“You’re Paloma’s other son.”
I nod. She takes a deep breath that makes the light flash across her necklace, and I focus intently on the wall behind her before I can notice anything else about her.
“Okay,” she says, nodding, like she’s getting a handle on the situation. “Okay. Okay. So.”
My heart is hammering in my chest, and I can feel the flush creeping over my skin, down the back of my neck, because this “no big deal, low-key, casual” dinner just got considerably more fraught. Not only would I like to make a good impression on my future stepfather, now I have to do it while pretending I don’t already know his daughter, who I have personally brought to orgasm twice. Oh, god.
We stand there for another moment. I give her my bestwell, this is weirdsmile, and she makes a face that probably meansyeah, really weird. She looks up at me and is about to say something when my brother appears at the doorway to the living room.
“You get lost?” he says, glancing between us.
“Nope,” I say, and she says “Sorry,” and we nearly run into each other as we walk toward Bastien, who narrows his eyes at me.
This is fine. This is totally fine.
We siton the same side of the long, dining room table, and I make Bastien sit between us. I’m pretty sure that if I have to look at her I’ll accidentally stab myself in the eye with a fork or something.
It goes about how you’d expect, and luckily no one expects too much of the fuckup son.
After dinner, I volunteer to clear the dishes from the table, and after some half-assed arguing, our hosts agree to let me. Thank god, because I’m about five minutes from vibrating out of my skin.
Bastien wrangles his way into helping, and everyone else heads back into the living room while we clear dishes and scrape plates and load the dishwasher. We probably do that part wrong—I’ve never loaded a stranger’s dishwasher correctly in my life—but at least we try, right?
“So,” Bastien says, sounding far too casual, as we finish. He leans against the counter as I dry my hands. “What the hell?”
“I didn’t load it that badly.”
“Remember when you forced me to sit next to Madeline at dinner?”
“I didn’tforceyou,” I say, and also, “What’s wrong with sitting next to Madeline? She seems nice.”
I’ve never seen my brother’s eyebrows go that high. “You tell me,” he says. “You’re the one acting like she’s radioactive.”
“She’s not—” Noshitshe’s not radioactive, shutup.“I thought you two got along.”
“Did she say something to you?”
Yeah, she saidTell me how you want me,and then I lied about being on vacation. “No.”
“She’s a little standoffish,” he says, shrugging. “Wouldn’t really look at me. I got bad vibes from her tonight.”
“She’s not like that,” I say, the words coming out before I can think about them. “Bad vibes? What the fuck? Did she say something to you?”
“No! No,” Bastien says, and now he looks bewildered. “Sorry—no, I just thought…”
My little brother stares at me with a stare I really don’t like.
“Wait,” he hisses, suddenly whispering. “Is this part of your mating ritual?”
I am going to die, and I’m going to drag him to hell with me.
“No,” I say. I know I’m beet red.
“It is! This is a straight people thing!” he whispers, gleeful. “Where you’re so embarrassed you think she’s hot that you have to hide! Itisweird that you’re into our stepsister,” he adds seriously.
“She’s not our stepsister yet, and I’m not into her,” I lie.
“You totally want to bang our stepsister.”
