Page 61 of Don't Say You're Sorry

Adam not so sneakily passes me one of his roast potatoes beneath the table, just as he’s been doing since we were kids, and Veronica shakes her head at him. “You know I can see you, right?”

He smiles apologetically. I chuckle and make a show of tossing it into my mouth.

“Still with the potatoes, Adam?” my dad grumbles jokingly. “Have you even tried them as an adult? You might like them now.”

I cock my head at him. It’s the first time he’s spoken to Adam directly all day. If this is his way of waving a big white flag in my face, I’ll take it.

“I’m traumatized, okay?” Adam almost gags. “Never again.”

Axel and I crack up.

When Adam was ten, we bet he couldn’t eat an entire tray of roast potatoes. He did it. Won his twenty bucks. And then he spent the entire night hugging the toilet. It was almost definitely due to the stomach flu we all caught shortly after, but he insisted it was the roast potatoes. He hasn’t eaten them since.

Adam shudders at the memory, and our parents laugh a little too. It’s nice. Aside from the giant elephant in the room, it’s almost like it was before. Almost like we’re a real family again.

I can tell Veronica feels it too by the small smile on her face as she looks at her boys, myself included.

After dessert, Adam and I do the dishes. He washes and I dry. And despite how close we are, our arms brushing from time to time, I keep my hands to myself since Axel’s decided to sit at the island behind us, his feet kicked up on the counter, beer in hishand, and watch our every move.Cockblocking prick.He smiles at me as if he knows what I’m thinking. I smile too, twisting the towel in my grip and getting ready to whip him with it. He’s about to make a run for it when his mom walks into the kitchen, making us both freeze.

“Put it down,” she says to me.

I drop it on the counter.

“Adam, are you staying with Easton?” she asks, and he nods, not meeting her gaze as he scrubs an imaginary speck of food on the plate.

“Yep. I have my own room there,” he clarifies, just in case she thinks we’re sharing a room.

“I thought so.” She smiles, turning to Axel. “Axel, what about you? Want me to make up your bed?—”

“Axel’s staying with me too,” I interrupt.

Adam whips his head around, looking at me like I’ve grown two. Axel stares at me from beneath his brows, slowly shaking his head. I nod mine, and I don’t miss the way his nostrils flare slightly.

“Are you?” his mom checks with him.

“Mhm.” He stares straight ahead, and I revel in whatever thoughts are running through his head right now. He looks as if he’s planning a slow, painful death. I hope it’s mine. The look I hit him with tells him he can give it his best shot.

A little while later, as Adam’s telling our parents about his new job, Axel takes the opportunity to pull me aside. Taking me by surprise, he drags me out of the kitchen and into the entryway where we’re out of sight and earshot. I look at his fingers wrapped around my arm, then up at his face. He releases me. “What do you know?” he asks.

I smirk, booping his nose. “If I told you that, it would ruin my fun.”

Easton

I need a favor.

Nate

No.

Easton

You don’t even know what it is yet.

Nate

Xavi told me you went to get your other stepbrother from London. He’s not moving in.

Easton