Dumping The Ice King His Mini-Tyrant novel Chapter 486

Selene and Adrian sat side by side, while Daph and Altair faced them from across the table.

“Is this your first time at a barbecue, Altair? Here, let me show you how to grill the beef!”

Daph grabbed the serving tongs, and a thoughtful server slipped little shoe covers over her feet so she could stand on her chair and reach the grill more easily.

Altair had never been to a barbecue before, but he wasn’t clueless—he’d seen enough to know how it worked. Even so, he watched Daph’s hands intently, eager to learn from her enthusiastic instruction.

Selene glanced at the two kids across from her. If she ever took Dames out for a meal, there was no way she’d let him sit apart from her. Dames always needed someone by his side—someone to help him with his food, to make sure he ate a balanced meal, to nudge him into eating more vegetables. Otherwise, he’d just pick at his favorites and ignore everything else.

Of course, Dames would never set foot in a place like this. Back at the Vaughn estate, no one in the family ever hosted a barbecue. Selene remembered how, full of excitement, she’d prepared a barbecue feast not long after marrying into the family. Mrs. Vaughn had found it hilarious and wasted no time sharing the story with her social circle.

Even Patriarch Vaughn was baffled by the whole affair. He had gently suggested that if Selene really wanted barbecue, she should enjoy it on her own—after all, he said, barbecue just wasn’t very sanitary when shared among so many people.

Gemma was less diplomatic. “Barbecue is poor people’s food,” she had declared. “Only the lower classes eat things right off the grill like that.” The thought of eating communally around a smoky grill seemed downright filthy to her.

After that, Selene would occasionally sneak out for barbecue on her own. But one evening, a gossip reporter caught her eating alone at a barbecue joint and snapped a photo. The next day, the picture was plastered all over a society blog with the headline:

“Vaughn Family’s Young Mistress Spotted Eating Alone—Signs of Trouble in Paradise?”

The article went viral. Some comments expressed pity: poor thing, eating all by herself—where was her husband? Others were far less kind, making crude jokes at her expense.

Gemma’s friends made sure she saw the article, and when she got home, she exploded. From then on, Selene wasn’t allowed to go out for barbecue alone.

“What are you thinking about?”

Adrian’s voice pulled her back to the present.

Selene blinked, her dark eyes shimmering with the haze rising from the grill. “It’s been ages since I’ve had barbecue.”

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