He could be stoic and professional. He had figured that out easily enough.
But this thing that Walker did, he just didn’t have that.
Neither did Lila.
Lila was also hanging off against the wall, looking like she would rather be anywhere else. Probably out running with the wild horses.
He crossed the room to where his younger sister was standing. “How are you doing?”
“Fine,” she said.
“Yeah? You don’t look like you’re having fun.”
“This isn’t really my thing,” she said. “I mean, it’s great. It’s really cool. But at this point, there are a lot of people here, and I don’t know any of them.”
“Lies. You know me. You know Nolan.”
“I’d rather jam an ice pick through my eye.”
“Okay. You know Marlowe and Cara. Laney.”
Lila hesitated. “Yes. And they’re very nice.”
“But?”
“I don’t really know how to do that. Have… Friends. Especially female friends. Not in that way that like I’m not like other girls or whatever. Just in the way that in school, no one was nice to me, and all I had was… you. And Walker.” She looked sincerely distressed before she said the next name. “And Nolan.”
“Sorry, kid,” he said. “I did really try.”
“I know you did,” she said. “You did more than try. You’re the best older brother. In the world. Hands-down. No contest. But… that doesn’t mean I know what to do at a party.”
“Yeah. BecauseIdon’t know what to do at a party. Walker should’ve taught us both.”
“Walker is possessed of dark magic,” Lila muttered.
Cody chuckled. And at that moment, he looked up and saw Walker talking to Marlowe. Marlowe looked at ease talking to Walker in a way that she never looked when talking to him, and he became very aware of the fact that she had done a lot of communicating with Walker over the last little bit.
“Yeah. Definitelydark magic,” he said.
He waited for a breath, then another. And then he decided he just couldn’t deal with it. “Excuse me.”
He crossed the barn, making a beeline for his brother and Marlowe.
And when he was only a couple feet away, Marlowe looked up, her eyes going round. She was frozen like that. She didn’t smile, didn’t offer a greeting. Nothing of the kind, in fact.
“Hello,” he said.
It hadn’t occurred to him until right then that she might be upset with the fact that he hadn’t contacted her since that afternoon.
He had thought that she might be glad about that. Because they had professionalism to worry about all of that sort of thing. But maybe he had misread the situation.
“Hi,” she said.
Walker looked between the two of them. “Well. I’m going to go circulate. It was nice to talk to you, Marlowe,” he said.
Later, he was going to kick Walker’s ass. He asked for this. He knew exactly what he was doing. That jackass. He had baited Cody over here by chatting Marlowe up, and now he was leaving, so that the two of them could talk.
Marlowe looked up at him, beneath the veil of her eyelashes, and dammit all, he was a sucker for that. For the way that she was gazing his direction.
