Page 20 of Endless Anger
“If it’s on the floor already though, I’m not really blaming them,” Lachlan says. “That’s just the natural course of evolution happening. Maybe Lucy should clean her bedroom.”
“Maybe you should mind your business,” I snap, jabbing my fork in his direction.Little shit.
Dad laughs, raising his eyebrows pointedly at me. “You’re going to miss this if you move too far.”
“Alistair,” Mom scolds. “Stop manipulating her.”
“What? I’m only stating the facts. Do you or do you not love our meals together?”
I shrug, pushing a piece of garlic tofu onto the portobello mushroom patty at the center of my bowl. I’m the only one not eating steak. “Maybe it’ll make each future one more special?”
“She’s gonna go wherever Asher Anderson goes anyway,” Logan interjects. “It’s not like there’s any convincing her otherwise.”
“Why wouldAsherfactor in at all?” Dad asks with a frown.
“Uh…” Logan makes a face, her golden gaze—a mirror of Mom and Lachlan’s—volleying between the four of us. “Because she’s in love with him?”
White-hot shame slashes across my face, flames of embarrassment snaking their way down my neck and over my chest. “I amnot.”
“Liar, liar, pants on?—”
“All right,” Mom says, setting her utensils down. “Is this really appropriate table conversation?”
Dad bristles, sitting up straighter. “I’m certainly interested.”
“Because you’re a busybody,” she tells him.
“I am, yes, in more than one sense of the word.” He lets his gaze drop down over her, and something in the air shifts between them.
Something wildly uncomfortable.
“Okay then.” I shove back from the table. “I’ve got to get to Foxe’s, and I don’t want to catch the live-action Cora and Alistair show. I’ve been scarred by that enough at this point.”
“Oh please.” Mom scoffs, though her cheeks are flushed. “We’ve never done anything with you all awake in the house.”
Logan pretends to gag. “That doesn’t make it better.”
“You three should be glad your parents have such a healthy appetite for each other,” Dad adds, slinging his arm over the back of Mom’s chair and tugging her close. “We’re fantastic role models.”
“Pillars of affection, really.” She grins at him, tilting her head back for a kiss.
Logan and I retreat from the dining room, but Lachlan remains at the table, scarfing down the rest of his meal without making eye contact. He’ll probably wait until they disentangle themselves and then follow Dad outside to talk about archery, Lachlan’s only real hobby outside of being an annoying shit.
“Sorry if you didn’t want them to know,” Logan says as she pauses at my bedroom. “I…kinda thought it was obvious.”
“What?”
She blinks. “You know, the whole Asher thing.”
“Oh.” I shake my head, inching into my room. “Nonissue. I’m not in love with him.”
One of her eyebrows arches. “If you say so.”
Throat tight, I watch her skip down the hall to her room, and a few minutes later I can hear her whisper-yelling at the computer as she hops on some sort of game for a live stream.
I spend several seconds staring at the closed door, wondering if I’m reallythattransparent.
And if I am, how comehehasn’t noticed?
