Chapter 16 ~ #2
The kettle finally quiets now. Alec reaches into the cupboard and pulls out another cup.
"How about you do our teas and I'll make the guys coffees?" Alec offers with a warm smile. With not much distance between us, I can clearly see the splatter of freckles on his nose, less visible when he's wearing his black glasses.
"Sounds good!"
I use the time to distract myself from the feelings settling under my skin like they belong there.
Alec feels way too familiar to the others but I'm not sure he feels the same.
Other than our too-close-a-moment the other day when he told me about his mum, he hasn't really indicated anything like the guys have.
But maybe that's a good thing. That's one less piece of my heart I'm going to have to give up when this blows up in my face.
Mav told me Alec was on the phone when I questioned where he was. He looks tired.
"Do you think I could steal you away later?" Alec breaks me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah." I drop a tea bag into my cup and his. "What's up?"
He doesn't turn away from the coffee machine when he replies. "I'm starting a new series. I was wondering if you wanted to read it together."
His shoulders are a little tense as he speaks but his voice is casual.
"Yeah, that would be great," I tell him. I shift so that he can't see my smile when he turns around.
I feel him step up behind me. His hand rests on my centre of my back, keeping me still as he reaches around me to get the milk. I suck in a breath when Alec lingers in my space for a moment before stepping back.
He gives me a brilliantly bright smile that I return, feeling almost giddy at the thought of spending some time together. Fuck, I’m in too deep.
It's when he goes to pour the milk into the guys coffees, his attention off me that I can finally breathe again. I realise that when he got the milk, he also put the lavender and honey in front of me. His way of silently telling me to use his mum's recipe.
My heart warms.
When we're done, we each grab a handful of cups and he follows me into the living room.
"You guys suck at being gentlemanly," Alec announces, passing around the guy's drinks.
They're sprawled around the room in different positions, the twins laying on the floor, seeming to be trying to hook something up to…something? Eh, as long as they know what they're doing.
Mason looks up from what he's doing with a frown. "Luc was supposed to do that."
"Luc got told to get his ass in here and unplug shit so you didn't fry it," Luci retorts from where he's squatting behind the TV.
He rises and steps over some cords to take his coffee from me. "Sorry, Butterfly. I was coming back but I got distracted." He kisses my cheek in apology.
"It's okay, Alec helped me." I smile up at Alec who's cheeks go a little pink.
Luc laughs quietly at Alec’s reaction, just loud enough for me to hear.
I hand Alec his tea who thanks me before taking a seat on the couch.
Jace looks up and crooks his finger, silently telling me to come to him.
I drop down beside him, kind of nervous about this morning. We didn't really talk about what this means. He's my best friend and I don't want to lose that after I just got him back.
Jace entangles our fingers, resting our hands on his leg.
"Hey, Ro," he murmurs, resting his forehead on mine.
Any anxiousness in me evaporates.
"Hey," I whisper back, gazing up into his gorgeous grey irises.
He doesn't say anything else, just places a soft kiss on my lips before turning back to watch the guys who seem to have got it working.
"You playing, Angel?" Mase rolls on his back to look at me. His playful smile has me wanting to pounce on him. Those light yet deep blue eyes make me feel all warm and alive inside. Don't even get me started on those delectably hard arm muscles he's using to hold himself up.
A smirk has his lips curling up. Shit, I'm staring.
"Sure." I put my tea down at my feet and catch the controller Mav throws to me.
"I'm out!" Dom announces, dropping down beside me. He slides his arm around my waist and he nuzzles his face in my hair. His short, short, beard rubs against my neck making me ticklish.
"Dom!" I squirm between him and Jace. He chuckles deeply and pulls back. His eyes are like melted dark chocolate oozing warmth and stability.
"Teach me?" I wiggle the controller in my hand—the other occupied by Jace.
"Sure, Sweetheart."
Dom shows me what all the buttons do and helps me pick my avatar. The game has a fun Jumanji vibe to it, except we don’t get sucked into the game, thankfully.
Half an hour later, there's popcorn everywhere from an impromptu popcorn fight, empty coffee mugs stored in various places and I'm half on Dom-half on Jace trying like hell not to fall off the couch.
"Die, die, dickhead, die!" Maverick yells at the TV.
"Quick! Clear a path!" Luc shouts.
My avatar becomes overwhelmed by soldiers. "Alec, take it!" I throw the bejeweled sword to him.
I try and reposition myself using my upper body but it pulls on my ribs…and I'm falling.
