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He turned around on her front doorstep right before she slammed it shut on him. “Hey, Bianca?”
“What?” she said, reopening the door.
“Who’s the guy?”
She shut the door.
When Elias came back into the room, his mouth was set and his eyes uncharacteristically hard.
“What?” she asked him.
He shrugged. “You two seem close, is all,” he said.
“We are,” she said, recoiling from Elias’ obvious discomfort.
He stared at her for a moment, the muscle in his jaw jumping. “Alright, I gotta go,” he said, turning to the door suddenly.
“Oh mygod,” Bianca said under her breath. She swept in front of him. “Uh-uh,” she said, shaking her head, her eyes soft. “House is like a brother.”
Elias gave her a warning look. “But he’snotyour brother. Did you two ever date?”
“No, though pretty much everyone in the world has tried to ship us since we were kids. Everyone except us,” she said, stepping toward him and draping her arms over his shoulders.
“Exceptyou,” Elias said, reluctantly giving in to her and putting his hands on her hips. “Ronson has feelings for you.”
“Oh, he totally loves me,” she said, grinning up at him. “But if he thought about it, he’d know I was like another sister. There’s no chemistry between us.”
He gave in a little more and his face relaxed, but he was still upset. “But you two have a pretty deep relationship. It’s obvious in the way you are together,” he said, troubled. Bianca couldn’t argue with that, as she and Maxwell went back years. “And he didn’t like that you had someone here.”
“Neither did my actual brothers if you hadn’t noticed,” she reminded him, in case he thought that something was going on between Maxwell and her.
He thought about that for a moment. “Yeah, why is everyone reacting so much to this?” He searched for the right way to put it. “To my being here with you. Spending the night.”
Bianca shrugged. “I don’t know. Could be because I don’t do this very often? Or, ever, really?” she said, cringing at how that sounded. “I mean I’ve obviously dated. It’s just… this is different.”
Elias was silent for a moment. “Good,” he said. He brushed his lips across hers. “And now Ireallyhave to go,” he said, and after a few more kisses, he did.
Bianca spent the rest of the morning at the shelter helping Abbe with the animals while hearing about all of the different hoops she’d have to jump through in order to really work at the shelter and not just help out every now and again.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Abbe said as she sent a link to an online class Bianca could take to start the process for. “It’s quite a time commitment to get certified.”
“Oh, yeah, I don’t seehowI’m going to fit this three-week class into my busy schedule of doing nothing except taking Jinx out for his drag twice a day,” she said sarcastically.
Abbe laughed. “He still hates going for walks?”
“Won’t do it. I carry him,” Bianca said, petting Jinx.
Abbe looked out the office door, and then came back to Bianca, frowning. “Don’t get mad,” she said. “But I told your brother you’re here.”
“And he’s coming,” Bianca said for her.
“Well, he’s here,” Abbe said, grimacing in apology, which quickly turned to sympathy. “I think they’re being very unfair, and I’ve told Rafe as much. It’s not like Cassiel vettedmebefore Rafe and I started dating.”
“Actually, he did,” Bianca told her. She rolled her eyes jokingly. “But since you’re perfect no one had any objections.”
Abbe reached out and squeezed Bianca’s arm. “Your family is very weird.”
“Yuh.” Bianca sighed, and braced herself as her brother came through the front door and joined them in the office. But rather than looking angry at her, as Bianca supposed he would be for ignoring his calls, Rafe seemed concerned.
