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“Ha!” Jake crowed. “300$, please!”
Raleigh made a big show of sighing and sorting out his cash. Despite the fact that he really didn’t like monopoly, he was enjoying himself. When he’d managed to buy all four railroads, he’d seen an actual smile on Stacker’s face. Directed at him!
He didn’t think he actually had a shot at winning, since Mako had an entire corner of the board, Jake had Boardwalk and Park Place (and the utilities), and Stacker had everything else, but...it was surprisingly fun, even knowing that he would lose.
Mako was in her element here. She seemed to drop a lot of her shields around her father and brother—she teased everyone more, laughed harder, and even cried at the end of Disney movies.
It was nice to see her like this, and he hoped eventually she’d be that comfortable when it was just the two of them.
She took the dice from Raleigh and winked at him before rolling. She was right before her own corner, so it was likely she’d be safe for this turn.
God, he loved her.
She landed on free parking, which made her laugh and her father groan. He’d been the one who had most recently had to put money in the center of the board. “That’s my college fund,” she teased.
Stacker laughed. “Like you needed a college fund.”
Mako stuck her tongue out and passed the dice to Jake. “See if you can take any more of Dad’s money,” she told him.
“Not on this turn,” he said, but he did look sort of determined as he rolled the dice. Raleigh had heard about families having big blowups while playing monopoly. He and Yancy had never had much taste for the game, and watching Mako’s family play now, he couldn’t imagine it. They were competitive, sure, but it also seemed like a big joke between them, like every time one of them lost money, the real way to win was to say something clever about it.
Still, he was relieved when he rolled himself into jail on the next turn and got to sit the next three turns out. After all, he really wasn’t any good with clever comebacks.