I flip him off.
He and Max both smirk.
Fuckers. They were both in on it.
“Have we met?” Max asks the security agent. “You look familiar.”
Shit.
Shit.
He would’ve been with Waverly the day she and Levi shot that video at the ballpark. Maxhasseen him before.
“He’s been traveling with me as my personal guard since that incident in Atlanta,” I say. “He’s so good, you don’t even notice him on the plane most of the time.”
“Rawk!Don’t lie to your elders, shithead.Rawk!” Pop’s parrot interjects.
“Pop, the language on that bird,” Tillie Jean says.
Pop straightens. “What? He’s smart. He says what he’s thinking.”
I fake a yawn. “Welp, time for me to get to bed. Need my batter sleep. Get the fuck out.”
Max looks at my feet.
Grady looks at my feet.
Tillie Jean starts to bend to look under the table again.
I reach for her, but the security guy is faster.
“Oh, come on,” she says to him as she tries to tug her arm out of his grip. “It’s not like he has some secret princess in here.”
“Don’t tell anyone,” I stage whisper, which is basically the only thing Icansay to throw them off the scent.
They never believe anything I tell them, and much as I love my family, I like it that way sometimes. Like now.
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I realize Max is staring at me.
And that’s not any stare.
That’s aholy fuck, I know who you’re hidingstare.
My body flushes hot, then cold, and hot again in the span of two seconds.
I spent the better part of the off-season reinforcing Max’s idea that he wasn’t good enough for Tillie Jean.
Dude got glitter-bombed twice, caught in the cross fire of my prank war tradition with my sister.
I flipped the fuck out on him when I found out they’d been sleeping together behind my back.
He owes me.
He owes me so much shit.
And he knows who I’m hiding.
I’m dead.
