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“Sure.” Aiden uses his fork to scrape out more. “But it woulda been, if you’d burned the second set of eggs.”

“Maybe I’m trying my best to make conversation because I am genuinely interested in Gilli and whether or not she has any hobbies. So far she’s been sadly one-dimensional.”

Soren dumps the rest of the breakfast on his plate and sits, releasing the hot pan to clatter against the wooden table.

I bristle, my fingers tightening around my cup. “How in the world do you go from accusing me of being lost in thought to a question about hobbies, of all things? Maybe Ishouldn’t have taken as much coffee as I did, Soren. You apparently need it more than I do.”

Aiden bursts out laughing and Soren looks toward the smoking pan, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.

“But yes, of course I have hobbies.” It takes everything inside of me not to step in and eat directly from Soren’s plate out of spite.

Growing up, Suz wasn’t much of a cook. It fell on me to handle meals for us and that kind of position often becomes a trial by fire. Either you eat something burned black or you teach yourself how to do more than slather some peanut butter and jelly on white bread.

“She won’t tell you what they are, though,” Aiden adds as he dumps an obscene amount of black pepper over the eggs. “I tried to talk to her last night and she zipped her lips.”

Soren glowers at his cousin, an unspoken conversation passing between them.

“If you really want to know,” I say, “I split my time between two jobs, one of which keeps me busy during the day and the other at night. It doesn’t leave much time for hobbies, but I enjoy gardening. Making something from nothing and watching things grow where they didn’t before.”

There. It’s as much as I’ll give them.

“So you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty,” Soren replies.

I shrug. “It depends on the job.”

“Well, everyone needs to pull their weight around here. Because you can’t just lounge around in bed all day.”

I gasp, outraged. “I’ve been here less than one full day and at no point have you seen me lounging in bed.”

“I think he’s just trying to ask what else you can do,” Aiden explains gently.

Soren sprinkles enough salt on top of them to pucker mylips from across the room and follows it with a healthy dose of hot sauce.

I’m about to step in when he goes for the bottle of ketchup, but he stops himself at the last moment with a slight shake of his head.

“Outside of work…I eat and sleep. That’s it,” I say.

Hobbies have gone down the tubes for me. Even my girlfriends have given up on me after too many ignored messages and unreturned calls.

“I thought you’d be out every night partying,” Soren grumbles.

My nose goes out of joint. “Maybe you actually hate the person you think I am, rather than me.”

When it’s clear Soren means to leave no eggs for me, I force myself into motion, grabbing a plate. I’m purposely close when I reach around him and he stiffens when our skin brushes.

Even from the side, he looks mad, his eyebrows narrowed down and shadowing his eyes. His beard is trimmed and clean but his brows are bushy in comparison.

He’s got a problem, and I guarantee asking him about it will only make him angrier.

I scoop some eggs off his plate and onto mine. Daring him to say something.

“You’re going to have to find something to do with yourself,” he grits out. “We can’t be expected to keep you company or hold your hand.”

“Ah, thepulling your weightthing. I get it, Soren.” I roll my eyes.

His scowl deepens. “Try not to get into trouble. Once we take care of a few things this morning, I can come up with some ideas for you.”

“You want me out there chopping wood for the fire pit?” I ask.