Page 78 of A Pawn in the Game
“All of them.”Cough.“They’re all vegan.”
“What will you eat, then?”
A chuckle escapes me. “I’m pretty sure there’s enough here for both of us.” I notice the way Hades and Alan stare at thecontainers and add, “For all four of us. And you can teach me about the food you like.”
Her grin is blinding, her excitement palpable, as I open the containers. Sheoohsandaahsand seeing her like this is like a splash of color to my cold, dark heart.
“Here, try this.” She drops to the floor, kneeling and shoves a taco in my hand before grabbing another.
Holding it with both hands, she leans forward and takes a bite out of it, her lips smiling while she chews. She looks adorable.
I do the same and groan at the taste exploding in my mouth. I was raised on Croatian food, meaning most of my meals have meat or seafood as the stars of the dish. But this taco is filled with black beans, instead of meat, and tastes fucking delicious.
“Good?” she asks.
My mouth still full, I simply nod. My response makes her smile even wider. She introduces me to four types of appetizers and three types of salads, all of them delectable, and I scarf them all down. Hades and Alan scrounge up their fair share of the food, too. By the time we get to the dessert, I’m so full I could burst, but I make sure I eat the strawberry tart she hands me.
“I don’t think I can eat anymore,” Sophie groans.
“Thank fuck. I think I’m going to be sick.”
Her laughter echoes on the hollow walls of my apartment, filling it with something that hasn’t really been around much. Joy.
I grab two waters from the fridge, and she settles back onto the sectional, placing her legs beneath herself.
Hades and Alan curl up beside her and a part of me thinks I’m dreaming. The image is like the opposite of a déjà vu. It’s not that I’m seeing something that already happened. No, it feels like I’m looking into the future.
And there, in the future, she scratches Alan’s neck and Hades’ belly, and I’m flooded with a sense of calm, so unlike the restlessness I’m feeling right now. She glances at me, and I see something dangerous in her eyes. Love.
She deserves more. More than to stare at me with love and adoration while I can’t promise her anything.
CHAPTER 38
Sophie
Luka took care of Alan. From day one. When he hated me and blamed me for his father’s death. He still took care of my dog. With all the love in the world, if Alan’s reaction is to be believed. My eyes prickle with tears as my heart expands. If I hadn’t already realized he was a good man, this would’ve convinced me.
He looks out of it, stuck in his mind. I clear my throat to jolt him back to reality, and he sits next to us. His mind is a mystery to me, but being lost in thought makes sense. This situation is downright absurd. I wish he’d slide closer, but I know it must be hard for him.
And I can’t blame him. For fifteen years, I’d wished for my dad to have put his family first, to have protected us. I can hardly blame Luka for trying to do exactly that.
He blinks a few times, as if clearing his vision, before saying, “Would you like to watch something?” He clicks a button on a remote I just noticed and a large screen lifts from the fireplace mantel. The place is ridiculous. It’s expensive and luxurious, but it’s still him. It’s so unlike anything my place is, but I still feel contentment here. It’s he who makes it comfortable.
I turn back to the TV, realizing I haven’t watched it in what feels like years. I’m not much of a TV person, but I do like watching documentaries from time to time.
“Do I get to choose?”
He hands me the remote, and excitement bubbles out of me. It’s funny how things you used to take for granted give you butterflies once that you lived without them for so long.
I scroll Netflix for a few minutes before settling on a newish documentary about the human body.
“You like to watch documentaries?” he asks, and I realize it’s possibly the last thing he wants to watch. His phone buzzes but he takes one look at it before turning the call down.
“Yes. But I can choose something we’d both like.”
“No. I want to see what this is about.” He smirks. I know he’s watching this just for me, but my brain was devoid of any outside stimuli for too long for me to care.
He spends half the documentary staring at me, but, full disclosure, I have been talking more than the narrator. The documentary mentions the largest organ of the human body and I can’t help but share, “Did you know that the entire surface of your skin changes every month? It means that we change about a thousand skins in our lives.”
