Page 86 of The Stalker Snafu

He grinned. “Pastries are a big part of the breakfasts my mom made. I try to stay away from too many carbs, but I can’t turn down a ham sandwich and sweet rolls every once in a while.”

“Who could?” I mumbled rhetorically while inhaling every buttery bit of baked goodness. “Even Noah couldn’t say no to these, and he didn’t eat a single piece of candy on Halloween—something I didn’t even think was physically possible.”

Adrian’s grin slowly faded, and he cleared his throat.

“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head. “It’s just hard not to question what the truth is. You seem important to Kincaid—hell, he had me watch over you—but he never told us about a girlfriend.”

I chewed on my lip, forgetting all about the pastries. I’d been so focused on how much Noah’s lying hurt me; I hadn’t really given much thought to how his friends had to be feeling. It made sense why Rafe didn’t believe me—who’d want to believe that someone they’d been friends with for years was hiding a girlfriend from them?

And why?

My stomach sank further as I watched Adrian struggle with the same questions.

“Hey… Don’t think too much about it.” I shifted my weight, wanting to make him feel better. “I mean, it really hasn’t been that long. I’ve only been with him for a couple months now, right? And he hid you guys from me, too. I’m obviously not that important to him.”

Adrian’s dark eyes lingered on me, until he shook his head and started sliding pastries onto a cooling rack. “Forget I said anything. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Kincaid will tell us the truth when we find him.”

“It’s so weird hearing you guys call him Kincaid. His name is Noah,” I muttered, almost to myself.

Adrian laughed dryly, nudging the last pastry off his baking sheet. “To you, maybe. Not to us.”

“Does he call you by your last names?” I asked, curious.

He cocked his head to the side, eyeing the stovetop and moving a few pans around before he answered. “Not usually. Sometimes he’ll call Rafe ‘Pierce,’ which isn’t confusing at all for me.”

I sighed at the mention of his twin. How could two guys who were carbon copies of each other be so different? I could still picture Rafe scowling at me the day before, so I felt inclined to share my woes with Adrian. “Your brother hates me.”

His lips twitched, and he focused on the stovetop again while I drooled over the cooling pastries. “He doesn’t hate you. We just don’t understand where you come into play here or what the truth is.”

I winced, unsure if I was embarrassed or disappointed. “So you think I’m lying, too?”

“I don’t know what to believe.” He turned off the burner for the bacon, which sizzled delightfully. “But nobody hates you.”

“Speak for yourself,” a gruff voice chimed in from the hallway, followed by the devil himself turning the corner with a frown aimed at his brother.

Great.

Rafe was here.

Just what my morning had been missing.

CHAPTER 33

An Interrogation

In contrast to Adrian’s low-slung pajama pants, Rafe was already dressed in dark jeans and an even darker short sleeve-shirt. What was he doing here so early?

“You ever heard of keeping things private, Rian?” Rafe asked his brother.

Adrian sighed as he rummaged through the cabinets and pulled out plates and forks. He leveled his gaze on his brother. “She could be telling the truth. Ever heard of giving someone the benefit of the doubt?”

A grateful smile appeared before I could stop it, but Rafe’s snort wiped it away. He looked ready to skin me alive with a vegetable peeler. “So she can take advantage of our generosity? I know Bishop already spent money on her.”

I flinched at his implication. “I told Oliver I didn’t want the tablet.”

Rafe smiled, but there was a sharp edge to it. “And I’m sure you were really insistent, right up to the part where you used it anyway, kitten.”