He swallowed, mentally slapping himself from wandering into dangerous storage room territory. Where were they? Oh yes. She was about to make some sort of lewd comment or snarky reply. For the first time ever, he was eager to hear it.
Her gaze lowered, hiding her eyes from him. “What did Kati do to get her phone taken away?”
No sexy remark? Oh. Okay.
He controlled his disappointment and digested her question, hesitating to answer truthfully, that she had been the source of disagreement between him and Kati. Did he want to lose this easy camaraderie, the novelty of sitting in Akira Mori’s presence without pride or anger interfering with their conversation?
This was too new. Too fresh. So he merely looked down at the box and started to manipulate the panels. “She was unkind to someone I care about.”
Chapter Twelve
A throat cleared from the vicinity of the entrance to the kitchen. Jacob broke off in the middle of whistling “Bad Romance”—the song was too damn catchy—and glanced up from where he was loading the dishwasher. “Oh. Hey.”
Kati linked her hands behind her. Dressed in black tights, black shorts, and a tight pink top, her backpack slung over one shoulder, she was ready for school. “Hey.”
He straightened. It had been quiet around the house, both of them communicating with each other only when necessary, with stilted, abrupt language.
He hated the strained awkwardness between them, but he wasn’t about to give in on such an important principle.
However, this was the first overture Kati had made, and he was prepared to accept it like the gracious adult he was. Jacob nodded at her hair. “You changed your style.”
Self-consciously, she fingered the ends of her neon-purple hair. The dye jobs she did at home—when he cleaned later, he was certain to find splashes of purple on the bathroom counter. She must have gone to a salon yesterday, though, because she’d chopped the strands in a shorter, asymmetrical cut.
“You don’t like it?”
“No, no,” he hurried out.Anything’s better than the puke green.“It’s striking. Very cool.”
“Thanks.” She continued to watch him, hands shoved into the pockets of her shorts.
He glanced at the watch on his wrist. “You’re going to be late for school.”
“I’m okay.” She wandered into the kitchen. “It’s a late-start day.”
“Ah.” Usually he had Kati’s schedule memorized. But it hadn’t seemed quite that important in the past couple of weeks.
The kid was capable of knowing when she needed to be somewhere, he told himself, tamping down the spurt of guilt over not paying attention to her the way he always did. “Right.”
“I can do the dishes, if you want, when I come home from school,” she offered.
He flicked his wet hands. “No problem. I got it.”
Kati nodded. “Oh. Okay.”
When she lingered, he finally took pity on her. “Something on your mind?”
“Haven’t seen you much lately.”
“You’ve had all those play rehearsals.” He turned back to the sink. Kati was directing the spring play at school, a rather convenient distraction. It had meant there was no one at home to question why he, the borderline hermit, had spent five nights away from his cave, staying out progressively later. He’d managed to beat Kati home most nights, though a couple of times it had been close, with him flopping on the couch and turning on the TV in time to hear the jingle of her keys.
The previous evening, though, he hadn’t been able to manage that trick. He couldn’t be blamed. Akira had looked up from her gyro and asked him whether he’d made any progress in plotting his new book. The next thing he knew, they were hotly debating the kind of weapon his heroine would favor. That had led to a discussion on gun control…and somehow, the existence of aliens.
When he reached home well past midnight, he had found the house dark, Kati tucked into her bed fast asleep.
“You weren’t here when I got home last night,” Kati said, somehow divining his thoughts. She crossed her arms over her chest tightly, as if holding herself back. Her lower lip pushed out. “Where were you?”
He took his time rinsing the pan he had used to make eggs. Meanwhile, his mind raced.
Since his brothers were nosy, they had already asked whether Akira had forgiven him. He had said she was receptive and left it, thanking God they hadn’t said anything to Kati and didn’t pester him any further.
