“Wow,” I whispered, “This is all my favorite breakfast food.”
“It’s pretty much all the breakfast food in existence,” he joked.
“That’s why I love it,” I teased back.
He smirked and reached for one of the extra plates beneath the cinnamon roll. We each piled food on our own and began eating, making sounds of approval and delight as we chewed.
He wasn’t the least bit embarras
sed to moan over the first bite of roll as he smacked his lips. “Fuck. This is amazing.”
“It is,” I agreed, savoring each delicious forkful until every crumb was gone. I even swiped my finger across the plate to catch the last drop of icing.
“Snooki is gonna be happy when I tell her how much you enjoyed that. Might fatten you up after all.”
Rolling my eyes, I gave him the finger. “Whatever. Patriot put you two up to that?”
Shadow shrugged but he couldn’t hide the guilt in his eyes.
“I know he’s worried about me but I eat. He needs to relax.”
Shadow let out a chuckle. “Have you met the Royal Bastards? These guys never relax.”
A giggle escaped and I startled, still surprised when I smiled or laughed. Didn’t happen often but this prospect sure seemed to be able to help me with that.
“It’s okay, you know.”
“What is?”
“To find a little happiness.”
Struck by his words, I blinked back sudden tears. “Maybe.”
He cleared his throat. “I should take my own advice, huh?”
“I think we both have reasons that make it hard to smile.”
“Yeah.”
Shadow stacked the dishes and then picked up the tray. “I’ll be back. Gonna drop this off and grab a coffee. Want anything else?”
I shook my head.
Once he was seated at the table again, I skipped the deck of cards that we used often and went for the tin that had double fifteen dominoes that were colored. Once all the pieces were on the table, we flipped them over then shuffled them around until they were mixed up enough.
“Draw your twelve.”
He began swiping dominoes in his direction and then stacked them on the sides, staring intently as he focused.
I was already starting my train. The double blank was in the center and I started lining mine up starting with the blank first, using six of the dominoes before I was stuck and couldn’t continue. I moved the draw pile aside as we weren’t using those yet. For the rest of mine, I lined them up, facing my direction so they were easy to see for my turn.
“How the fuck do you have so many already?” he asked, lining up three of his own dominoes for his train. “I swear you’re the luckiest person I know when it comes to games.”
“So not true,” I contradicted.
“Looks that way to me. Maybe it’s because we’re both sober.”
Shaking my head, another giggle escaped. “You’re crazy.”