“Do you like pancakes?”
“I like the food you make.”
I smiled slightly.
“That’s an evasive answer to a yes or no question.”
He swallowed and flashed his teeth at me.
“You are smart like Adam said.”
“And you’re still avoiding. Did you eat those pancakes so Brog wouldn’t?”
The ends of Tor’s ears turned a deep grey.
“Yes.”
I leaned in, taking his plate, and kissed his cheek.
“You’re a good friend to Adam, Tor. Thank you.”
He stayed at the island and watched me wash the dishes. The intensity of his gaze had me wondering if I’d crossed some sort of boundary. He didn’t seem mad, though.
“I’m going to go check on Adam,” I said when I finished.
Tor grunted and stayed behind as I made my way upstairs. Adam wasn’t sleeping when I walked into the room. But he wasn’t really with it either.
“Want more snow bags?”
“Please.”
“I’ll ask Tor to get some.”
“Thanks, babe.”
“I will get the snow,” Tor called from downstairs. “Stay with your Adam.”
Adam grunted a laugh.
“He’s really hung up on guys calling dibs on girls,” he said.
“No kidding. He ate the rest of the pancakes so Brog couldn’t eat any. You should have seen Tor’s face when I kissed his cheek to thank him for being so helpful.”
Adam focused on me.
“You probably made his life. I would have died and gone to heaven if you’d kissed me after three days.”
“It would have inflated your ego. That was the last thing you needed back then.”
The smile he gave me was short-lived.
“I want to move today.”
“What? No. You can’t even walk to the bathroom, Adam.”
He looked away from me for a minute.
“That’s exactly why I want to move. We’re trapped here just like we were trapped in the bunker. But you don’t need to be. There are good people out there, June. People you can count on. Fey like Tor, who will keep you safe when the next batch of infected or a hellhound shows up. The people here have already shown us what they’ll do to ensure they survive.”