"Me," he replied with a smirk. "You know Anna can't work your fancy machine."
I licked my lips, impressed at how far his barista skills had come. "Well, Max Steele," I murmured as he took his seat beside me, rather than across the table, "you're a man of many skills. I'm suitably impressed."
He chuckled, dropping a kiss to my bare shoulder, where Kody's T-shirt had slipped down. "Good. Now eat before Kody and Arch wake up and smell the pancakes."
He had a good point. For about ten minutes, we ate together in a weird little domestic bliss, chatting about light subjects, like Archer's upcoming fight or Kody's clothing line... but eventually I couldn't ignore the elephant in the room much longer.
"Max..." I murmured with a sigh, pushing my plate away because I'd eaten so much I was about to burst. "Can I ask you about last night?"
Steele let out a sigh, his fingers tightening on my knee. He'd sat beside me so he could constantly touch me while we ate, which I was more than okay with.
"Yeah, I figured you might have questions," he admitted with a weak smile. "You want to know what happened with my parents?"
I nodded, my concerned frown pulling my brow as I searched his face. "If you don't want to talk about it—"
He shook his head, cutting me off. "No, it's fine. I want you to know all the parts of me, even the shitty ones." He pushed his own plate away and scrubbed a hand over his face. He looked exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes and longer than usual stubble on his cheeks. The knuckles of his right hand were red and slightly swollen, but it didn't look like he'd done any lasting damage.
"I'll... just keep it brief," he muttered with a bitter smile. "My parents adored Rachel. She was their angel and could do no wrong. Seriously, she could have murdered the family dog right in front of our parents and they'd have blamed me for it."
I wrinkled my nose. "That's not fair."
He shrugged. "I know, but that's how it always was. The only thing I could do that would earn even an ounce of my parents’ good graces was succeed with piano. I swear, I can still remember the last time my mother actually smiled at me. It was when I won a classical composition contest when I was twelve." He blew out a long breath, shaking his head at the memory. "Anyway, suffice to say, they're just all around shitty humans. When Rachel died on her way to attend my concert, they blamed me... and they haven't stopped. This memorial was a crock of shit. Just an excuse for them to milk their rich friends for sympathy and money."
My jaw clenched as I read between the lines. "Were they ever violent toward you?" My question came out hoarse and full of worry.
He flashed me a sad smile. "Frequently. Until Phillip pulled me into his training camp and I met Arch. Then they were too scared to test me."
"Then I'm fucking glad for whatever led you to Phillip. I'm glad you and Arch met and that you can defend yourself. But your parents—"
"Can go burn in hell for all I care," he cut me off. "I'm done with them, and they no longer have any power over me. I have all the family I will ever need, right here under this roof." He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine in a kiss that touched my damn soul.
Family. He included me in that, and it left me totally speechless. Since my mom died, I’ve barely even known what that word meant.
"Yo, who made breakfast, then didn't wake me up?" Kody exclaimed, staggering into the kitchen looking all adorable and sleepy. His hair was sticking up all over the place, and his shirt was nowhere to be seen.
Oh wait, it was on me.
"I made breakfast for MK," Steele told him in a dry voice. "You can fucking fend for yourself."
"Lies," Kody scoffed, "you love me too much to make me—" He cut off as he yanked the oven open, then whooped with satisfaction. "Ta-da, see? I knew you cared." He pulled out a whole additional plate of pancakes that had been kept warm in the oven for him.
He brought them over to the table and sat heavily in the chair opposite me while Steele returned his hand to my thigh.
"So," Kody said, smothering his stack in syrup. "What have