“Just the four of you?” Theo checked over his shoulder. “I expected you’d bring the whole squad since we have to pay.”
Apollo shook his head. “You clearly don’t know us very well, rookie. We aren’t those kinda guys.”
Ares patted his stomach. “But we’d never miss an opportunity to eat atGuac ‘n Roll.”
Austin cleared his throat. “Since your mom owns the place I figured you would eat here daily.”
Artemis’s cheek twitched. “Google?”
Austin nodded. “Something was bothering me at the back of my brain.”
Theo pointed to the brothers. “So you made a wager where you wouldn’t lose regardless?”
Ares grinned, throwing an easy shrug. “I like to think of it as playing to our strengths.”
Enzo covered his mouth with his fist and coughed “Cheating” into his hand.
Claudia stood at the head of the table smacking a pen off a notebook. “Alright pendejos, what’ll it be?”
Linc pointed at Claudia. “Hey, I know what that means. My girlfriend says it to me on the regular.”
She flashed a bright smile in reply. “It’s said with nothing but affection.”
“Depends on the day,” Apollo muttered not quite under his breath.
“Don’t make me throw my pen at you, Pollo.”
Apollo groaned. “You know I hate it when you call me chicken.”
She shrugged. “What can I get you all from the kitchen?”
Apollo opened his mouth to speak but she wagged her finger. “Guests first.”
Puffing out his chest, Theo beamed. “We’re guests.”
Apollo rolled his eyes but stayed quiet as the Snow Pirates ordered.
The amount of food they ended up with was probably double what they had eaten the night before. Post-game appetite was not a myth. And when they weren’t all making sexual noises at how delicious everything tasted, Austin was pleased to see the Snow Pirates thawing a little to the Raccoons.
Justin and Linc were deep in conversation over nachos, Ares seemed to be flirting with a flustered Séb over burritos, and Apollo and Enzo went toe-to-toe, hockey smack talking over tacos.
“You look like a proud papa bear.” Mackenzie took a long slurp from the bottom of her margarita glass.
He smiled. “You know I enjoy growth. I am not sure Lincoln could have gotten over his bruised ego to have a discussion with Justin a couple of years ago.”
She snorted. “And we both know Russ definitely couldn’t have tempered his bad attitude.”
“It is definitely nice to see.”
“It’s nice to see the effect their women have on them, you mean.” She smirked, but he could not argue.
A chair scraped across the tiled floor as Justin pushed back from the table to go to the restroom. Austin took the opportunity to hit up Claudia at the register to pay the bill, while the others finished eating and chatting.
As much as he wanted Theo to learn a valuable lesson, there was no way on earth the rookie could afford to pay for the sheer volume of food their party had eaten. This one was on Austin.
Out of sight of their table, Justin stood chatting to Claudia, credit card outstretched as she pulled a receipt from the till.
“Here you go.” Without looking at the total, Justin handed over his card.
