As Eva pushed around the food on her plate, her thoughts swirled in worry over Lucas. They were not communicating properly, and it was mostly her fault this time.
Why can't I have a proper conversation?
It didn't help Lucas never complained. He always moved on to the next thing as if her behavior was expected.
She puffed out her cheeks a bit and sipped her too-warm tea. Before she could get too dejected, Marietta entered the room with Ember and Arya.
"Mommy, mommy!" Arya cried as she released Marietta's hand and ran to crawl into her lap.
Red had crawled under the table at some point and was lazily cleaning his paws there.
"Red ate my muffin!"
Eva stared down at the leopard, but he looked away as if the small child with tears in her eyes wasn't there.
"Red?" Eva asked.
The leopard looked up at her and huffed. He placed his tail in her lap and looked defeated.
Arya smiled and fluffed it immediately.
"Dear, you must be nicer to Red. He needs to eat ,too."
