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“Get the cart,” he told Keene as he passed him, only to turn to me with a smile. “So what’s your take on cereals? If there’s not a cartoon character on the front of the box, it’s not worth the effort, am I right?”
“Dude,” Keene muttered, appearing on the other side of me and pushing the cart. “If you try to have the conversation with her about who’d win in a smackdown—Cap’n Crunch, Toucan Sam, Lucky the Leprechaun, or Tony the Tiger—I’m disowning you. End of story.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” I spoke up as we rounded a corner. “Cap’n Crunch.”
“What?” both guys shouted in utter dismay and lurched a foot away as if I were contagious.
“How in the hell could you even suggest that?” Keene demanded. “Tony has, like, biceps. And he’s a fuckingtiger.”
“And Sam has a foot-long beak,” Alec contended, miming one from the end of his nose. “All he’d have to do is peck the other guys’ eyes out, and boom, game over.”
“But Cap’n Crunch is a captain,” I argued. “You don’t just get that rank without having some serious war strategies under your belt.”
Both guys blinked at me before Alec scratched his chin. “Huh. You know, she proves a good point.”
Keene only snorted and folded his arms over his chest, remaining loyal to his tiger. “Still. The guy’s gotta be—what—two feet tall. No way in hell is he taking down Tony.”
Laughing over their enthusiasm, I glanced around for Damien.
When I found him on the other side of Keene, dropping a jumbo pack of paper towels and disposable plates into the cart, he shook his head at me and mouthed, “I am so sorry.”
I just smiled because I was enjoying myself. Then I turned back to the guys on either side of me. “Of course, we’re all probably totally underestimating the Leprechaun,” I said. “I mean, he has magic powers.”
“True,” Keene and Alec cooed together, enlightened by the idea.
As we passed a shelf with candy on it, I saw a bag of sour gummy worms, so I snagged it and tossed it into the cart as well. This caught Alec and Keene’s attention, and they immediately swarmed, grabbing some worms for themselves along with Twizzlers, Kit-Kats, Honey Buns, Nutter Butters, and more.
As they filled their arms, I wandered over to Damien’s side and glanced up at him. “So… Our plans just got derailed, huh?”
“I can’t apologize enough,” he started.
“Don’t even try,” I assured, taking his forearm and squeezing, only to shudder over all the warm, toned flesh under my fingers. “It’s fine. I’m having fun. Your roommates are—”
He snickered and finished with, “Cute?”
When we laughed together, Alec and Keene glanced over.
They gaped as they dumped their loot into the cart, only for Keene to blindly reach over and poke Alec’s arm. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
“I…I…” Alec shook his head. “I think so, but damn… She made him laugh.” Finally, the boys glanced at each other. “I didn’t know hecouldlaugh.”
“For real.”
“Ha-ha,” Damien muttered straight-faced and flipped up his middle fingers, one for each of them. “You two are hilarious.”
“So we were thinking of making spaghetti for supper,” Keene spoke up, smoothly ignoring Damien’s gesture.
Damien snorted. “With what ingredients? Twizzlers and Mt. Dew?”
“Now that’s my kind of spaghetti,” Alec declared proudly, thumping his fist to his chest with sincerity.
“Okay, so we’re going to order apizza,” Keene corrected, keeping his eyes on me as if he hadn’t heard the other two. “Want to come over and eat with us?”
“Uh…” My gaze immediately shot to Damien, wondering how he felt about this. I definitely didn’t want to go if he didn’t want me there, but…
He lifted his brows curiously, awaiting my answer, and I lugged out a breath before nodding. “Okay, yeah,” I said. “I eat pizza.”
Both Alec and Keene cheered, “Right on!” They high-fived each other as if their team had just won the big championship, while I glanced up at Damien to discover the whiskey hue in his eyes had heated enough to make me dizzy-headed.
