Page 104 of Press Play

With a final squeeze, we separate and smile at one another. I don’t have to tell her how much I miss her because she already knows. We never had to express our emotions out loud; we always knew how the other felt.

“Is Theo behaving?” I nod toward the kitchen.

“Brandy, can we eat now? This smells amazing!” he shouts from the other room.

She rolls her brown eyes. “Men have no patience.”

I snicker. “Tell me about it.”

“Brandy?” he calls again.

“Patience!” she shouts back, her cheeks turning pink.

“I have none. Ask Wren!”

“Unfortunately, he’s correct,” I sigh.

“Okay, let’s go.” Brandy walks back into the kitchen.

I glance at Mia and mouth, “What did you do to her?”

Dropping her shoulders, she drapes her arm over me and says, “She’ll do anything for you, even put her prejudice aside and give someone a chance.”

“I’m so full,” Theo groans from the floor, sprawled out on his back.

“That’s what you get for having three helpings,” Mia chuckles.

“It’s not my fault Brandy knows her way to my heart. I’ve never had fried rice like that before.”

Two things Brandy excels at are mathematics and cooking. She used to tease me, saying she applies statistics and calculus to cooking fundamentals, which is why everything she makes never fails. I call it a load of bs because I’m horrible at math, and I make killer Italian food. There’s something special about her touch, though, and if it is math. . . maybe it’s not as awful as I thought it was.

“You make it sound like I’m a bad cook.” I tease him.

He darts his eyes to mine, looking up at me from the floor, pursing his lips.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask, and his brow wrinkles. “Theodore, I’m not a bad cook.”

“I didn’t say you were.” He shrugs, dropping his previous facial expression.

Grabbing a decorative pillow, I toss it at him. He laughs as he catches it, and I cross my arms over my chest.

“I’m going to remember this the next time you ask me to cook dinner,” I grumble.

“Was she temperamental with you, Brandy? Because damn, this girl can go from zero to one hundred like that.” He snaps his fingers.

Brandy’s lips tilt into a half smile, her eyes sparkling when she looks at me. “She had her moments. Just don’t ask her to snap.”

“What? Why?” he asks instantly.

I shake my head and mouth, “Don’t.”

But it’s too late.

“You didn’t know? Wren can’t snap.”

“What!?” Theo sits straight up and beams his flawless smile at me. “Since when?”

“Since always!” I fire back.

---