Page 25 of Eye of the Hurricane
So I do, I grab her hand and interlock our fingers. Our hands fit together like puzzle pieces.
She drags me from game to game, picking which ones for us to play. She tells me again and again that she’s never played this game before and after a while it stops surprising me.
Between every game that we play, she quickly finds my hand to drag me to the next. At first, she was timid about it and I could see her waiting for me to take her hand. Now she runs right over to me and wraps her hand in mine.
After hours and hours of arcade games and what seems to be a gazillion tickets, she’s finally ready to leave. Not that I’m complaining about being there. I got to spend the night watching her jump up and down when she won and give me the most adorable pouty face when she lost.
“Can we go home? My feet are killing me.”
“You have to cash in all the tickets first, honey.” She sticks her lip out like I’ve just given her the worst news in the world. “Cash in the tickets and I’ll carry you to the car,” I assure her.
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously,” I agree. There is no wiping the smile off of her face.
We spend longer than I thought any adult could at thearcade counter while she picks what to use her tickets for. Of course, she goes with the stuffed duck and a shit ton of candy.
She walks over to me with her prizes in hand, showing them off like a proud mother.
“You ready?” I ask
“Yep. Take me home.”
Because I’m a man of my word, I scoop her up off the ground, prizes and all. She gives a squeal when her feet leave the ground.
Chapter 8
Ares
There’snothing quite like waking up to a pillow being launched at your head. I snap my eyes open and, to no one’s surprise find, that Ravyn is the culprit.
“Audi said to wake your ass up. Her house, her rules,” she says with a shrug of her shoulders. I huff a dry laugh.
“Oh, she’s been waiting her whole life to hit us with that one,” I laugh.
“Who are you telling? She gave me chores yesterday for spending two nights in a row here.” Ravyn shakes her head.
It’s been a couple weeks of Roman and Audra having their own house. As everyone expected, Ravyn and I have spent an obnoxious amount of time there.
Obnoxious to Roman and Audra, not to us. We’re just having fun and unlimited sleepovers.
I drag myself up off the bed I made on the floor of one of the guest rooms and head out to the kitchen where Audra has made breakfast. It’s clear as day that it’s something she picked up from my mom and wanted to make a part of her own home.
As long as I can remember, my mom cooked breakfast for everyone anytime someone slept over. This exact breakfast, in fact.
Audra, Roman, Ravyn, and I all sit down at the kitchen table and dig into the breakfast that Audi made.
“Family dinner tonight, you’ll both be here?” Audi asks. I witnessed first-hand the toll it took on Audra not having a close family growing up. So if she asks me to be at a family dinner, I’ll be there.
Obviously, Roman and I are family regardless because we’re brothers. But I know that Ravyn and I are Audi’s family. Every time her mom wasn’t there, we were. So were my parents.
“Every Sunday,” I assure her.
“Beck is bringing his friend, Sebastian,” Roman says. Ravyn gives a dramatic groan.
“Am I a joke to you all?” she asks, looking Roman dead in his eyes.
“If you’re worried about being outnumbered why don’t you find a girl to bring, hm?” he teases. She narrows her eyes at him across the table.
