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He did.

More than anything in this world, but the woman couldn’t cook. What she could do was create disturbing messes that had been known to send people to the hospital, praying for death. He still didn’t know how she managed to do it, and to be honest, he probably didn’t want to know.

She was determined to learn how to cook and honestly, none of them had the heart to tell her that they were terrified of her cooking. She knew how much they loved food and she wanted to be able to do this for them, so they pretended that they weren’t terrified every time she so much as glanced toward the kitchen. They also took turns cooking, came up with excuses to keep her out of the kitchen, and those times that she actually managed to get near the stove, they’d come up with a system that allowed them to safely discard her cooking without her ever finding out. But sometimes, now being one of those times, they were taken by surprise and left with no other choice but to panic.

He turned his head to see how his father was going to get them out of this when Mikey asked, “On a completely different subject, umm, do you think an overnight trip to the hospital would be enough to buy me a few more days on a book report?”

Before anyone could answer, Mikey mumbled, “Probably,” to herself as she released a shaky breath, grabbed her plate and headed toward the stove with a weakly mumbled, “Totally worth it.”

It took Sebastian a minute to realize what she was doing, and when he did…

“Wait! No, this is my only chance to play baseball!” Mikey gasped, struggling to reach the macaroni and cheese that wouldn’t end well as his father struggled to pull her back while Sebastian tried to pry the spoon out of her hand before she did something that she would regret.

As they wrestled Mikey to the ground, doing their best to avoid one of the elbows that she was throwing in an attempt to dislodge them, Sebastian turned his head to find his mother watching them with a questioning look on her face and before she could ask a question that none of them really wanted to answer, he said, “She’s watching her carbs,” only to grunt when the ungrateful brat took advantage and caught him in the gut with an elbow.

That led to him calling her a filthy Mudblood and her trying to ensure that he never had children.

Chapter 7

“I don’t understand this,” Mikey said only to groan when the book that she was being forced to read was suddenly plucked from her hands.

“I thought you went home an hour ago,” Jonathan said absently as he dropped down on the end of Sebastian’s bed where she was currently lounging along with the boy that she was no longer speaking with.

“You thought wrong,” Mikey said as she reached over to steal the book back only to have it pulled out of reach before she could grab it.

“I also thought you weren’t allowed to sleepover anymore,” Jonathan said, for some reason deciding to bring up the rule that their parents came up with when they both turned thirteen and decided that perhaps it wasn’t a good idea for them to sleep in the same bed anymore.

If it had been any other boy, Mikey would have probably agreed, but…

This was Sebastian.

He was her best friend, a bed hog, and…

Not that she would admit it, especially right now when she was supposed to be mad at him, but she liked waking up in the middle of the night to find him next to her, because it meant that she didn’t have to worry about him. She knew that Sebastian could take care of himself, but sometimes he just looked so damn lost and lonely, which of course, was the reason why she kept letting him sleep over. It had nothing to do with liking the way that it felt to wake up in his arms.

Nope…nothing at all.

“She’s not,” Sebastian murmured absently from beside her as he continued reading a book that somehow looked even more boring than the one that she was stuck with.

“Then why is she already ready for bed?” Jonathan asked, gesturing to the T-shirt and shorts that she’d helped herself to from Mathew’s room since he was the smallest of the three brothers.

“Because as far as everyone is concerned, I’m back in the comfort of my own bed fast asleep,” Mikey said, gesturing for him to give her back the book so she could get this over with.

“I see,” Jonathan murmured, sounding thoughtful as he glanced between the two of them. “Can I ask you something?”

“Only if you give me back my book,” Mikey said with a pointed look at the book in his hands.

“Why don’t you ever ask me for help?” he asked as she gave up waiting for him to give her the book and snatched it out of his hands with a satisfied sigh.

“Why would I do that?” she asked, blinking at him.

“Because I’m smarter than Sebastian.”

Squishing up her face, Mikey said, “Are you though?” making him glare.

Eyes narrowing, Jonathan bit out, “Move over,” already getting up so that he could drop down on the bed next to her, forcing her to get out of the way and climb onto Sebastian’s lap before he had a chance to squish her.

Once she was settled comfortably between Sebastian’s legs, she settled back against his chest and?