Room for One More

"Us? Get in trouble? Never." Travis laughed and nudged her knee with his. At this point, they'd have a hard time topping their one and only rebellious maneuver. "We'll ask though, to make sure. But I have a feeling she'll be okay with it."


Seeing the twinkle in Ryan's eyes, Hunter couldn't help his smile. "You kidding? I've missed having worthy competition." He took a sip of water, keeping his eyes in her as his smile remained. "I think I can handle a card game if you can."

Jeff's eyes widened. "Oooh.... That sounds like a challenge to me."

At the next table over, Kaylee had been quietly sitting on Wes' lap up until this point, but now she squeeled and clapped her hands. "Cards!"

Hunter laughed and shook his head. "I'm not sure I could win against you there, Little Miss Giggle."

She scrunched up her nose and banged the table, laughing. "Silly H'nter."

That made the whole table crack up, and Hunter just smiled. Not many people knew the little girl had a special spot in his heart after his last visit.


...It was later that evening. Supper had been over for a while, and the evening chores were all finished. A small group had gathered for the typical card game, and, as always, anyone could fix themselves some hot chocolate or popcorn. 

Hunter sat across from Ryan at a round table, enjoying the company of Jeff, of course, Clint, Jade and Dan. 

Studying his cards, Hunter grimaced. "Who shuffled these anyway?" It was the second round, and he had even worse cards. 

Across the room, the door quietly opened and Dylan slipped inside. He didn't usually join in but... with Hunter there, it sounded like it could be fun. Wandering closer, he eyes the corner of the room where Travis and Ashlee were sitting very close together, and rolled his eyes. No surprise there. 

Coming up to the table just a little hesitantly, he stopped for a moment to see what they were playing. "Got room for one more?"

Hunter glanced up and waved to one of the empty chairs. "Of course!"

On the other side, Jade's eyes had gone a little wide. Her brother was actually going to play with them? She stretched out her leg to tap Dan's ankle under the table. 


By the fireplace, on the couch, Travis had taken off his boots and put his feet up in the little coffee table, settling in next to Ashlee. His hands were cupped around a warm mug of hot chocolate. Though the days were fairly warm, the nights were chilly, making the drink, and the fire, nice. 

His shoulder rested against Ashlee's, and he leaned his head over against hers, too. "Mmm... This was a good idea, but now I might go to sleep."


Garret gave Sapphire a little smile, although there was a strange sadness in his eyes. "For some reason... I doubt you would have done the same thing as I did." 

He shook his head, and turned back to his computer. "I tend to do most things the opposite of everyone around here."


Justin nodded slowly at Sam, already figuring things in his mind. "Okay. Well, I'll have a go at him a while."

"Let us know if you need anything," Hal added.

"Oh I will. I know how to scream." Justin threw a wink at Sam before turning to leave. He wandered to the bedroom and let himself in, not saying a word. He set his backpack down, leaving the door open, and grabbed a chair. Turning it around backward, he set it near the doorway, almost blocking it, and straddled it to lean his forearms on the backrest. His eyes stared intently at Aaron.

Aaron had been sitting up, reading a magazine, and now looked over at Justin dimly. "Want something?"

Justin shook his head.

Aaron went back to reading. Then turned again. "Got a problem?"

Justin  shook his head again and simply continued to stare. Study. Take in all of Aaron's subtle movements. 

Aaron just shrugged and focused on reading again, although Justin's silent watching was making him inwardly squirm.