A One For All Holiday - Attachment to All For One (Complete)

Part Eleven

“That was good, Aggele,” Silas sat back in his chair and patted his stomach.

“I second that, Miss Sorenson.” Mr Blackbourne delicately dabbed at the corners of his mouth before he lowered the napkin and sent me a small smile.

“It wasn’t anything special,” I replied, looking down with a shy grin and a blush.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Pookie.” Seated next to me, it was easy for him to lean in close and whisper, “You cook better than my mother but don’t tell her that.”

I giggled at his antics and slumped back further in to the comfortable chair in the house’s dining room. It was a beautiful area with a twelve seat table and hanging chandelier.

The chatter between then stayed at a low volume but it still filled the room with sound. It was a soothing sound, listening to them all speak about normal teenage things.

“We should set up a movie in the theatre they’ve got stashed in the second living room,” Nathan suggested with an excited air.

“I wanted to test out the spa on the back deck,” Gabe whined, “I made sure to pack all of our swim gear just for that reason.”

I perked up. I’d never been in a spa bath before although I suspected that the one that Victor had in his bathroom was close to one.

“What would you like to do, Princess?” Victor asked the others looked at me expectantly.

I lifted a finger to my lips and pushed slightly before I caught the look from Nathan and dropped it into my lap.

I searched North’s face for an answer, “What do we have time for?”

He’d chosen not to reveal to me what we’d be doing later in the night and it was making me excitedly nervous trying to work it out.

So far the things that the boys had taken me to had fit in with their personalities and what I knew of their interests but North was hard. He put up this thick and tough exterior but then he took me star gazing and to the beach just to watch the waves swell along the shoreline in moonlight.

“It’ll be a bit of a drive to where we go,” he rubbed at his forearm for a second before his eyes locked back onto mine, “Maybe we could hang out for a little while and then when we get back we can do a movie or the spa? It’s up to you, baby.”

I still hated the times when they put all the decisions on my shoulders. I know that they wanted to think for myself and have an opinion but sometimes it seemed almost too hard to make them happy. It was the biggest dark cloud over my hopes for the future; how did one girl keep nine guys pleased? Was it even a possibility?

According to my stepmother and girls like Jade, the only way to keep them hanging around was to take them to bed but my whole body and mind protested the idea.

I wasn’t ready for that; wasn’t sure what it’d take to be ready to take that step so it appeared that my relationship with them was going remain on the same level that it was now.

I didn’t mind, definitely didn’t mind, getting closer to them all but in most ways I was still a broken girl trying to find her way through a tough faze in her life.

“I’m not really sure,” I finally answered them, embarrassed that I had gotten so lost in my thoughts.

“Ok, so no spa time and no movie just yet. What else can we do for the next hour or so?” Luke asked with a cheeky glint in his eye as he stared at me.

“Ooh,” Sean suddenly jumped in his chair, “I saw a deck of cards in the room I’m sharing with Owen.” He winked at me, “Let’s teach Pookie how to play poker.”

“In an hour?” Kota in a dubious tone.

“She can learn the basics in that amount of time,” Silas piped in, looking happy with the idea.

Poker?

I knew what the game was from watching television but I’d never played a card game before except Snap or Go Fish.

Surely it was hard to learn?

“This will…actually be kind of awesome,” Gabe drawled and chopped Luke on the head, “Why haven’t we thought of doing this before?”

Luke shrugged, “I don’t know. We never get the time?”

Sean came barrelling back down the stairs waving a deck of cards around, “Got them.” He called, slipping back into his seat.

“Ok, now time for the rules,” Mr Blackbourne leaned forward and held a hand out for the cards.

North snorted, “Why even bother, she’ll pick up cheating before she picks up all the rest.”

Silas’ eyes gleamed, “She’d be good at strip poker then when we get around to teaching her that.”