hand.
Heaving a pained sigh, his mother shook her head. “How did we go from salsa to drenching our son to show him off in a wet t-shirt contest?”
“I’ll be back in a few hours.” Laughing, Sandro’s father left, taking his young son with him.
“Well, as it happens, I was wearing a white shirt when it was raining during that storm, and we were stuck together for a while. I was rather wet by the time we made it into her cellar.” Sandro smirked. “Had I known you found my white shirt so interesting, I would have done a better job of posing for you.”
My fox was ready to roll over and let him do whatever he wanted, and I couldn’t blame her. “Which one of us won that wet shirt contest?”
“I think we both won, honestly. We didn’t get caught by any one of those twisters, and I found the company to be pleasant. I’m still wondering how the hell you got away from me.”
“I knew the terrain and you didn’t.” Plus I could shapeshift and hide, which helped a lot. “That’s how I got away from Anna, too.”
“You’re also fast, sneaky, and have a ridiculous endurance. I was tailing you outside of Tulsa when you decided to taunt that one hunter. I lost you for a while in the city, but I’d picked your trail back up right before you were shot.”
“Which was why you were close? Did you assume I was the one who’d been shot?”
“No, I just hate assholes who don’t fight fair, and considering almost nobody has ammunition in Tulsa, it wasn’t a fair fight. Then I figured somebody might go for your leg to drag you out East. Technically discouraged, but not explicitly barred.” Sandro abandoned sipping, picked up his bowl, and gulped it down in one breath, pausing only long enough to chew a larger piece of chicken. When he finished, he licked his lips and eyed the pot.
As he’d saved my ass, I got up, took his bowl, and brought him the rest, and I slid the jar of red salsa to him. “I’ll have trouble enough finishing the one bowl. I’m not that hungry.”
He saluted me with the bowl, thanked me, and made the second serving disappear as quickly as the first. Amazed at how much he could eat without any sign of the heat bothering him, I took the jar, added more salsa to my bowl, and gave that to him, too. “I’m really not that hungry, and you’re eating like nobody has fed you in a year.”
“A day, but close enough.” He made my share disappear, and he yawned. “I’m going to end up the one needing a nap.”
Sandro’s mother sighed and headed into the kitchen, digging through the refrigerator and pulling out lunchmeat and cheese. “I’ll make you a sandwich, and then it’ll be to bed with you until dinner. Do you want one, Jade?”
I shook my head. “No, but thank you.”
“You ate well yesterday, and you’ve got to be tired of soup now. Liam, go follow your father to the store and take your brothers with you. I did not plan for Sandro being half-starved on top of Jade being half-starved, and they’ll eat us out of house and home if we don’t get enough. You can help him with his comfort food adventures. The downstairs freezer is empty, so make sure we have enough containers. We may as well pack the freezer. Bring back some notebooks and pens. I want to brainstorm about that choir tonight and tomorrow, and we need to make a game plan. Get firewood and hot chocolate, too. If you want any games, grab some. That is not an invitation to get a console and rot Jade’s brain. Board games and cards.”
The exodus took less than five minutes, which amused me. “What made them go so fast?”
“They love board game nights, and I didn’t give them a budget. They’ll fill all of their cars with every board game they can find. They’ll go help their father with the grocery shopping, bring back everything for the fridge and freezer, and then drive to Albany and raid every store with board games until they’re satisfied. They’ll be back in time for dinner, and we’ll play games after dinner.”
“Is this normal?” I asked. “Is this what normal families do?”
“Well, it’s normal for our family. Honestly, I don’t give a shit what other families do. I just care about making mine happy. Have you played games before?”
I