Page 94 of Disobedient Pawn

“Will this never end?” Blake complained. “I think my ears are starting to bleed.”

“Please…you’re just jealous that you already lost and are no longer in the debates,” Sienna snarked, making us laugh as Blake glared at Liam’s sister.

“I can’t believe this is even debatable,” Nash said. “After the ‘Best way to crush grapes for wine’ and ‘Is grave robbing actually archaeology’ debate, I thought I’d seen it all.”

“I’m not,” Liam chimed in. “I watched Theo debate ‘Why it is that deliveries on a ship are called cargo, but deliveries in a car are called a shipment,’ which was then replaced by 'Why it is that a driveway is where cars are parked, but a parkway is where cars are driven,’ try sitting through that insanity for two hours,” Liam said, making Sienna and Lip giggle.

“It’s official, you two are just fu—” Nash glanced at Lip and Sienna. “Weird,” he finished before stuffing the last of his pumpkin pie into his mouth.

“I’m finding this kinda hot,” Myles said from beside me, and even though I’d managed to ignore him most of the evening, I stupidly looked at him now.

He was resting his head on his hand while his elbow was on the table as he stared at me. It was totally creepy and yet completely adorable. I looked away before he could lure me in with those eyes.

“Okay, enough stalling, or I win this round,” Theo said.

I tapped my chin and then smiled wide.

“House hippos.”

“What?”

“That’s the cutest thing. I’m so winning with that one.” I sat back and mimicked his pose.

“What is a house hippo?” Theo removed his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. It has to be made up.”

“It must be because you’re not from Canada. We know all about them. In fact, they are very popular,” I said and managed to keep a straight face.

“A house hippo,” Lip asked, his eyes wide. “What is that? It sounds so cool.”

Holding my hand out, I mimicked the size of the small hippos featured in commercials back home.

“They’re no bigger than this,” I said, my voice going low like this was a coveted secret. “But they still look like a normal hippo.”

“Really?”

I nodded.

“Really, and they’re super smart and will hide in cupboards and steal your food like a pesky mouse. They’re very aloof, but if you can stay awake late at night and pay attention, you’ll see their shadows on the wall as they sneak around.”

Lip’s mouth fell open as he leaned in close, and even though Sienna was trying to act uninterested, she had also gotten closer.

“Did you have one,” Lip asked.

“We all have them back home. They help keep your house safe and will make a strange call that will wake you up right out of a dead sleep if someone dangerous breaks into your home,” I said. Cue the aching pit in my stomach at the mention of people breaking into homes.

My father chose that moment to once more laugh way too loud at something and grab at the table to keep from falling off his chair. The constant throbbing pain in my chest bloomed like a fresh wound all over again.

“Ren?”

At the sound of my name, my head snapped up to look at Lip.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Can I have a house hippo?” His voice was soft, his eyes hopeful as he stared at me.

“They’re hard to come by here, but I’ll see what I can do.”

“Yes!” He squealed, drawing the attention of the adults at the other end of the table.