Page 155 of Please Hate Me

His nose wrinkled, and he jerked back.

“Why the fuck would I do that?”

My chest fell with a sigh of relief. IfLucianwere being nice to me, I’d officially know there was something to worry about.

“As long as it’s not that question, you can say anything.”

He blinked slowly as he tucked my hair behind my ear, leaving his hand to linger on my cheek. Instinctively, I melted into his palm.

“I’m really glad you came back,” he whispered.

He pressed his forehead to mine as he spoke, allowing me to breathe him in.

“If you tell anyone I said that, I’ll call you a fucking liar.”

I nodded, but I didn’t believe him. If he was glad I was back, why wouldn’t he tell his kids we were dating?

Lucian withdrew his hand, leaving the air between us to chill the remaining warmth from his touch. Then he stood, taking a moment to stretch. I tried not to stare at the thin strip of skin that appeared around his waist as he lifted his arms above his head.

“I got dinner.”

“Oooh, what did you get me?” I cleared my lingering apprehension and forced a happy face.

The twitch in Lucian’s lips spread to a full grin.

“Your favorite: a cylindrical quesadilla.”

The look on Lucian’s face told me he knew he was being an asshole—not like I ever questioned that fact. It was one of my favorite things about Lucian; he was well aware of what he was, and he didn’t care. You could either like it or leave it. He wouldn’t change just to please anyone else, and I envied him for that.

I was starting to get used to seeing a packed dining room table. Family dinner was one of those things I didn’t realize I was missing until I fully settled into the routine of the family around me. Along with dinner for everyone, Lucian had purchased asmall mountain of chips and every dip on the menu at the local Mexican restaurant. It was the perfect meal for sharing.

“Did you get the photo albums?” Sophia called.

“Yep.” He sat at one of the empty seats, and that’s when I realized some of the chairs were missing. Usually, there were eight in total, which would have left four empty seats for me to choose from, but the only spot remaining was the one between Sophia and Lucian.

“What are you looking at? Come sit down,” Lucian ordered.

“If you’d like, I can move so you can be beside Cameron,” Sebastian offered. I was a little shocked that he didn’t tell Lucian to swap seats with him so he could sit beside me. Was Seb finally learning to get along with everyone?

“That’s okay.” I held up a hand. “You look comfortable next to Cameron.”

They looked at each other with a shared expression that rested somewhere between friendly and understanding. It wasn’t quite romantic, but they were acting more comfortable with each other. This whole situation was so peaceful, it was surreal.

Sophia pulled out the empty chair before patting it. My chest was full as I finally meandered toward the table. I cautiously sat down like this was all some sick dream, unable to shake the feeling that I shouldn’t be here.

“Okay, so here’s the ground rules,” Lucian stated, plucking a chip off the mound before using it to gesture around the table. “The only one permitted to ask questions about these pictures is Cameron. The rest of us lived it. If you don’t remember, sucks to fucking suck.”

Sebastian shot Lucian a narrow gaze, and Lucian blew him a kiss. Seb dragged a hand down his face as Sophia laughed. Her breath was ripe with the scent of sweet lime and tequila. She was holding some kind of strange black-market drink pouch— a clearbag filled with a green, icy slush. Sophia had stabbed a pink curly straw through a sticker in the top.

“I didn’t know you could get alcohol to-go from restaurants.” That seemed like a great way to promote drinking and driving.

“You usually can’t, but all of Hartwood knows Luci is sober. Nobody’s worried about him drinking in the car on the way home, so they make exceptions when he’s picking up takeout.”

Sophia leaned across me, tapping Lucian’s nose with her finger. I wondered if there was a story behind that, but I didn’t want to ruin the evening by opening what might be a can of worms. Instead, I just accepted that Lucian had probably done something stupid, and now Sophia was punishing him by making him bring her margaritas. That was good enough for me.

“Rule two.” Lucian grabbed Sophia’s hand and forced her to hold up two fingers before dropping it. Sophia let it fall onto my stomach for a moment before taking it back to pick up her drink. I smiled at the gesture.

Lucian continued: “No one is allowed to fuck Sophia. She’s drunk.”

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