replied, nursing his glass of orange with a small frown.

Olivia frowned at him. "You have such a way with words, darling."

That pulled a laugh out of me, the sound causing her to beam. I spoke up. "Did Matt eventually find your room?"

"Yes," she said, shaking her head. "After I went back out to look for him. He was still on the dance floor."

"I am still here, you know. You don't have to talk about me like I'm in another room," he grunted, sharing a small smile with Joshua when he chuckled over a bite of food.

Matt's weary eyes fell on me. "Everything okay with us after last night, Tabby?"

How could it not be? At the end of the day, he'd acted like a true friend and shown me such love by defending me.

I nodded. "Yes, of course we're good."

Relief set into his features once he heard this, almost as if he expected an argument. "We can catch up once you're back from your trip?"

Beside me, Joshua tensed up with the hand resting on my thigh squeezing until it burnt a little bit. "You're going away on a trip?"

I bit my lip when I turned to get a better look at him, watching his eyes zoom about my face. "Are you free this week?"

He blinked harder. "Yeah, I'm free all week, why?"

The small, bemused smile he was sporting sent a buzz of excitement to my belly. Inviting him was not in the plans, yet, in the here and now it seemed perfect.

"Do you want to come on holiday with me?" I said, laughing along with him when he burst at the seams.

In that moment, he took hold of my face, to grin at me, lips edging closer until they brushed my forehead for a fraction or two. "Hell, yes, I do! Where are we going?"

A collective roar of laughter echoed around the table and it wasn't until I batted them all away with my hand for the second time that they shut up. God, I loved my family.

My fingers slipped through Joshua's underneath the table. "I'm going to Portugal. It's for five days, and it's all inclusive. It's supposed to be twenty degrees there in the day right now."

A boyish sound escaped him when he moved our hands to settle on his chest. "Sounds perfect. When do we leave?"

At that, I pulled out my mobile phone to bring up the hotel page, basking in the beauty of the pictures with him. Our room looked over the marina with the nightlife of Villamoura surrounding us. We would have two pools, and a beautiful onsite spa and gym, as well as three resturants and a bar.