AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re Reign? The Reign?” She smiles wide and yanks her into a hug. “Theo told me so much about you. Anyone who looked after my kid like that is good with me.” She glances at Astro nervously as he steps inside, no doubt hearing her and worrying as well. “You did good, brother. Come on, Reign, sit with me and tell me everything, and let me spill all of Astro’s dirty secrets.”
Gaping in shock, we all watch as a giggling Reign and Cherry head outside to sit and talk. Even Gloria is covering her mouth. “That does it. She’s a miracle, that one. It’s definitely meant to be.” She nods before rushing upstairs. I’m still staring when she comes back down, thrusting a box at Astro. “Here, take your grandmother’s ring. If you don’t marry that one, you are a fool.”
“I plan to,” Astro replies but then hesitates. “But what if she says no?”
“Boy, that woman is crazy about you. Don’t let that darkness win, not this time.” She cups his face. “You look it right in the face and tell it to fuck off. It doesn’t get to ruin your happiness or your future.”
The smile he gives is wobbly. “I’ll wait. She will run the other way if I ask now, but I promise I will, Ma. I know she’s the one.” His smile is blinding. “She hates mushrooms.”
His mother whoops. “I knew it.”
“Sorry, what?” I ask.
Chuckling, Gloria heads my way and kisses my head. “I’ve always told him about the mushroom law. I hate them, but your father loves them, and that’s why we get on so well. Balance. Astro loves them.”
“And she hates them.” I grin. “I love them too.”
“See?” She points at me. “Perfect.”
It’s only when she wanders away to finish the cookies that I realize what I said.
I admitted I’m in love with Reign in a roundabout way.
Fuck.
Gloria doesn’t seem to care, though, and when Cherry and Reign come back in, she grins at us all. Cherry grabs her stuff and waves goodbye, while Reign gets back to making cookies.
“I hate mushrooms,” Dal says. I jump in shock. I didn’t even hear him come in. “Does that mean we aren’t right for one another?”
I glance over at him and grin. “Nah, you’ve always been one to break rules and so has she. I don’t think the rules apply to you two.”
He nods, his gaze going back to her. “You’re right, she revolts against any rules.”
“That she does, our little anarchist.”
* * *
RAFFIEL
The cookies are terrible.
They are burnt around the edges and somehow underbaked in the middle. One bite and I want to throw up, but the pride and hope in my girl’s eyes has me swallowing.
“Are they okay?” she asks nervously, twisting the tea towel she holds.
“They are amazing,” I tell her, swallowing hard again. There is no fucking way I will let my girl be upset over some fucking cookies. The fact that she made them for us at all makes me want to roar from the rooftop.
I turn back to the guys sitting around the table.
I narrow my gaze on every single one of them, warning them not to say a word. “Eat every single one,” I say when she looks away. When she comes back with more, I want to groan, but I shovel the cookies in with a big smile as Gloria and Reign watch, open-mouthed.
All four of us look like pigs, shoveling cookies in.
“Oh, can I try one before they are all gone?” Reign goes for one but I reach out, gripping it and shoving it in my mouth.
“Sorry,” I mumble around the bite.
I can see Gloria giggling as Reign just stares at us. “Um, maybe I should make more?”
