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Jade: I’m surprised you don’t feed him pink glitter.
Alex: Oh, I did when I was a kid. That vet bill was humongous.
Alex: Sadly, Mr. Shakespeare isn’t with us anymore.
Alex: Not because of the glitter. He died of old age.
“This girl,” I murmur to myself.
I don’t even know how she got to me with her twenty-four-seven good mood, but her sweetness is becoming my daily dose of sunshine. Especially in a house as gloomy as the brothers’.
Rose: Aren’t you meant to be in class?
I roll my eyes, imagining Alex doing the same. Rose White is weirdly motherly for someone who says she doesn’t care about shit.
A hand grabs my ankle, and I scream from surprise my body is pulled from under the van.
Elliot’s face appears above me. Without a word, but with a beaming smile on his handsome face, he shows me the brown paper bag he’s holding.
“Breakfast, my love.”
I ignore the nickname that makes my insides twist with excitement, and keep my face blank.
If he thinks he’s getting away with calling me a liar. He can think again. I’ve been sleeping in Ethan’s bed for a week, and I don’t plan on changing that any time soon. Elliot has been leaving me alone, but I wonder how thin his patience is getting.
I need Ethan’s soothing voice when I fall asleep. The smell of him on his crumpled sheets. I can’t deal with Elliot’s fake sweetness. I know it’s just another mind twist from him.
No one was in the house when I woke up this morning. It was around six, and both brothers were gone, so I forced myself to shower, got changed in some clothes, and got back to working on the van.
I sit up and check the time on the old, plastic clock hung on the garage wall. It’s eleven a.m. I’ve been at this for hours and barely made a difference.
I eye the bag held by Elliot’s strong hands. “I’m not hungry.”
He nods, his smile not faltering one bit. “Okay, but I’m assuming you didn’t have breakfast, and I can’t have you starving yourself. Plus, it was Ethan who got it for you. So, really, you wouldn’t be accepting gift from me, but from him.”
I did skip breakfast. I pinch my lips, looking down at my stomach. I’ve been eating well since coming back here. Eating what I want in quantities I want rather than starving myself like usual. I can already see the difference from the small bump rather than the flat stomach I usually have.
“If you keep feeding me like this, I’ll go back to being ugly.” I look up. “You wouldn’t want your toy to be ugly.”
There’s a flash of anger in his eyes, his smile straining. He takes a step back, like trying to stop himself from doing something stupid. “My love,” he says calmly. “I’m in a situation where I want to make it up to you. I’m deeply sorry for the state I put you in, and I want to take care of you, to show you how much I regret calling you a liar when you opened up to me. I truly am sorry, Jade.”
He looks away, comes closer, and squats in front of me. The hand not holding the bag cups my cheek before sliding to my loose hair and grabbing the strands tightly.
“But if you ever talk shit about yourself like that again, I’m going to have to punish you. Hurt you until you learn your lesson that no one talks about my woman that way. Not even yourself.”
Every time he calls me his, or his woman, or anything to do with being in a relationship with him…it gets less strange. Even while being mad at him and sleeping in Ethan’s bed, it’s becoming something I like to hear, and it worries me.
Dropping the bag next to me, he stands up. I keep my eyes on the brown bag rather than him. I need my heart to calm down before I can look into his angelic eyes again.
“I’ll give you space to work today. But I want you to be present at Ethan’s birthday party tonight.”
“Awesome,” I snort. “I can’t wait.”
“I’m not doing this to annoy you. I’m assuming the person after you is from NSC since we found a new note while we were at Logan and Racer’s repair shop. But that might be too simple of an assumption. I need to see if anyone tries something tonight.”
I put two thumbs up in front of me. “Even better. I’m bait.”
He shakes his head, not willing to get into an argument I so desperately need. I want to scream at him and hit him. Anything to let some anger out.
