Maggie dramatically draped a hand across her chest. “Not you too, Scamp!”
Laughter passed between them as Twitch entered the kitchen, his hands full with plates and silverware. His eye roll could be felt across the room as he passed by, making sure to throw them a few kissing faces as he went by.
“Oh, Peter,” he mocked in a shrill voice. “Oh, Peter Pan!”
Maggie bunched up a flower printed dish towel and threw it at the back of Twitch’s head as he scurried out of the kitchen. Though embarrassment threatened to crawl up her neck, the feeling of Peter’s hands comfortably inching toward her hips made it all fade away. It was obvious that the Lost Boys were very much aware of what happened last night between Maggie and Peter, but there wasn’t anything wrong with it. They were just happy and showed it in the same way that brothers would.
She had caught Peter blushing like a maniac earlier, when Dash and Twitch were throwing him questions he was not ready to be answering.
“So when will the wedding be?”
“When can we start calling youdad?”
“Did you put a ring on her before –”
And Maggie silenced it effortlessly, with only her hands resting on her hips. Though she might’ve saved him from that one moment, Maggie knew that there were plenty more to come. She had no plans to hide her growing relationship with Peter, so knowing that the Lost Boys were already on board for anything and everything made it all easier to swallow.
As Dash finished making the remaining pancakes, they began to bring the food to the dining table. Twitch had already set out the plates, napkins, and silverware, and was now beginning to pour freshly squeezed orange juice into tall glasses at each chair. Dash followed with his tray of cakes, each one glowing with the golden-beige color that a proper pancake should have. They smelt of vanilla bean and maple, the containers of syrup already opened on either side of the tray. Fresh fruit gathered from Cricket Hollow’s beach was in a large basin at the center of the table, the juicy peaches already calling out to Maggie’s growling stomach. Scamp finished with his bowl of scrambled eggs, a light sprinkle of green herbs decorating the tops.
Maggie breathed a sigh as she looked over the breakfast. “What a feast! You boys are doing wonderfully well.”
Twitch shook his head as they all found their seats. “I’m telling you,” he said, “I am not getting a hang of the pancake batter. Dash had to take over for me –again.”
“There’s no need to beat yourself up over a stack of flapjacks, alright?” Maggie reached across the table and patted his hand. “Anything takes time and practice. We’ll have pancakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to help you figure it out, if that’s what you’d like to do.”
Dusty, in a rare outburst, let out a holler, his arms high above his head.
Heads turned across the table to get a surprised look at him.
“What?” He slowly lowered his arms, his cheeks turning the same red as his curly hair.
“Oh, nothing,” Twitch remarked, his eyes wide. “Just didn’t know you loved pancakes that much.”
Dusty sheepishly shrugged and grabbed a stack of four cakes, piling them high onto his plate with a load of syrup to follow. “What can I say? Sometimes,” he took a large bite, “all you need is a sweet tooth to feel okay.”
“So,” Dash began, already halfway through his first plateful of food, “what’s the plan on getting Hook’s statue back from the mermaids? You know they aren’t as easy to bargain with as pirates are.”
Peter leaned back against his seat and sighed as though he wished everyone would have forgotten about the statue. “I was planning on taking Maggie to the underwater city. I reached out to Coralyn and Selina about getting there, and they were quick to offer help.”
Maggie almost flinched at the sound of the mermaid Princess’s names. They were sisters, she remembered, with Coralyn favoring the color blue and Selina basking in all shades of pink. Neither one of them proved to be too much of a hassle when they removed their dam in the cove, but there was one thing Maggie remembered about the beautiful sisters. They wereveryfond of a certain King of Neverland. She glanced over at him and he met her gaze, his smile seeming to say all the words she was looking to hear.
Don’t worry about them.
I am withyou.
“They’re already on board?” Dash asked.
Peter shrugged. “I’m sure it isn’t like they will hand the thing over, but we’ll need to get there somehow, won’t we? The only way to get to the city is with the help of a mermaid. Luckily forus, we’ve made some friends in the past.” He leaned forward suddenly, catching Maggie’s attention before she could return to her breakfast. “But I’m not expecting this to be a walk in the park.”
Maggie frowned. “Why not? Coralyn and Selina have nothing against us.”
“Theyaren’t the ones calling the shots in the city,” Peter replied.
She glanced around the table to see everyone nodding in agreement. Maggie let out a short and impatient huff. “Well someone’s going to have to explain.”
“The Princesses might have helped in the past,” Peter began, “but their father, King Neptune, is a much harder pill to swallow. He’s a cranky old man on his best days, and is a possessive thorn in our side on all of them. Even if it’s just a statue, I doubt he’ll just hand it over.”
Maggie shrugged. “I wouldn’t say that’s at all unexpected. If Hook considers it to be a good luck charm, I suppose some other treasure finder might just think the same.”
