Page 85 of For the Win

“Want to hit the pool?”I ask Arya.

“I don’t know.”She flicks her gaze around.“I don’t want to be the only one.”

I dig into a bowl of Chex Mix, carefully avoiding the pretzels.“Okay, we’ll wait a bit.”

Arya picks up the pretzels I just rejected, then the cheese crackers, and munches them.

I stare at her.

“What?”she asks, about to pop another pretzel in her mouth.

“Don’t you like the Chex?”

She blinks.“Um, no.They’re cereal.Not snack food.”

I break out into a huge grin.“You are fucking perfect.”

“What?”Her eyebrows pull together.

“Ilovethe Chex.And the little breadsticks.Hate pretzels, and the cheese crackers are meh.Therefore, we are the perfect Chex Mix combination.”

She looks down at the bowl, then back up at me.

Oh shit.Did I screw up again?

Then she laughs.“I guess you’re right.But how can you possibly hate pretzels?”

I shrug.“They’re dry.”I point at Ash.“When we buy Chex Mix, there’s always pretzels and cheese crackers left that nobody wants.We like the same things.”

“Well, save them for me.”

I smile at her, warmth flooding my chest.

“Are you talking about me?”Ash says.

“Yeah.”I gesture at the snack bowl.“Arya likes the pretzels and cheese crackers.”

Ash laughs.“How does she feel about hard-boiled eggs?”

Arya wrinkles her nose.“I like them...?”

“Do you like the white better, or the yolk?”I ask.

“I like the whole thing.”

“Ugh.Damn.”

She laughs.“Why?”

“Ash and I love the egg white, not so much the yolk.When we were kids, we’d give all the yolks to Noah.He loved them.”

“Still do,” he says.“You guys are weird.”

Arya is looking more and more relaxed, laughing at our stories and jokes.“Okay,”

She says to me, “Here’s one for you: do you like to eat the half-popped kernels left in the bottom of a bowl of popcorn?”

“What?”I gape at her.“Who would do that?”

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