Silas slides a plate of scrambled eggs onto the table. “Eat.”
“I’m not hungry,” I start.
His eyebrows rise.
I sit. “I’m… moderately hungry.”
Penelope hides a smile behind her mug.
Gideon closes the laptop and looks at me. “You need to go back to your dorm today.”
My fork pauses halfway to my mouth. “Yeah. I figured.”
“We cannot give Abi a reason to think anything has changed,” he says. “You know she’ll be keeping tabs on you since she thinks she has the ability to send you away again. So stick to the everyday routine, the same slightly annoying son who pushes her buttons.”
It hits how much he’s trusting me, and it feels heavy in my chest. “Right.”
Silas leans back, studying me. “You keep your phone on you at all times. You check our chat.”
I nod. “Got it.”
Penelope sets her mug down. “If she wants you at dinner, you go to dinner. If she complains about me, let her. Don’t defend me. Please.”
That one stings.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because if you suddenly become my biggest fan, she’ll get suspicious,” Penelope says. “Let her think she turned you against me. It keeps the attention on her ego and not on what we’re doing.”
I hate how much sense that makes.
“Fine,” I say. “I can pretend I’m pissed at you.”
Her mouth twitches. “You’re not?”
“Not anymore,” I mutter.
Silas and Gideon both pretend they didn’t hear that.
When breakfast is over, I rinse my plate and shove my hands in my pockets because I don’t know what to do with them. Penelope comes to stand in front of me, closer than is polite and not nearly as close as I want.
“Text when you get home,” she says.
I roll my eyes. “You sound like my mom.”
Her expression flickers. “Funny.”
“Too soon,” I admit.
She reaches up and straightens the strings of my hoodie. Her fingers linger for half a second. “One day,” she says quietly. “We’ll get her out tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” I say. “If I don’t implode first.”
“You won’t,” she says. “I’m too stubborn to let you.”
I almost lean in. Almost kiss her right there between the sink and the coffee maker. Gideon clears his throat in a way that suggests he knows exactly what I’m thinking.
I step back.
