Page 41 of Shrouded in the Dark
“Don’t you dare!! Rosemary does not go in cream of rice! Out! All of you! Out of my kitchen!”
“But Axel is a really good cook.” Cody was rubbing his ears with a distressed look on his face. Jasper had a similar face.
“I make my cream of rice sweet. Not savory.” Cody stared at me as his eyes widened, making him look like a puppy again. “Oh, fine! How about we meet in the middle? I’ll not season it, we leave it plain and we put whatever we want in our own bowls.” They all nodded as I looked around at them.
I narrowed my eyes at Axel as I pointed my finger at him. “You’re going to pay for that, just be warned.”
His white teeth flashed against his dark skin. “I look forward to it, small woman.”
“Ugh.” I couldn’t keep up the façade as I shook my head smiling. “Out of the kitchen. If you want to help, you guys take your things to the two other bedrooms. The master bedroom has one bed, the twins have a bunk bed. Seth and Axel, you guys might be more comfortable in the master bedroom because of, uh, well, how large you guys are.”
“Yeah, they definitely are large,” Cody snarked as he jumped from the bar stool to grab his bags. He dodged a head smack from Jasper, which just led to a mini wrestling match between the two.
Seth sighed but looked over at the two fondly. “Cody just likes to make jokes.” He turned his attention to me. “We’ll put our bags in the rooms and come out to have breakfast with you before we unload the groceries. There’s nothing that won’t keep for a bit.” He jerked his head at Jasper to go with him before leaving the kitchen.
A large hand rested on my shoulder as Axel came to stand next to me. “I didn’t really upset you with that, did I?”
I had to remind myself that this was the guy that Felicity liked but still had to talk with. Therefore, he was off limits to kisses on the cheek or big hugs. Instead, I patted his hand, squeezing it gently.
“No, in fact, it was the first time it’s ever happened to me. It was kinda fun.”
He flashed his pearly whites again before following the others. I could hear them talking, or arguing, couldn’t really tell from here, before the bedroom doors opened. It was a good thing I’d aired out the other rooms within the first few days.
The rice was ready at that point. The pot was moved to the side so that it could start to cool off slightly before it was served. The cinnamon and brown sugar I wanted were already on the countertop, but for the guys, I pulled out other spices, herbs, and even hot sauce, in case they wanted savory. Just thinking about cream of rice as savory made me gag a little. This is probably one of the reasons I was a big girl. Sweets were my weakness.
The bowls were spread around the island with spoons next to them. I put down the mix-ins, along with napkins. I was just contemplating what drinks to put out when the four came back into the living room. Someone’s stomach growled loudly, and for once, it wasn’t mine.
“I call dibs sitting next to Becca!” Cody rushed forward. “Can I help with anything?”
“Actually, if you could grab the pot with the hotplate holders next to it? If you’ll put it in the middle of the island, that would be great.” I glanced at the other three as they settled around the island. They’d grabbed two of the chairs from the deck to set next to them. “What do you guys want to drink? I have orange juice, milk, or bottled water.” I bit my lower lip to not giggle at the huge height difference the chairs made as Seth and Axel sat in them.
“Water,” they said it all at once, including Cody.
“Ookkayy. Water it is.” They were so weird and I really liked them for it.
Cody placed the pot onto the island. I wasn’t worried about it being too hot for it, the marble was able to withstand high temperatures. He’d even grabbed the big spoon for serving. I placed five bottles of water next to the mix-ins, making sure to take one for myself. I settled next to Jasper as Cody sat on my other side. We were all on one side but it was only a little crowded, it felt like home.
“Ok, time to eat! I’m starved!” Jasper grabbed the serving ladle and started to dole out the rice to everyone. He gave another wink at me as he topped my bowl up. “Thanks for breakfast, lovie.”
Bumping our shoulders together, we all began grabbing the mix-ins. Mine was ready before the others. I watched curiously at their choices. Axel did the rosemary, cinnamon, and granola. No judgement (lies, I was judging). Seth grabbed the regular sugar with butter. Jasper added a little salt, the brown sugar, and just a bit of butter. Cody was the one we all stared at with horror.
He put hot sauce, sugar, butter, and garlic powder. When had I put garlic powder with the other stuff? I must have just grabbed it with everything else and just didn’t notice. He mixed it all together as he hummed under his breath before taking a taste. His face screwed up in concentration before he grabbed more garlic. The next taste seemed to be what he was looking for because he put the mix-ins back in the middle of the island. He finally noticed we were all looking at him.
“What? It has to be just right.” He took a large spoonful, and gave an exaggerated moan. “So good.”
“No one is going to kiss you when you have that on your breath,” Axel rumbled from the far side as we went back to our bowls.
“You wound me, Axel! I am a great kisser! As you well know.”
Anndd I choked on my food. The spoon clanged as it hit the surface. I had to hit my chest, coughing for several seconds. Jasper grabbed my water to open it. I took it sipping the water as I got over swallowing my food wrong like an idiot.
“Sorry.” I had to clear my throat a few times before I stopped sounding like a strangled frog. “That just caught me off guard, is all.” I smiled my thanks up at Jasper, whose eyes were furrowed in concern. “I’m good!”
I looked to my left at Cody, whose ear tips were bright red as he focused on his food. He avoided my questioning look. He just continued to stuff his food into his mouth, which made his cheeks start to puff out like chipmunks when they stuff theirs with nuts.
Since he wasn’t looking at me, my camera took a picture with a click-snick sound. Cody finally looked over at me with his cheeks near bursting, he wasn’t even swallowing, just stuffing. I had to draw this. I took another picture before he swallowed. It looked painful, but as soon as he was done, he tried to grab my phone.
“Oh no! These were perfect! You wanted me to draw you!” I leaned over in the stool away from his reaching hands. “Don’t you dare!”
