There was nothing more to say.
Just—crap.
I had Lia on video chat and in my back jeans pocket. I needed to know she was there. For moral support. I’d put my earbud in my ear and left my hair down. Aunt Elle would never know that Lia was listening in.
Jake and Jadon had gone off with Reece, but not before Jake had stopped to give me a hard time.
“Hey, Bri?” My cousin asked. “Any chance I can get you to design an AI girlfriend for me?”
I glared at him.
Jadon laughed. “Nahh, don’t do it. It would destroy AI. Even a fake girl wouldn’t want to date him.”
Jake hooked his arm around Jadon’s neck and they started to wrestle.
“Boys!” Aunt Elle shouted.
My mom looked on in abject horror. Reece was her one and only son and she’d babied him like there was no tomorrow. I’m not sure she’d know what to do if I’d been born a boy and she had two sons to contend with.
Aunt Elle knew though. She kicked Jake in his butt and yanked Jadon free. “Go. Shoo. You’re both impossible like your dad.”
My cousins ran toward the basement laughing, Jake hollering over his shoulder, “She better be cute, Bri!”
As if I was going to ever help Jake in the dating department.
“I’ll date Jake,” Lia offered in my ear.
“Not a chance!” I hissed back. “I have other plans for you, my friend.”
“Sooooooo,” Aunt Elle dragged out her word, interrupting my covert conversation with Lia, and smiled at me. She perched on a barstool at our kitchen island and wrapped her hands around her coffee mug.
Mom returned to baking her amazing, mouthwatering cinnamon scones, but I knew she was eavesdropping.
I eyed my aunt.
“How’s Brooks?” Aunt Elle grinned. “Did you go out for dinner?”
Oops. Brooks and I had totally forgotten about Aunt Elle’s fifty bucks.
“Not yet.”
“You should do that soon!” Lia said through my earbud.
I ignored her.
“That’s all right,” she waved it off. “I saw the video of the tulips. My gosh, Bri! If Brooks used the fifty bucks to get you those, I am all in.”
“Wheredidyou put the tulips?” Mom inserted.
“They’re in my room,” I answered. I knew better than to have them anywhere near Dad. He’d sneeze, cough, and have an allergic reaction to the pollen. Mom never got flowers from Dad. She got coffee beans. He knew her weak spot.
“Has he kissed you yet?” Aunt Elle rested her chin in her hand as her elbow was propped on the island.
“Elle!” My mom tsked. “I certainly hope not.”
“Oh c’mon, Stacy,” Aunt Elle rolled her eyes. “She’s sixteen. You got your first kiss when you were fourteen, you told me.”
“Mom!” I cried.
