He ignores me. “It’s a sad state of affairs,” he says, fetching a metal stool from under one of the prep tables and sitting himself down, “when you’ve got a hot teachertutoring youbut can’t let the rest of us get any action.”
I huff out a breath. “Sandwich, pasta, soup, Holden.”
“It’s a breach of the bro-code in every sense of the?—”
“Holden. Which. Do. You. Want?”
He blinks at me. “Wait, that was a question? I assumed you meant you were making me all three.” He flutters his eyelashes. “No?”
I shake my head. “You’re the absolute worst.”
“What? I’m hungry!”
“You should see a doctor.” I make sure the pasta water is still boiling and start pulling things out of the fridge because of course I’m going to feed my brother, even though he’s a pain in the ass. “It’s alarming how much you eat.”
“Pfft.Lies. Robbie eats way more than me, and you know it. Call him right now. He’ll testify.”
“No.” I dump a double portion of soup into another pot and set it to heat.
“Okay, more likely, he’ll come over himself and challenge me to an eating contest,” Holden concedes. “Which just goes to show?—”
“Nothing. It shows nothing. Robbie wouldn’t come over because he and Lissa are off on a date.” I wave a hand vaguely and grab a loaf of bread. “Listening to a band they might want for their wedding.”
“Ah.”
The single syllable reeks of smugness, and my spine goes rigid. I allow for the possibility that Holden actuallydidlearn something in his law enforcement training and that he just got me to confess something.
Motherfucker.
“There’s noah, Holden. Don’tahme,” I say, pointing the knife I’d been using to slice sourdough in his general direction. “Understand?”
Holden doesn’t look amused anymore. He doesn’t even give me shit about knife safety or “threatening an officer” like he does sometimes when we’re playing around. His eyes have gone soft, and his face looks concerned. Pitying, almost.
Which iswayworse than shit-giving.
“I’m sorry, Ames,” he says quietly.
I want to throw the loaf of bread at him. Instead, I hack another slice off the loaf. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I hoped the whole Erick thing meant you’d moved on?—”
“Drop it,” I demand. “Or I will call Ms. Kealy with a hot tip about getting DNA off cardboard, and you’ll never hear the end of it.”
“—and now you’re dating Auden, I thought.”
“Iamdating Auden,” I agree. “In fact, we were just out tonight, eating dinner at the Thai place on Route 2. Great curry.”
I stop slicing when I realize I’ve cut enough for half a dozen sandwiches and lift my gaze to his.
“It’s going well, for your information. I like him a lot, and he… likes me too. There’s a lot of liking happening.”
“Ah,” Holden says.
I narrow my eyes and grab a tomato from the basket on the counter, testing its weight in my hand. “Make that sound again, Sheriff. I dare you.”
He holds up both hands to ward off attack. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. It was a sound of acknowledgment. And hunger. You like Auden, he likes you. Lots of passionate, mutual… liking.”
I set the tomato down and start slicing it. “This was only our… fourth date, I think? Because we’re both really busy, and our schedules don’t always line up. But other than that, we’re great together.”
