Over her shoulder, he spotted Butch sitting at the table, glaring at him.
That man really needed to learn how to loosen up a bit, maybe even smile once in a while. But he guessed that personality transplants were hard to come by.
“Nothing much,” he replied. “Just milk and oatmeal and a bit of salt, that’s it.”
“What are you gonna put on top of it?” Ralen asked as Dotty moved to the table where she’d set up her laptop.
Hmm. He hadn’t really thought that far ahead. “I don’t know.”
“There’s only one topping for oatmeal,” Ralen said as he searched through the cupboards. When he returned he had a bag of brown sugar. “This is mine. The rest of you can find something else to put on your oatmeal.”
“I don’t need anything on mine,” Monroe said, frowning at Ralen. “I’m happy with it just the way it is. But I might take mine to my room, if that’s okay?”
Cash was starting to have some suspicions about Monroe and her eating and he didn’t like what he was coming up with.
“Eat out here,” Ralen said with a firm look at Monroe.
“I’d rather not,” she replied with a big smile that didn’t seem to reach her eyes.
“Stay out here,” Butch said. “We need to talk about a few things. Ink is going to call at ten.”
It was nice of Butch to tell the rest of them. Cash shot a look at Ralen, who just shrugged. Seemed he hadn’t known that either.
“All right. I’ll just heat mine up afterwards. Thanks, Cash.” Monroe moved over to sit next to Dotty at the table.
Dotty was working on her laptop, a small frown on her face.
Cash carried over several bowls. One he placed in front of Dotty. The other two were for Addie and himself.
“There’s one up on the counter for you too,” he said to Butch. No way was he carrying it over for the grumpy bastard.
Ralen sat with his bowl and bag of sugar.
“Can I have some of that?” Dotty asked.
“I don’t know. I was going to use it all on my bowl.”
“You’re going to use the whole bag?” Dotty asked.
“Yeah, but I suppose I can share.”
Ralen put way too much brown sugar on his oatmeal, took a mouthful, and added some more. Everyone stared at him in shock.
“He’s got a sweet tooth,” Cash told them.
A bedroom door opened, and Addie walked out wearing an oversized hoodie and a pair of tights. Thankfully, Ink kept the safe house stocked with spare clothes, toiletries, and plenty of food, so they all had something to wear this morning.
Although he might head over to their place and get some more stuff later.
And go to LittleLand to get her that hoodie with the squishy bits in the cuffs.
He noticed that the bruise on her face was turning dark purple. Ouch.
“Come here, Addie.” Cash pulled out the chair next to him. “I made you some breakfast.”
She walked over slowly and slid into the seat.
“Here,” Butch said, frowning down at his own bowl which he’d grabbed. “You’ll need this.” He passed her the bag of brown sugar, which was considerably lighter than it had been before.
