Did not. Did too, boys? Adrien's voice was tired but fond. No food fights in the house. You know the rules.
They settled down immediately, though. Thomas made a face at Marcus when their dad's back was turned. Normal sibling stuff. The kind of stuff Lena used to watch on TV and wonder what it felt like to have someone who knew you that well, who could push your buttons because they'd installed half of them. She pulled out a stool at the far end of the island, keeping distance between herself and everyone else.
The marble was cool under her hands. Everything in this house was high-end and expensive and so far removed from where she'd been 2 hours ago that it felt like a different universe. Adrien poured hot chocolate into mugs, the smell of it rich and sweet. Real chocolate, like Sophieie said, not the packet stuff Lena used to make when she was trying to stretch a grocery budget. He slid a mug across to her, then distributed the rest to the kids.
They dumped marshmallows in with abandon. Sophieie adding so many hers threatened to overflow. Easy, Adrien said. That's supposed to have chocolate in it, too, not just marshmallows. But marshmallows are the best part.
Debatable. Lena wrapped her hands around the mug and breathed in the steam. When she took a sip, the warmth spread through her chest. Sweet and dark and completely unlike anything she'd had before. It tasted expensive.
Tasted like care. Good? Adrien asked. She nodded, not trusting her voice. The kids were talking over each other now. something about a movie they wanted to watch tomorrow and whether dad would let them build a snow fort if the storm kept up.
Adrien listened with half his attention while he cleaned up the mess on the stove, moving with the efficiency of someone who'd done this a thousand times. Lena watched him, trying to figure out what his angle was. Men like him didn't just stop for strangers. Didn't bring them home, make them hot chocolate, offer them guest rooms without expecting something in return. There had to be a catch.
There was always a catch. But he wasn't looking at her like Marcus used to, like she was something he owned. Wasn't even really looking at her at all. His attention was on his kids, making sure they weren't spilling, weren't staying up too late, weren't eating pure sugar before bed. "All right," he said finally, rinsing out the pot.
"15 more minutes, then everyone upstairs. School might be out, but bedtime isn't." A chorus of groans. "We never get to stay up," Thomas complained. You stayed up until midnight last Saturday watching that documentary about Mars.
That was educational. It was still midnight. Adrien dried his hands on a towel. 15 minutes. I'm setting a timer.