"So youdoadmit it was you," I interrupt, narrowing my eyes at him.
"I—okay, yes. But I didn't drinkhalfof it. I had two cups." He holds up two fingers. "Maybe three, tops."
Knox clears his throat. "I also... had some."
I turn.
"It was late," he says. "Couldn't sleep. Fun fact, it didn't help." He looks at the table.
Mason finally puts the plate he's been scrubbing on the drying rack. Reaches for the towel. Dries his hands.
"I may have also had some." A pause. "It's good tea."
I cross my arms over my chest. "Anything else of mine you've been helping yourselves to, or is it just the tea?"
"In our defense," Arthur says, "we're used to communal—" He stops. Looks at the spatula. "We used to share everything with..." He trails off. "You know."
Yeah. I know.
Jessica. Who is probably fast asleep next to Grant right now. And here I am, standing in a cold kitchen, throwing a little tantrum over stolen tea.
When did I get so fun?
"We'll replace it," Arthur says, recovering. "All of it. You want some coffee in the meantime? Fresh pot."
"I'm good," I say, already losing steam on being annoyed. "But since we're on the topic of household mysteries—who keeps setting the thermostat back to sixty-three?"
Mason, who has stolen Arthur's last pancake and is calmly putting it on his own plate, freezes.
"Wait," he says. "You've been turning itup?"
"To sixty-seven, every night for five days."
"I thought it was broken." He puts the plate down.
Arthur drags a hand slowly down his face.
"So let me get this straight," I say. "You thought the thermostat wasbroken. It never occurred to you that maybe a person who lives here was changing it?"
"Who turns the heat up before bed?"
"Who assumes it'sbrokeninstead of asking if someone turned it up?"
Knox pinches the bridge of his nose. "Okay, well, now we know. Sixty-seven. Final answer. Nobody touches it."
"She can't just decide that for—"
"Sixty-seven, Mason," Knox says.
An alarm goes off. Knox picks up his phone and kills it.
"Okay," he says. "We need to be at Ben and Harper's couples shower by two."
"I know," I say.
"Just making sure."
Mason grunts. "Hopefully Grant caught something and won't show."
