Page 29 of What Is Love
Mac returned with a tray with plates of food on it. She began setting those plates in front of everyone. When she was finished, she walked off to tend to another table. It appeared everyone had gotten a burger and fries, including me. It already smelled likefood in the bar. With it right in front of me, the smell was a hell of a lot stronger.
Earlier, the thought and smell of food had nauseated me. Now it made me very aware that I was hungry. The burger and fries in front of me looked delicious. The burger had two patties with greasy melted cheese on them, along with lettuce, tomato, onion, and some sort of sauce.
“Is bar food beneath you?” Reid asked before taking a bite of his burger. His was slightly different from mine. It had onion rings and a brown condiment I assumed was BBQ sauce.
“Reid,” Roe said with a tone.
“She’s the one staring at it like she’s looking for poison,” Reid grumbled.
Roe stared across the table at me, expectant. I could feel all of them staring.
Just one bite won’t hurt.
I picked up a fry. It was golden, crispy, and salted. I had never had fries before. At least, I didn’t have any memory of ever having fries before. I’d had potatoes before, but not cooked like this. All hell would break loose if anything fried came anywhere near our house. I hadn’t had a burger before, either. Although I’d had half of a patty melt once. Prue had been eating one for lunch and given me half of it. Mother had been away on a trip and Prue had made me promise to keep it a secret. It had been one of the best things I’d ever eaten.
Just one bite.
I took a small bite of the fry. As I chewed, it took everything not to embarrass myself by reacting. It was good. A haze or snap of control must have happened, because I shoved the rest of that fry in my mouth and picked up the burger. I barely got the fry down before I bit into it. When the melted cheese, meat, and sauce spread over my tongue, I moaned. A little bit of the sauce had leaked out of the burger when I’d taken a bite andwas rolling down from the corner of my mouth. I quickly caught it with the tip of my finger and brought that to my lips to suck clean.
The lack of talking from the guys around me snapped me back to reality and I regained control of myself. I put my hand in front of my mouth before glancing around the table. They were watching me, unblinking.
Feeling mortified and like I’d messed up, I quickly finished chewing and wiped my mouth with a napkin Mac had delivered with our food. “Sorry.”
Roe frowned. “Why are you apologizing?”
I stared down at my delicious burger, debating what to say. “I guess I’m hungry.”
Wyatt pushed his plate toward me. “I’ll let you eat my burger, too, if you continue moaning.”
Even though I was embarrassed, I still found what he said funny.
“You’re smiling,” Roe said, making me realize.
I stared across the table at him. He was watching me while eating a fry with anI told you soglint in his stormy blue eyes.
“Is there something wrong with her smiling?” Reid asked.
Roe looked down at his plate and picked up his burger. “No.” Just before he took a bite, he nodded at my own burger. “Keep eating. When we’re done, we’ll teach you how to play pool.”
Knowing how delicious it was obliterated my ability to hold back. I took another bite. Then another. I kept lying to myself that each next bite would be my last until I nearly finished the whole thing.
I learned very quicklythat playing pool wasn’t the best idea. It hurt to lean, bend, and stretch my arms to hold the cue stick in position. Clearly I hadn’t thought things through when I’d agreed to come. Still, I could deal with the pain while Roe showed me how to hold the stick to strike the cue ball and during my first strike on my own.
Roe and I were on the same team against Wyatt and Reid. I enjoyed watching them interact. They bantered back and forth with such ease. I learned that they had been friends since they had been in diapers. Wyatt was the same age as Roe and me. Reid was a year older.
When it was my turn again, I went to get into position to line up my stick and winced.
“You all right?” Roe asked.
I straightened and checked the button at my collar to make sure it was still fastened. It was almost undone. I quickly fixed it. “Yes. I hurt my collarbone yesterday.”
“After we saw you?” Wyatt asked as he spun his cue stick between his hands. “How’d that happen?”
“She dropped a box on it,” Roe said, reminding me that he had overheard Brandon and me.
I looked down at the pool table. “Yeah.”
“How do you drop a box on your collarbone?” Reid asked.
