Page 60 of To Spark a Dragon's Love
“Did you do all this?” I asked, mostly to myself, as I poured a cup of coffee from the pot.
Dragon hearing had everyone responding.
“Yes,” Malachy smiled at me.
“Don’t let him impress you. The pancakes are from a box.” Kieran stepped around me and poured himself a cup of the dark roast.
“Yeah and it doesn’t take a genius to know how to cook sausage,” Lucan teased good-naturedly. Riley elbowed him in the chest.
He grinned at her as he loaded more bacon onto her plate.
I dropped my gaze to the breakfast laid out. Bacon, ham, sausage, potatoes, eggs, fruit. All this food in one place was crazy. I’d gotten used to fancy dinners at Kieran’s house once a week, but it still felt like we were being spoiled rotten. It’d been years since we’d eaten this good.
I wasn’t complaining—not when my baby girl had a full belly every day—but there were other babies out there too. And my heart ached for them when I thought about how much worse this world was going to get.
I stared at the window, letting the view of the woods outside soothe my racing thoughts.One day at a time.We were safe now according to Malachy. I’d find a way to help others too since I wasn’t drowning anymore, but I’d have to save the world after breakfast.
“Come here, Harp. Let’s let Malachy finish cooking. What else do you want to eat besides pancakes?”
“But he said I could flip the next one.” Harper pouted.
I gripped the plate and forced myself to look at Malachy again. It wasn’t fair how handsome he was. There was a needy, biological pull I felt just thinking of the places that beautiful mouth of his was last night.
“Fix your plate and sit down to eat.” Malachy’s lip quirked as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, causing my cheeks to flush. “We’ll join you in a minute. Harper’s going to help me in here.”
“Are you sure?” I turned the plate over in my hands, not feeling sure myself. She could get underfoot, burn herself on the stove.
“Do you want me to fix your plate for you?” Malachy arched a brow.
“I can do it, Mommy.” Harper took the stool she was dragging over to the stove and started my way.
“No thank you.” I whisked my plate down the serving line. “Go flip your pancakes.”
Malachy chuckled a little as he redirected Harper with the spatula and the sound seemed to echo in the kitchen now that everyone else had gone to the dining room.
I stole glances at Malachy and Harper as I loaded my plate, trying to convince myself that this was fine. I just needed to get used to the sight of her spending time like this with someone else. It was hard to imagine a future where Sam was alive and they were flipping pancakes together. Not that Malachy was her father or anything… It just…Ugh.
My stupid heart.
A pancake splattered to the ground and Harper gasped.
I was moving before I thought it through. “Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up.”
I froze in my tracks when Malachy leveled me with a cold stare, pointing toward the dining room with his spatula like a king with his scepter. “You go eat before I handfeed you again.”
Harper’s belly giggles followed me as I turned on my heel and headed to the table where Ember and Riley were already eating with their mates.
I must’ve been in shock from being ordered out of the kitchen. I sat slowly and picked up a piece of sausage, staring at it as I mumbled, “What is happening?”
“It’s the breakfast meat.” Riley touched my arm, smiling with a knowing smile. “Really throws you for a loop, huh?”
“Huh?” I parroted. I didn’t have enough caffeine in me yet to make sense of this all.
“She means their obsession with feeding us,” Ember said.
“We do like to make sure our mates are properly sated,” Kieran agreed.
Ember rolled her eyes playfully. “Honestly, I’m surprised that it took his long before Malachy started stuffing your face.”
