Page 16 of Anchor Grey
He didn’t wait for me to answer, and I stayed in bed a minute more before I got up and walked out to the living room. The sun was just rising and shone into the living room lighting the whole cabin up. “Wow,” I said to myself before stretching and walking into the kitchen and directly to the coffee maker. It was a pod machine which I was thankful for and made each of us a cup before going back into the bedroom. Johnny was just coming out of the bathroom, so I handed him his and walked past him into the bathroom.
“Thank you,” he called through the door. I hurried through a shower and afterward dressed in joggers and a light sweatshirt since it was still cold. The smell of food being cooked greeted me as I walked back to the kitchen where Johnny stood at the stove. “Good morning.”
“Good morning, what are you cooking?”
“Just toast and eggs,” he said. He looked so happy. In that one moment I realized he needed a break as bad as I did, and I hadn’t noticed. For weeks I’d worried about talking to him about staying here and now I could see how much he needed this time.
“You’ve cooked more in the past twenty-four hours than I’ve seen you cook in the past year, and I am so happy to be here for it.” I kissed his cheek and took out plates just as the toast popped up.
“It’s nice and sort of relaxing in a strange kinda way. How about we eat on the deck?”
It was still cold out, but we bundled up with blankets from a basket in the living room and sat outside. Fall was definitely in the air, and winter wasn’t far behind, but it was so different to how we usually had breakfast. The river seemed quieter than it had yesterday and across it in a grassy area were a few deer grazing on the last remnants of green grass before this was all covered with snow. Or that’s how I imagined it anyway, since I’d never been here before and had no clue how much snow they really got.
I pulled my knee up to my chest and the two of us ate in silence listening to the gentle sounds around us while steam rose off our coffees. A part of me imagined this was our life and we lived here in a little cabin in the middle of nowhere with a river where we could fish. A hot tub and this wonderful deck, what more did we need?
“What are you grinning about?” Johnny asked.
“Just imagining this is where we live.”
“Our little cabin in the woods,” he said and brushed his thumb against my cheek.
“Sounds like a dream.”
“It does. Now, are you ready to lose all your money to me?”
“What do you—oh fuck, Monopoly. Hell, yes, I’m ready. Might as well start early.” I rubbed my hands together in anticipation.
“Today, I become a millionaire,” Johnny said, completely serious. He picked up our plates and walked into the cabin.
“In play money,” I yelled and heard him cackle from inside.
“Doesn’t matter if I haveallthe money.” He walked out carrying the game and opened it up as soon as he set it on the table. “I call the hat,” he said and grabbed it.
“Fine by me, I’m partial to the horse anyway.”
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.”
