“Me? Fine.Pfft.I’m always fine!” I snagged my plate and one of the serving bowls and staggered toward the kitchen, where my mother was already scooping leftovers into containers with ruthlessefficiency.
I dropped the plate and bowl on the counter with a clatter and pointed at Theoaccusingly.
“You!” I hissed. “You have betrayed the sacred bonds ofbrotherhood.”
Theo looked up from the sink he was filling with steaming water and blinked. “What?”
“Whaddya mean,what? You told Daniel that embarrassing story about me,” I whispered. “That’swhat.”
“Jules, I’m sorry. But I swear, it’s not a big deal,” Constantine said, stacking plates for Theo to rinse. “Daniel thought it wascute.”
I shook my head, even though it made the world wobble. “That’s beside the point. You are abetrayer.”
Con and Theo exchanged an amused look. “A betrayer?” Theosaid.
“Anoathbreaker.”
Constantine snickered. “I think I like drunk Jules. Tell usmore.”
“No,” I whispered. “And lower your voice. This isprivate.”
“Should we tell him he’s yelling?” Theo asked out of the corner of hismouth.
“Boys, stop this right now,” my mother said. “Leave your brother alone. And Jules, honey, maybe you should go sit down in the living room, hmm? I’ll serve your breadpudding.”
“I don’t want to sit in the living room,” I said, enunciating each word clearly. “I want to discuss the treachery that has been perpetrated at our owntable.”
Mama’s eyes widened. “Oh, heavens. How much wine didyou—?”
“You were unkind,” I told her flatly. “You promised me you wouldn’tbe.”
She pursed her lips. “I wasnot—”
“Oh, you so were,” Theo said, nodding. As the baby of the family, he’d been the one who’d never learned not to talk back. “If any of us had treated a guest that way, you’d be telling us how Dad wasrooooollingin his grave rightnow.”
“TheodoreAntonio!”
“Just sayin’.” He held up both palmsinnocently.
“Shut it, Theo,” Con said. “Mom’s being overprotective because her chicken’s about to fly the coop.Finally. But she’ll get over it. Right?” He gave my mother a sideways glance and she went to get more dishes with a huff. “But listen, Julian. Are you listening?” He braced a hand on either side of my face and rolled my head around. Or maybe he was standing still and the world wasrolling.
“I’mlistening.”
“Daniel is so far gone on you, there’s nothing we could say to stop it even if we wanted to. Okay? He’s head over heels, looking at you like you’d look at a brand new JD-whatshisface novel. You getme?”
I frowned. They had no idea that it was all a lie. Aruse. That Daniel was only my fake boyfriend and he wasn’t reallygoneon me at all. That he might even be thinking of leaving town at some point. They didn’t know I was already mourning a relationship that would only ever exist in mymind.
Competent, practicalJulian.
What ajoke.
“He looks at you, you know,” Theo said softly. “When you’re not looking athim.”
I blinked. “That happens sometimes in conversations, Theo,” I said patiently. “People look at each other at different times. It’sokay.”
Theo dropped his head and laughed silently, his stomach rolling withit.
“What Theo means,” Con interrupted, leaning in so he was practically whispering in my ear, “is that he looks at you in a way that shows he cares about you. When someone says something funny, he looks at you to make sure you’re laughing. And when we were giving you shit, he was ready to throw down to defend you. Hecaresabout you, Jules. You don’t have to be embarrassed about anything with a guy who looks at you likethat.”
