“No, but the girls are playing dirty, and we need to retaliate.”
Charlie’s face glows with excitement. “I’m in.”
The two of us glance in Rhett’s direction, and he shrugs. “Oh, what the hell? I’m in too. Olivia won’t let me live it down if they win.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Lauren
“What was that all about?”Olivia asks when I return to our station at the dining room table.
“She was totally flirting with him!” Callie blurts. When I pin her with a glare, she lowers her voice. “You need to get your head in the game, Lo. I willnotallow fraternizing with the enemy. I want to dominate.” Callie pounds her fist into her palm.
“Did you see what my flirting did? I’m getting in his head.”
Callie scans me for a moment, then a smirk blooms on her face. It’s a little scary. “Did you do that on purpose?”
I press my lips together, and Olivia immediately calls me out. “That wasn’t her goal. I can see it on her face.”
Whose side is she on? She knows what it’s like to be in love! Well, not that I’m in love…
“I couldn’t help it.” I shrug. “He gave me this look, and I immediately wanted to show him he’s on my mind too. I don’t know, our chemistry is so natural that sometimes it’shard to hide. I didn’t mean to make him dump the cookies, but it’s a nice plus, right?”
“That’s a nice story, but we don’t have time for moon eyes and chemistry right now.” Callie thrusts the bin of cookie cutters into my hand. “Get cutting.”
I’m a little taken aback. Callie is normally one of the first to support a budding love story, but she’s been on edge today.
As she takes another tray of cookies to the oven, Olivia leans into me with a smile. “It’s nice to see you so happy.”
“Thank you.”
“Have you thought about when you’re going to start telling people?”
“A little.” I wiggle my cookie cutter around in the dough and carefully peel the cookie up. “I don’t have an exact timeline yet. There are still some things I need to work on before I subject our relationship to everything outside of us.”
“All those external things you’re talking about still exist now, even while keeping your relationship a secret. What’s really going on?”
“That’s it.” I shrug. “There are still parts of me that need work. I need to learn to trust more. I need to learn how to ask for help and find time to relax.”
Olivia sets an elf-shaped cookie on the baking sheet, arching an eyebrow. “How is keeping your relationship a secret going to help with that?”
“It doesn’t inherently help, but at least it buys me some time to work through these things before we’re exposed to more challenges.”
“What challenges are you anticipating?”
“I don’t know.” Heat rises to my cheeks. I grab the rolling pin to flatten another clump of dough. “Peoplemight say I got with Jax too soon after my breakup with Austin.”
“And?”
“What do you mean ‘and’?”
“There must be something else if you’re this determined to hide your relationship.”
Callie rejoins us, instantly butting into the conversation. “What are we talking about?”
“Why Lauren insists on hiding her relationship with Voldemort.”
“I have a guess! I have a guess!” Callie throws her hand up in the air.
