I grinned as I rolled the dice around in the Yahtzee cup. “You’re sure you want to play another game? It’s past your bedtime.” The last time I’d checked the kitchen clock, it was past midnight. Shay was usually in bed by ten at the latest since she got up at the crack of dawn every day.

“Shut up and roll the dice, James.”

I couldn’t hold in my chuckle. “What does that make the tally? Six games to one?”

She straightened in the booth of the breakfast nook. “Just you wait. I’m going to make a comeback, and it’s going to be epic.”

“Out of the dozens of times we’d played this game, how many times have you succeeded in a comeback?”

Her expression soured. “Once.”

I couldn’t help needling Shay. It was too damn fun, and she was such a sore loser. Not in any area of her life other than Yahtzee. Maybe it was because she was so bad at it, and the woman probably hadn’t been bad at anything else in her life. If Shay wanted to master something, she went after it with a vengeance. Gardening, raising chickens, fixing heavy machinery. If she didn’t know how to do it, she learned. If she was bad at it, she practiced. But no matter how many games of Yahtzee we played, she never got any better.

“You’re pretty adorable when you pout.”

Her head snapped up. “I’m not pouting.”

I swallowed my laugh. “Sure, you aren’t.”

She collapsed back against the cushioned seat. “All right. Maybe I’m pouting a little. I don’t understand if I have the world’s worst luck, or if I’m just horrible at mentally calculating odds.”

My brows rose. “Are you trying to dice count?”

“I’m pretty sure that only works with cards.”

“Remind me never to take you to Vegas.”

Her nose scrunched up in adorable disgust. “No, thank you.”

“Not a fan of Sin City?”

She shook her head. “I went once when I was a kid. Too many people. Too much cigarette smoke.”

“There’s pretty good food, though.”

“I can make good food from the privacy of my own home.”

Shay had managed to do just about everything from this island. But as I studied her in the dim light of the kitchen, wisps of hair falling free and framing her heart-shaped face, I couldn’t help but wonder about everything she was missing out on. To truly experience life, you had to live it in community. It was something I needed to remind myself. “We should go out this weekend.”

Her head snapped up. “Go out…”

“Yeah, you know. Get dinner, maybe hit up The Catch. Hunter told me they have live music on Saturdays and Sundays now.”