“I am not buying Kraig and Dani some sort of love nest!” I jump out of my seat while Finn curses and grabs my arm.
“This is what happens when you spend your formative years six inches away from a TV in a cellar.” Connor leans back in his chair.
“Did you eat all of the bread?” Aaron glares at him.
“Graham, you can’t be possessive about this girl,” Finn tells me. “You’re already using up all of our collective luck on the fact that you haven’t been busted for kidnapping.”
“Can all of youshut up?” Grayson looms over the table.
“But Graham—”
“Shut. Up. We are not talking about that here in public.”
“Paranoid and crazy. Runs in the family.” Connor tips his chair forward. “So how about that weather we’re having?”
Grayson unwraps his napkin, carefully laying out his silverware.
“Cloudy with a chance of a mental breakdown.” Spencer snickers.
“This is a perfectly rational response. Kraig has always tried to one-up me, he’s always hated me, and now he’s trying to steal my girlfriend.” I glower. “It’s a power move. I can’t let him get away with this.”
I’m aware that my voice is taking on that hysterical edge.
But I can’t stop it.
“Why can’t people just do what I say?” My fist slams on the table, sending the glassware rattling. “We wouldn’t have any issue if she would just listen to me and do what I tell her.”
Grayson grabs the back of my jacket and shakes me roughly.
“Gentle, gentle—he hasn’t been sleeping.” Spencer grabs Grayson’s wrist.
“You haven’t been sleeping?” Grayson demands.
“Fuck you. I slept on Friday night. A lot.”
“I have a straitjacket in my trunk,” Aaron says flatly.
I shake off my oldest brother. “I’m fine. I’m completely fine. I don’t know why everyone thinks I’m not fine.”
I snatch the second bread basket before Connor can take it.
“I’m very completely fine.”
As I’m walkingout of the restaurant, my phone beeps.
For a second, I pray it’s Dani.
Kraig:Hear you and Dani are on the rocks.
Kraig:When you break up with her, can I have her?
23
DANI
“It’s working!” Piper crows the next morning in the coffee shop at the base of the Svensson Investment tower.
“What? No, it’s not. Graham’s furious with me. He screamed at me and told me to get out.”
