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“I would have to know what works for you.”

He nodded. “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

“Levi, if you need some kind of particular sort of system...”

“What exactly...?”

“I’m back.”

Just then, Camilla came into the house, holding a pizza.

Quinn felt startled by the intrusion, like somebody had come in and popped a bubble that they were standing in. She had no clue why it felt so jarring. Why she felt vaguely embarrassed.

“It’s nice to see you again, Quinn,” said Camilla.

“You, too,” she said, still feeling slightly edgy and electrified.

“I hope you were helping him with his admin.”

“I was,” she said.

She wondered if Camilla knew how bad it actually was.

“Thank you. It makes me feel a lot better to know that he has some oversight.”

“I’m right here,” he said.

“I know,” said Camilla, smiling at him all bright and sunny, and it amused Quinn because Levi was so very not bright and sunny. She was glad that he had his sister in his life. She wanted to meet his other siblings. She pushed back hard against that impulse. Because it was just so out of the blue. And had absolutely nothing to do with any of this.

Why they were here, why she was helping.

Except she wasn’t really helping him just to get something in return anymore, was she?

Whatever. She was getting pizza for dinner. If that was all the payment she got, it was all the payment she got, and maybe it would do something to make up for what an asshole she’d been the past few days.

“This is from Mapleton,” Camilla said, plunking the pizza down in the middle of the table. “It’s a newer place. It’s really good.”

“It’s pizza,” said Levi. “It is the safest food on the planet. Even bad pizza is edible.”

Camilla wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know about that. I remember when you tried to make pizza one time when you were maybe... I don’t know. I was probably like six? That was bad. I don’t know how you did it, but I think you burned the olives.”

“You ungrateful little weasel.”

“So calling people animal names is just something that you do?” Quinn asked.

Camilla cackled. “Have you been on the receiving end of his insults?”

“I have. He called me a carrot.”

“Levi used to try to not swear when we were little, so he got really creative with the stuff he would say. Funny. Until he uses it on you.”

That was like peeling back another layer on him. She sort of wished it wasn’t happening. Because she found all the top layers attractive—the way he looked, the way he moved. Seeing him as a whole person made it all so much harder.

But there was no point in getting mired in questioning it. She was here for dinner, so she might as well just...be here for dinner.

“I have noticed he’s very good at that.”

“Yeah. Well. Hopefully he’s not insulting you too much, since you’re helping him and all.”