Stone remained silent and nodded his head once in his idea of a greeting.

Mrs Armstrong finished her mouthful before questioning "So how did you meet the girls then?"

"We met them at the pier." Brennan answered "I met Lana when we both wanted the last candy apple from the stall. I offered to share it and then we went on the Ferris wheel."

"That is so romantic." Lana's mother gushed before her motherly instincts kicked in "What are your plans for the future?"

"Mom. Stop. This is dinner." Lana tried to nicely enforce her mother to be quiet "Not an interrogation."

"It is fine." Brennan assured Lana before answering the question "Surfing is my passion. I want to teach other people how to enjoy and love the waves as well. I have always wanted to teach young kids how to surf. It was a massive thing growing up for the both of us."

I paid extra attention to the last part of his sentence.

Stone was a surfer, and it came as no surprise to me because nobody got to his size without exercising vigorously. He had to do more than grunting and glaring to earn that muscular figure. His arms were the size of my thighs, and I only had a small gap between them.

I took a drink of the lemonade and forced myself to ignore the existence of the man on the opposite side of the table from me.

"What about you, Stone?" Mrs Armstrong's voice grew a little quieter when she spoke towards the quiet one "Any plans?"

I stopped eating and looked up at Stone to wait for his answer. I waited to see if he would answer.

He glanced at her for a split second but then his attention drew back to me as he disclosed "I work as a mechanic."

My list of facts about him had grown. I knew that his name was Stone. I knew he was large, intimidating and reserved. I now knew he was a mechanic. I knew he was smart and maybe even secretly a nerd. I had gathered that from the Midsummers Night Dream and The Anne of Green Gables reference.

"The macaroni is delicious, Mrs Armstrong." Brennan commented.

I shook myself out of my trace and looked anywhere else apart from across the table.

"You are both lovely boys." Mrs Armstrong beamed while cooing "You can come over anytime."

"As much as I want Brennan to come over here every night," Lana leaned over and whispered into my ear "I don't want it to be with my parents watching us like their very own reality show."

I laughed at her but then my eyes landed on the empty macaroni bowl.

"Ella, is everything okay?" Lana's dad asked when he noticed my solemn expression.

"No, it is not. Mrs Armstrong kindly makes me up a box of leftover food for my lunch for the next day. Even though there is no microwave at school, I still eat it cold because it still tastes so good and now look," I ranted dramatically before pointing to the now empty bowl in the middle of the table and then to the two guys "These greedy pigs have eaten it all!"