“You’re no fun.”
“If Angel would like to go, I’ll bring him to dinner at Mom’s some night,” he said as he reemerged into the kitchen. My stomach shriveled into a pea. Dinner with his family?
“Of course he would, look at him. He’s a starving man.” Nev reached toward me, and I tried to stand really still as she patted my head. I didn’t want to upset her since she was Casey’s sister, and even if I wasn’t a fan of being touched, I knew she would probably get offended the way people did sometimes if I asked her not to do that. She kept her petting light, and Casey watched her like a hawk. The interaction didn’t bother me as much as something like this normally might.
I swung back around to the cupcakes and snatched two up, one for each hand. I forced the fingers poking out of the cast to cooperate for this. The cupcake in my left hand had what I thought was vanilla icing and the one in my right was chocolate. “They look really good!” I said, both justifying myself to Casey and trying for a compliment at the same time.
“Yes, have them!” Raven said. “I do not want to take any home. We’re leaving them, either way.”
I beamed at her, and Nev came in for another hug that I couldn’t fend off. “I’m keeping him, oh my God. I mean, Casey’s keeping you. Look at him, Raven! My baby brother has a boyfriend.”
Raven laughed, and I couldn’t miss the smitten smile she gave to her wife. “I told you. I’ve seen him sneakin’ in and out of the office.”
“It’s my office, I don’t sneak at all, and neither does Angel. No shame here.” Casey came after my cupcakes with a plate and whispered a quiet “no more after these ones” in my ear, but he didn’t sound too serious. I thanked him and took my plate to the table. Next thing I knew, I had a glass of milk in front of me and his sister at my side, leaning her chin on her hand and staring. I hated being the center of attention, but I liked cupcakes way more. I took a huge bite out of the chocolate one.
“You’re just the cutest. Where in the world did you meet my baby brother?”
I snickered at the irritation that flashed to life on Casey’s face as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter. “Um….”
Raven “tsked” at me, or maybe Casey and me both, but she was smiling, too. “Little sunshine here works in IT.”
Nev turned to frown at Casey. “You work together? I didn’t realize you met him that way.”
“Oh yeah,” I said. “Casey has trouble with his computer a lot.”
“Well, that I do know.” Nev narrowed her eyes on Casey, and I thought maybe she’d heard about the whole computer through the window extravaganza.
“You didn’t tell her, did you?” Casey asked, and Raven’s grin grew wider.
Nev sat up straighter. “Tell me what?”
Raven paced over to Casey and gave him a solid punch on the arm. “Nah, I knew you’d get all guilty and tell on yourself, dumbass.”
Casey groaned, and Nev scowled at him and then glanced at me. She pinned me with a stern glare. “What’d he do?”
“Don’t tattle,” Casey grumbled. He shook his head fast and a brattish delight squirmed all through my guts. He clearly wanted me to keep the way we’d met to myself, but he’d been the one to do something wrong, not me.
I pointed at Casey. “He said I can’t tell you about how he yelled at me.”
Nev’s mouth dropped open, and Raven cackled. She walked over and nudged my shoulder like I was the funniest person she’d ever met, and the next thing I knew Nev was out of her chair giving Casey an earful that went on for a while. I had time to eat both cupcakes. “That temper of yours!” she said, and she didn’t seem to realize she was getting heated herself.
Raven went and snagged herself a cupcake and sat beside me as I polished off the last smear of icing on my plate. I considered licking it but figured that might be going too far.
“Things are okay with you and your bluster bear?” she asked, and I had a feeling she wouldn’t hesitate to sic her wife on Casey if they weren’t.
“How do you know I call him a bear?” I murmured.
She giggled, and Casey looked over at us, but he was stuck because Nev was still giving him a hard time.
“Yeah. He’s being good to me.”
“That’s great, sweetie. They’re loud and obnoxious, those Uhligs. Every single one of them, but they’re lovable.” She shook her head and her black curls bounced. I had to smile at her as she watched her wife—who was still telling off Casey—with amusement.
“How about a board game?” Raven cut in after we were both done eating, and I’d put my plate and glass in the dishwasher.
“Good idea,” Casey said, obviously grasping at straws. I was surprised because he didn’t have any of the hallmarks of exploding that I might have expected something like his sister berating him for nearly twenty minutes to cause.
“Oh, fine,” Nev said. “I hear about you yelling at your boyfriend again, though, and you’ll wish you hadn’t.” She poked at his chest.
