I shoved a bite of pavlova into my mouth to hide the very real heat crawling up my neck.
Snack, indeed.
Tane cleared his throat, grumbled something unintelligible and went to the kitchen to get more drinks, which left me and Kai alone.
He just sat there with his arms crossed, lower lip pushed out, glaring at the floor like it had personally wronged him.
“You good?” I sipped the last of my water.
“No.”
I blinked, amused. “You look like someone stole your birthday.”
“My dignity,” he said flatly. “He stole my dignity.”
“Please,” I scoffed. “You never had any to begin with.”
His head snapped up. “Wow. Harsh.”
“True.”
“I’m not slow,” he muttered. “I just — was gullible. Once.”
“And the Christmas pageant?”
“Twice.”
“And the magpie?”
He huffed exasperatedly. “Okay, maybe three times.”
I slid forward in my chair and nudged his outstretched ankle with my foot. “You know I’m not laughing at you because I think you’re an idiot, right?”
Kai looked up at me, his eyes soft and unsure.
“Then why are you laughing?” he asked quietly.
“Because you were a dramatic little menace. And because it’s adorable.”
His pout wavered.
Eventually, Tane returned with more drinks, ready to launch into a story about Kai accidentally joining a folk dance troupe at the age of thirteen
“I didn’t know it was a troupe, I thought it was a line!” Kai exclaimed.
I laughed until my sides hurt, and somewhere between Kai’s horrified “UNCLE, STOP” and Tane miming a folk-dance kick, I realized I hadn’t felt this light in … alongtime. Suddenly, my chest tightened with an odd, unwelcome little pull.
Because I knew better.
I knew better than to get comfortable — to enjoy him, to enjoy this.
Kai wasn’t mine. But when he grinned at me — big, bright, stupidly warm — and nudged his knee against mine like he didn’t even think about it…
I could feel my reality shifting ever so slightly.
Like gravity had opinions I wasn’tprepared to hear.
I cleared my throat and sat up straighter. “Alright, one more story.” I pointed at Tane. “Then I’m going home before Kai dissolves into a puddle.”
