Free Jade Archer - Sandpipers 2 - Raven's Mark by Jade Archer

figures.
“How about some snacks, boys?” Zak asked as Wolf started spreading out his sleeping bag on the floor to build a city for them to rescue.
“Yeah!” Wolf cried enthusiastically, grinning and relaxed again.
Lark clicked his fingers. “Oh, hey! That reminds me. Did we invite you guys to the picnic next month yet, Raven?”
“Um…n-no.”
“Huh, I was sure I’d already invited you. But Brody said we hadn’t. Well, anyway, we’re having the first official Annual Sandpipers Restaurant Family and Friends Picnic on the eighth,” Lark announced grandly. “It’s just the guys from the restaurant, a few friends. Nothing huge.”
Zak snorted. “Lark planned it, just so you have some idea of ‘nothing huge’ there, Raven.”
Lark glared at Zak. But before he could say anything, the doorbell rang.
Zak leapt up off the couch. “I’ll get it.”
“Coward,” Lark muttered, then focused on Raven again. “You will come, won’t you?”
“Ah—”
“Come on. We can’t have a family and friends picnic without you guys.”
“It’s really not going to be that big,” Brody added. “And it’s on a Monday so everyone from the restaurant can come, which means it should be pretty quiet at the park too. We’re organising for Wolf to have a day off preschool.”
Just as Raven was trying to sort out a halfway decent, coherent reply—his brain already catapulting into overdrive as it registered who was most likely to be at the door—Zak and Mark walked into the room.
Raven leapt to his feet. Sitting just didn’t feel right. He needed to be up and moving. At the same time, Ryan and Wolf stood up. Much as he wanted to stare at Mark—because yes, the man looked damn fine tonight—Raven couldn’t tear his eyes away from the boys standing side by side, Wolf holding Ryan’s hand and both watching the adults in the room with serious expressions on their little faces.
It was just too much. He couldn’t do this.
Before he could suggest they call the whole thing off, however, Mark cleared his throat. “Hi everyone. What’s up?”
It was a little startling how uneasy Mark sounded. Raven instantly felt guilty for what he was about to do to the poor man.
“Hey, Mark!” Brody said with the kind of false cheerfulness reserved for moments of high tension. “We were just talking about the Sandpipers’ picnic.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Raven was just deciding if he and Ryan could make it or not.”
“You’re coming, right, Mark?” Lark asked quickly.
“Yeah, I thought I might come along for a while.”
“Great. See, Raven? Everyone’s going to be there. I hope you’ll at least think about it.”
Raven managed a nod. He would think about it, but right now Ryan and Mark and the whole date disaster looming on the horizon was taking up all his attention.
“So where are you guys going tonight?” Brody asked, still sounding too cheerful.
It seemed his friends were just as anxious right now about everything as he was. In a strange, twisted kind of way, it was…nice. Raven couldn’t remember the last time he’d thought anyone would care.
“The Grapevine. If that’s okay with Raven.”
Zak nodded in approval. “You’ll have to let us know what their menu’s like.”
At that, Lark gave Zak a little shove—one that hardly registered on the bigger man’s broad frame. “No spying on the competition on a date, Zak. You know the rules.”
“I thought those were just our house rules.”
“They’re in the house. Hell, they’re practically family.”
Mark focused in on Ryan, ignoring Zak and Lark’s banter. “Are you okay with this, Ryan?”
Ryan paused, then shook his head. Raven’s breath caught in his throat. That was it. He was putting a stop to the whole thing right now. But just as he opened his mouth to say something, Mark carefully went down on one knee in front of the boys.
Raven’s heart seized in his chest before it started an erratic double-time.
“What’s up?” Mark asked gently.
Wolf turned his head