"Shit!" I squeak. An arm grabs my waist and gently pulls me back up. Oh, thank god.
"Dom, I can't get through. Catch!"
Jace keeps me pinned against the couch with one arm, the other hand still controlling his avatar.
"Burn in hell, motherfucker!" Dominic roars, catching the sword and slamming it hilt deep into the king.
"YES!" We all yell, whooping and cheering.
Jace drops the controller beside him and pulls me the rest of the way back up onto the couch and away from the ground. Fuck, that would have hurt. I sigh with relief when I look up into grey irises.
"Nice catch," is all I'm able to offer, adrenaline still pumping through my body. Jace just shakes his head, chuckling. Mirth swims through those deep grey pools of emotion.
I reach up and high five Dominic. Dom changed his mind about just teaching and observing when he realised how hard it is to watch but not play the game.
Mason jumps up and starts rolling his hips to the 80's victory music playing. We all start cracking up as he busts out moves that shouldn't be legal.
Maverick crawls away from the TV, abandoning his controller and leans against the couch. Not even thinking about it, I start aimlessly playing with his hair while I watch Mase…I'm not sure you call that dancing but damn is he good at it. What I wouldn’t give for a Magic Mase show.
Maverick leans his head back until I can see his eyes. He's giving me a lazily content smile that tells me to keep going.
I shift in Jace and Dom's laps so I'm a little closer and it's easier to play with Mav's locks.
Mason collapses beside his brother. "I'm hungry!" He whines, pouting at Mav.
"Whatcha makin'?" Maverick retorts, his eyes still closed.
Mase turns his puppy dog eyes to me. "Angel!" He whinges.
"We literally just had lunch an hour ago," I remind him, struggling against the force of those blue pouty eyes.
"Yeah and breakfast was like four hours before that!" Mase groans.
I interrupt Maverick before he starts another feud like at lunch when nobody knew what to cook.
"Do you want to help me start making this cake?"
That gets their attention.
"Ro, it's your birthday," Jace tries to tell me.
"Yeah, you really don't have to," Alec agrees with Jace.
The twins get a disappointed look on their face before it gets covered up.
There's something more to this than just making a cake and I'm betting it has something to do with their mother.
"I don't know if you remember, J but I actually like cooking," I reassure him, smiling. His face relaxes. I remember how I started getting into cooking in the first place.
"My mum taught me how to cook, before she died," I remind him. The room is silent. The twin's look sadder than before, hearing this.
The world spins when I'm sat up and drawn into Jace's arms.
"Don’t cry," he murmurs, holding me tight. "I hate when you cry."
I smile against J's chest. He really does hate it when I cry. When we were kids, he'd start panicking and freak out at the first sight of a tear. His parents thought it was hilarious.
"I'm okay," I tell him. "I have a lot of happy memories with my mum. Don't you remember when I came over and we made cupcakes?"
Jace pulls back, laughing. "Yes! Fuck, that was hilarious."
"Remember when you–"
"Let's not bring that up," Jace cuts me off. His eyes are wide as he shakes his head in remembrance.
"Hmmm, I think you should tell us, Sunshine," Alec says, grinning. The rest voice their agreements. The twin's turn to face us.
Jace slips an arm around my waist when I lean into him.
"Well," I start. "It all started when Mum and I went Jace's for dinner."
Fingers twisting and playing with my hair is moderately distracting while I try to remember the lead up to the incident. I internally shake off the magical feeling of Dom's fingers and focus.
"I don't remember how it came up but J and I decided we wanted to make cupcakes. We were like six and eight at this time, by the way. Our mum's had been drinking which was the only reason they gave us permission to make something without them there," I explain.
Jace's hand sneaks under my shirt and rests on my hip. His thumb rubs soft half moons into the soft skin there.
Fuck, he's distracting.
J takes advantage of my pause and jumps in to take over my story telling.
"So, Mum wrote out a recipe and put everything we needed out on the bench. For the most part we did pretty okay. But…we got a little mixed up on some of them." Jace scratches his head, awkwardly.
My shoulder’s start shaking as I laugh. “We put three whole eggs in!” I manage to get out.
Mase starts laughing. “Including the egg shells?”
I nod and the guys crack up.
“Then there was the vanilla extract and the sugar,” Jace offers helpfully.
“Oh, yeah! We didn’t think the batter was sweet enough so we put in like three tablespoons of vanilla extract and two cups of sugar,” I tell then.
God, why did our mum’s trust us with that?