Page 92 of Wicked Brutal

“Book?”

“Maybe.”

“Something you’re going to publish?” Her pen stops. There. I grin.

She looks over at me. “You’re annoying.”

“You should.”

“Should what?”

“Publish something.”

“I haven’t even written anything yet.”

“You’re writing something right now.”

“Three pages isn’t a book.”

“Seems like a start.”

She looks down at the notebook, and I don’t push. She’ll get there. Her teacher saw it too. The difference is I get to keep reminding her until she believes it.

I lean over and kiss her temple. Tobias looks up from the floor. “Gross.” I kiss her again. “Stop.”

“Now I’m doing it because you hate it.”

Ally laughs. “Don’t encourage him.”

“I don’t like kissing,” Tobias declares.

“You will.”

“No.”

“Excellent. Stay like that until you’re thirty.”

He looks offended. “That’s old.”

Dad lowers his book again. “Watch it.”

I reach for the bowl of pretzels sitting beside Ally. She moves it. I reach farther. She moves it again. “Seriously?”

“They’re mine.”

“They were mine when I brought them in here.”

“You left them unattended.”

“I went to the bathroom.”

“Exactly.”

“That isn’t how ownership works.”

“It is now.”

I stare at her as she eats one, and Dad laughs. I point at him. “You’re encouraging theft.”