The smile pulled into a flash of a grin as he shook his head. "It's not like you'd wake anyone here; we're dead." Something Matt and Alexander had joked about many times over the years.

His smile traded curves with his eyebrows as they rose. Favors that earned this kind of reaction? It must have been big.

And it was.

Matt's face slipped into a wary curiousness, dark eyes searching hers as a few long steps closed the distance between them.

"How do you know they granted it?" He eyed the note. "May I?"