Page 52 of The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad

“Yeah,” Colton said. “Is that a problem?”

Kyle shook his head. “I don’t know if it’s a problem or not, but you have to admit, it is freaking weird.”

“It’s on my list, Kyle,” I said to clear up any confusion. “Making pancakes from scratch is #21.”

Kyle still looked suspicious. Suspicious of what I wasn’t exactly sure, but I didn’t like the frown on his normally happy face.

“He’s just being a good coach,” I added.

Colton leaned over to his brother. “She means the best coach.”

I rolled my eyes but smiled.

“And now, she’s smiling at you,” Kyle sighed. “My God, what have I done? I feel like I’m on a different planet or something.”

“I’m not smiling at him,” I retorted. “I’m smiling at the pancakes.”

Colton leaned in again. “She was smiling at me. I’ve totally replaced you as Sadie’s favorite.”

Kyle elbowed his brother in the stomach for that one, and Colton grunted out a laugh.

“Hey man, I was kidding,” Colton said. “What were you guys doing before I got here?”

“We were about to sit down and watch a bunch of highly underrated dance movies,” Kyle said, smiling at Colton’s grimace. “Did you want to watch, too?”

“I don’t know,” Colton said. “Dance movies aren’t really my thing.”

“You should stay,” I said.

As both pairs of eyes flew to me, I realized how odd that sounded, coming from my mouth, directed at Colton. Honestly, I realized it even as I’d said the words but hadn’t been able to stop them.

“After we make the pancakes, there’s going to be a ton of food. There’s still a bunch of doughnuts left,” I rambled on. “Kyle and I couldn’t possibly eat all that. And even when Mom wakes up, she doesn’t like eating a lot for breakfast. So…like I said, you should stay, Colton. If you want.”

Kyle was looking at me like I was nuts. Colton looked like he was trying not to laugh. And I felt my cheeks begin to redden as I stood there.

“I’ll stay,” Colton said. “Thanks for the invite, Sadie.”

Once he had walked past us into the house, I turned to Kyle, who was still staring at me with a what-the-heck-was-that expression.

“Hey,” I said, patting him on the arm. “There’s enough room for doughnuts and pancakes in my life, Kyle. Stop looking so stressed.”

“Sadie, we talked about this,” he said. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“I won’t.”

“Colt’s just doing this for the bet. You get that right?”

“Yes, and I’m just doing it for my list,” I said. “It’s no big deal. We used to hang out all the time as kids anyway before Colton got too cool for school. Although, he didn’t seem to like it much when I was around.”

Kyle laughed. “He didn’t like it because I hogged all your attention.”

“Oh whatever,” I scoffed.

“It’s true,” he said. “Colt would probably kill me for telling you though.”

That made literally no sense whatsoever. Kyle was so off base, and I was about to tell him that when Colton reappeared in the doorway.

“Are you two coming or am I making these pancakes alone?” he said.

---