Page 45 of Miles's Pact
Sixteen
Miles
"You can buy properties your piece stops on, and then you get to charge rent whenever someone else's piece ends up there," Mateo explained as he showed Duckie the various property cards, and I watched them, my chest all warm and gooey with contentment. All three of us spending time together was quickly becoming one of my favorite things to do.
It'd been a few days since our first date, and while Duckie and I had spent time with each other, I hadn't gotten the chance to take him on a proper second date yet. Elian had been doing some maintenance work in the park over the last week, which meant I couldn't take Duckie to meet them.
"This is confusing," Duckie said with a sigh, his eyes flicking from the cards to the Monopoly board, to me. He looked at me beseechingly, and I reached over, taking the cards from him.
"How about Duckie and I team up?" I suggested, sliding closer to Duckie on the couch. Mateo was perched on an armchair on the other side of the coffee table, and he glanced between us with a scrunched-up face.
"It won't be much fun with two players. How about we invite Micah and his mates over? Cam's been bugging me to hang out for days."
I shot Duckie a questioning look, and he nodded quickly, and I couldn't help but smile. One thing I'd quickly realized about Duckie was that he loved people. He liked meeting them, he liked making friends, and it made me wonder how he'd survived on his own all these years with no one to talk to.
"Okay, texting them now," Mateo said as he tapped away at his phone.
Five minutes later, Micah and his three mates were in our living room, with Cam and Mateo now sitting on the floor, while Ember and Micah sat in armchairs, with Kai perched on the arm of Ember's chair.
Once everyone had picked their pieces, we started the game, and while it was slow-going with me explaining all the moves and rules to Duckie, it was fun, especially since Cam decided he'd be the banker and kept getting caught sneaking extra money to his mates.
"So... Dad and DD are thinking of moving," Cam chimed in as I was about to roll the dice, and my gaze jerked to his, my hand freezing midway.
"What?" I asked at the same time Mateo demanded, "Moving where?"
Cam pursed his lips, his green eyes gleaming with something akin to nerves. I didn't think I'deverseen Cam nervous before.
"Apparently, DD has a place up in the Rocky Mountains. The baby dragons are small right now, but they'll start growingquickly. Full dragons like them don't learn to shapeshift until they're much older, so the dads can't raise them here."
Huh. For some reason, I'd assumed that dragon babies would be like shifter babies, who stayed in a human form until they learned to control their shifts. But of course dragons would be different.
"I guess that makes sense. Does that mean Mistvale will no longer have protection?" I asked, and Cam bit his lower lip, then glanced at Micah.
"Cam will take over," Micah said, his brown eyes full of warmth as he gazed at Cam. "Raiden is confident Cam can do it. So am I."
"Us too," Kai chimed in with a grin, his long black hair falling forward as he leaned around Ember to look at Cam.
While Cam could be headstrong and a bit of a free spirit, I had no doubt he had the capacity to take care of Mistvale the way Raiden had for almost two decades.
"Nothing is set in stone yet. We still have a few months before they'dhaveto move," Cam said, and I nodded slowly. I couldn't imagine what he was feeling. Protecting Mistvale was a big responsibility, and I imagined it'd never occurred to him that it might fall on him one day.
We returned our focus to the game after that, and the game went on for a few hours. Duckie was having fun, which was all I wanted.
A few hours in, Cam ordered pizzas for everyone, and we switched to a different game as we ate, and then abandoned the game as we started talking.
Duckie got pulled into a conversation with Kai, and from the snatches I overheard, they were making swimming plans.
"That smile looks good on you, night owl," Micah said, pulling my gaze to him. He had a fond look on his face, and I dipped my head in acceptance. While I wasn't an unhappy person, I keptmy feelings to myself. Or I had, before Duckie. With him, I was usually far too relaxed to worry about hiding how I was feeling, and since Duckie wore his heart on his sleeve, it was easy to do the same when I was with him.
"Thanks, X," I said, using the nickname we'd given him when we were younger, after the mind-reading professor from theX-Mencomics.
Smiling, Micah ruffled my hair, making me jerk back with a sigh as he laughed, and I smiled despite myself. Mateo met my eyes from across the table, a soft smile on his face that probably mirrored mine, and I knew he was also experiencing a sudden rush of gratitude that we'd ended up here, in this town with these people.
Micah and his mates stayed well into the evening before finally taking their leave around dinner time, and the three of us decided to have pizza leftovers for dinner after clearing up the games and feeding Snowball.
The three of us curled up on the couch together with Duckie in the middle, and Mateo chose a movie—a superhero flick—we watched as we ate the reheated pizza. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.
Duckie
