“And boys drool!” I finish.
My dad, sitting on the couch next to Van, snorts.
“Remember that,” Van echoes. “No boyfriends until you’re at least thirty.”
“Thirty!” Vivi shouts. “Daddy, that’s so old!”
A laugh bursts from my mouth. “Yeah, Van. That’s soold.”
He turned thirty over the summer.
Van flattens his lips before catching my eye. “Are you waiting until you're thirty too? Considering you’ve never had a boyfriend.”
I huff. “That’s not true!”
“Sebastian doesn't count,” Graham, who just arrived, says as he passes through the kitchen to get to the other side of the couch.
I cross my arms and glare at my brothers.
Sebastian was my boyfriend in elementary school.
I’ve had plenty of boyfriends since then. Only, I’ve kept most of them a secret because the moment I’m interested in a guy and my brothers find out about it, he suddenly disappears.
“And Patrick doesn’t either.”
I spin angrily at the sound of Noah’s voice from behind. “Yeah, because of you!”
Van and Graham had already graduated high school by the time I entered for my freshman year, but Noah was a senior, with Beck just one grade below him.
Try having a boyfriend with two overbearing older brothers ruling the school.
Noah shrugs, heading for my mom, who’s busy cutting vegetables for the salad.
“Don’t date my friends, and we won’t have any issues,” he notes, leaning in to give her a kiss on the cheek.
She presses her face toward him. “Leave your sister alone.”
With Vivian’s back to me, I send my brother the finger. He repays me by pulling a French fry out of his hoodie pocket before shoving it in his mouth.
My eyes grow wide.Betrayal.
Knowing Beck, he’s probably parked out on the street, piling his own fries down his throat before coming inside tofeignhunger.
Speak of the devil.
Beck appears beneath the archway, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. I casually walk over to him and give the air a sniff. He smells like the aftermath of a late night: grease and fast food.
We walk side by side toward the living room.
“Where’s my Diet Coke?” I whisper.
“Gave it to your boyfriend,” he answers, lowering his voice. “Oh, wait. You don’t have one.”
Graham coughs to cover up his laugh.
Van is engrossed in a conversation with Dad while Noah is still secretly eating his fries.
I silently snarl at all of them and disappear into the dining room to help Vivi set the table. And by help, I mean quietly going behind her to put the silverware in the correct spot.
