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His mouth twitched, and his eyes danced with mirth. “Good. I’m not the only one who’s rusty. That’s strike one, little pet.”
Motherf—!
* * *
That evening, I almost felt bad for being so visibly happy, because Noa was anything but. But we had a big plan for dinner, and I knew he was going to love it. We were finally breaking the news about his getting a lizard after our vacation.
“Go have a seat, honey.” I gave Noa a quick squeeze, then reached for the oven mitts.
He scrunched his nose at me. “Did you win the lottery or something?”
I grinned and shook my head. “Nope.”
Poor love, he had so little energy that he merely shrugged and trailed into the dining room.
“Come here, baby. You can sit with Daddy,” I heard KC say.
All right, final touches. The wine, bread, salad, and a Sharpie were already in the dining room. Candles had been lit, flowers had been set at the center… I hauled the asparagus out of the oven; they’d needed a few extra minutes once I’d taken out the fish.
Four plates, four fish, duchess potatoes, roasted asparagus, and last but not least… I squeezed half a lemon over the food, then poured melted butter over the fish. A little less on Master’s plate, but he wouldn’t be able to taste the difference because some secrets were meant to be kept secret.
Oh crap, I’d almost forgotten. He needed to take his ibuprofen and acetaminophen too. The inflammation in his chest—costochondritis or whatever Daddy had called it—was almost gone, and that was because I kept track of his meds.
There, all done. I wiped my forehead and took a deep breath. Everything looked great.
I carried the first two plates in, and I started with Master at the head of the table. Seeing as Daddy was looking through one of the smaller catalogues—the one with wallpaper samples—I left the other plate with Noa.
“This looks amazing, slave,” Master praised me.
“Thank you, Owner.” I dipped down and kissed his cheek.
“Do you see the fishy still has its eyes, freckles?” KC tried to coax some appetite out of Noa.
“Yeah.” Noa sent me a brief smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
Fuck. What if the lizard didn’t work? In the grand scheme of things, what the fuck was a pet compared to the support of one’s mother?
I swallowed nervously and promised I’d be right back.
Maybe we could break the ice with fun anecdotes to make him smile? I was sure Master and Daddy had memories from their Mclean past that would brighten Noa’s mood. I mean, with Master Greer, Reese, and Colt in the same community, how could there not be? And I was sure I could dig up stories about my cousin. Parker was just like Noa. We’d gotten into all sorts of trouble growing up.
I grabbed the last two plates and returned to the dining room, and I sat down across from Noa after giving KC his plate.
“Thank you, pet.” KC smiled and dropped the catalogue on the floor before picking up his knife and fork. “Fuck, I’m starving.” He leaned closer to Noa. “I bet I could eat two horse cocks.”
Noa coughed around a giggle, the sweetest fucking sound, and he shook his head and immediately buried his face against KC’s arm. Aww, he wasn’t ready to laugh yet.
“Sweetheart…” KC kissed the top of Noa’s head. “We’re going to keep trying to make you laugh until all the sadness is gone.”
Okay, good, so we had a plan.
“You’re gonna fail,” Noa whined. “Just let me mope.”
We couldn’t. I mean, he’d have so many moments where memories dragged him down in the future; we just wanted him to get a break. That was all. We didn’t demand he “get over it.”
“Noa?” I cleared my throat. “We would never rush your grief. Okay? We just wanna give you reprieves.”
“That’s right,” Daddy murmured. “You need a break.”
