I shift in Jace and Dom's laps so I'm a little closer and it's easier to play with Mav's locks.
Mason collapses beside his brother. "I'm hungry!" He whines, pouting at Mav.
"Whatcha makin'?" Maverick retorts, his eyes still closed.
Mase turns his puppy dog eyes to me. "Angel!" He whinges.
"We literally just had lunch an hour ago," I remind him, struggling against the force of those blue pouty eyes.
"Yeah and breakfast was like four hours before that!" Mase groans.
I interrupt Maverick before he starts another feud like at lunch when nobody knew what to cook.
"Do you want to help me start making this cake?"
That gets their attention.
"Ro, it's your birthday," Jace tries to tell me.
"Yeah, you really don't have to," Alec agrees with Jace.
The twins get a disappointed look on their face before it gets covered up.
There's something more to this than just making a cake and I'm betting it has something to do with their mother.
"I don't know if you remember, J but I actually like cooking," I reassure him, smiling. His face relaxes. I remember how I started getting into cooking in the first place.
"My mum taught me how to cook, before she died," I remind him. The room is silent. The twin's look sadder than before, hearing this.
The world spins when I'm sat up and drawn into Jace's arms.
"Don’t cry," he murmurs, holding me tight. "I hate when you cry."
I smile against J's chest. He really does hate it when I cry. When we were kids, he'd start panicking and freak out at the first sight of a tear. His parents thought it was hilarious.
"I'm okay," I tell him. "I have a lot of happy memories with my mum. Don't you remember when I came over and we made cupcakes?"
Jace pulls back, laughing. "Yes! Fuck, that was hilarious."
"Remember when you–"
"Let's not bring that up," Jace cuts me off. His eyes are wide as he shakes his head in remembrance.
"Hmmm, I think you should tell us, Sunshine," Alec says, grinning. The rest voice their agreements. The twin's turn to face us.
Jace slips an arm around my waist when I lean into him.
"Well," I start. "It all started when Mum and I went Jace's for dinner."
Fingers twisting and playing with my hair is moderately distracting while I try to remember the lead up to the incident. I internally shake off the magical feeling of Dom's fingers and focus.
"I don't remember how it came up but J and I decided we wanted to make cupcakes. We were like six and eight at this time, by the way. Our mum's had been drinking which was the only reason they gave us permission to make something without them there," I explain.
Jace's hand sneaks under my shirt and rests on my hip. His thumb rubs soft half moons into the soft skin there.
Fuck, he's distracting.
J takes advantage of my pause and jumps in to take over my story telling.
