Page 110 of Forbidden Wish

“What are you two doing?” she asked, stepping between them, looking left then right.

“What should we be doing?” Ford asked, coffee on the way to his mouth again.

Putting her back to Jagg, she folded her arms. “You saw us kissing last night and today in—aren’t you going to say anything?”

“Like what?”

“Like how you feel about it.”

“‘Bout what?” her brother asked.

God, he was infuriating. “Jagg and me!”

The former’s hand slipped onto her shoulder. “Genny—”

“He has to have an opinion. You have to have an opinion.”

“Will it make a difference?” Ford asked. Jagg squeezed her. “Am I happy about it? No. It better not be some BS rebound from the cop. You’ll cause a lot of damage that won’t be fixed.”

“Me?” she asked, her jaw swinging loose. “You’re warning me to take this seriously? Me?”

“Jagg knows better than to bullshit this. He’s my best friend, but I’d have to put a bullet in him for screwing around.”

“Jagg knows better?”

“Yeah, he doesn’t fuck around anymore,” he said, boosting away from the counter to walk away. “And you both have bedrooms. Stop screwing around in here. Keep it behind closed doors. That’s my opinion.”

That was it? Ford went into his room with what was left of his coffee.

“That’s it?” she asked.

Jagg pulled her back to kiss the top of her head. “Go get ready. You want to visit Mila, right?”

“Mm hmm.” Ford’s door was just closed. The end. A period after an unexciting sentence. “And then to see Sersha if we can.”

“Okay.”

He pushed her toward her room.

After a couple of steps, she twisted to him. “What am I missing? Is Ford going to murder us in our beds?”

“Bed,” he said. “Easier for him that we’re both in one place.”

“I expected… I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that.”

“It hasn’t sunk in. We’ll find out how he feels about it as he does. Your brother trusts me.”

“But not me, apparently.”

“Go get changed.”

“That’s it?”

“We’ll just have to play this through, no other way. What does he get for freaking out?”

Always so calm and together, so damn laid-back. Why was she the only one flummoxed? He gave her another boost.

This time, she went forward, slowly. “We still have to talk.”

---