Chapter 14
Fourteen
Johnny
Three hours later we were still playing and neither of us was ready to quit.
The weather was great, and the company even better.
Both of us were cutthroat and didn’t give an inch.
I bought Park Place, and he bought Boardwalk without even looking guilty.
Moving around the board was a minefield where you couldn’t avoid having to pay, but you were also being paid.
And so, it went back and forth with neither of us was willing to give up anything.
He owned one whole side of the board, and he hoarded over it like a dragon counting his stacks of money and grinning like the cat that got the cream. “Just waiting to collect some rent from you,” he said and smirked at me.
“I’ve got plenty left. In fact, I’m going to add a few hotels to my little group of properties,” I said, and added one to each property.
Sure, it was expensive, but the look on his face made it worth the cost. Devon squinted his eyes as he surveyed the board and tried to come up with a strategy that would make it tougher for me to win. Which I hoped I had just done.
“Brutal. Since you blew most of your wad of dough, it looks like I just need to sit back and wait for you to land on one of my high rent properties.” He folded his arms and leaned back in his chair.
I loved that we could both be competitive and a little dirty when playing but neither of us took it personally we just upped our game and hoped it gave us an advantage.
“You could be right, but I guess that remains to be seen.” We kept playing and finally took a break to eat after about five hours. But neither of us were ready to quit so we kept playing. I had the blanket draped around my shoulders when I noticed Devon staring at me. “What?”
“You look so serious, like a big ol’ dragon guarding his gold. Or possibly Scrooge.”
I snapped my fingers in his direction, and he took hold of my hand. “Concentrate, we’re almost done.”
“Well, we could finish now, or at least take a break,” he said and held my hand between his. “We could go for a little walk along the river. The game will still be here when we get back.”
We covered it up with one of the blankets and made our way down the same path as yesterday, only this time we continued along the river.
It was strange how taking a walk here was so easy but at home we never made time for it or even considered it.
But the more time we spent outside, the more I wanted to.
“I’ll miss this when we go back,” I said and took a deep breath.
“Me too, and I’ll miss spending so much time alone with you. And of course I’ll miss kicking your ass at Monopoly.”
I stopped walking and tugged him back with his hand. “Let’s go finish it,” I said and tried to sound menacing. But the amused look he gave me told me it hadn’t worked.
“In a hurry to lose?” he asked.
“Are you?”
“Not really,” he finally said and both of us chuckled before continuing along the trail. “I’m happy walking with my boyfriend.”
“Why don’t we go get supplies tomorrow. We could have breakfast at that little restaurant I noticed at the store and buy some groceries.
Then we can stay here by ourselves until Mateo and Jeremy get here.
” I hoped he liked that idea because every time I thought about having to share him, my mind immediately went to ways to avoid that.
“I love that idea. We could start a list today and maybe plan a few meals.”
“What else do you know how to cook?”
I shrugged and kicked a rock before answering. “If there’s a video showing how to cook it, I can probably cook it.”
“Sounds like a challenge,” Devon said, and walked a few more steps. “Can you make lasagna?”
“Psh, it’s easy.”
“Fried rice?”
“I haven’t made it before, but I could.”
“Beef stew?”
“Easy. I could even make biscuits to go with it. As long as you don’t mind the ones that come in a tube.”
“Isn’t that cheating?” Devon asked.
“Not if it tastes good,” I said and slung my arm around his shoulders. “You name something and I’ll try to cook it as long as we can get what we need at the store.”
“Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup? I haven’t had that since I was a kid.”
“We can definitely do that. Let’s head back now and finish our game. I have a feeling I’m about to be a lot richer.”
“Is that the feeling you’re getting? Funny but my itchy palm tells me I have money coming my way.”
“Your itchy what?” We stopped and he held his hand out for me to look at it.
“It’s one of those weird things they say.”
“Who says?” I asked, and squeezed his hand as we walked back to the cabin, more than happy to lose to him.
“I have no clue,” he said, finally relenting.