Page 72 of Enemies with Benefits

"You should know by now that my sister doesn't make very good or sound decisions when there's emotions involved," I said with a snort, glad for the distraction from my thoughts.

His eyes drifted to Micah, and he sighed. “True."

I saw the tension in his jaw and shook my head. “Hey."

"What?"

"Stop thinking so hard about her not telling you about him."

"Huh?"

"Don't pretend you didn't immediately think about it."

"You don't have to defend her. I wasn't going to start anything."

I stepped around him, catching his eye and smirking. "Look, I don't need to defend my sister against something that isn't defensible. I was saying that foryourbenefit. Overthinking is going to make you even more stressed and pissier than you already are. What's the point in stressing yourself out over something you're either going to figure out on your own or not? You're able to be around her without being an asshole, and you're able to be present for Micah despite being rightfullypissed at his mother, two things that are important and more than people would expect from someone in your position. So learn to just be in the damn moment and quit obsessing all the fucking time."

His eyes narrowed. "How the fuck can you say something that should make me feel better but pisses me off instead?"

At that, I couldn't help but laugh. "It's so fucking funny when you say certain shit."

Jace's brow twitched. “You've always enjoyed pissing me off."

"No, I mean," I continued with a chuckle, "because I was literally just thinking about how you and Moira were both right and wrong for each other. And that was another good example of it."

His face screwed up in confusion. “What?"

"Just... both of you are so serious and responsible. Like,allthe damn time. I don't know if I should be impressed or worried about your blood pressure."

"Well, compared to you...yeah, I'm sure we are."

"Shut up. Point is that popped into my head earlier. But you getting pissed at how I said something while still acknowledging it was something you can respect is just...so on brand for Moira. She's always said shit like that to me over the years. And now you're saying it to me."

He gave a long-suffering sigh, rolling his eyes and turning to watch Kayden and Moira as they walked past a tank with the gently floating jellies. "Look, you piss me off, and you do it on purpose, so I don't feel bad pointing it out. But that doesn't mean you don't occasionally say something that makes sense."

"Occasionally."

"You'd probably get people to listen more if you were less of an asshole about things. Just throwing that out there."

"It's part of my charm."

"It's really not."

"And yet here you are," I pointed out and then smirked, leaning in closer. "Or is it another part of me that keeps you coming around?"

"Jesus Christ," he growled, pushing me away. "We're in public, act like it."

"Literally no one is paying the slightest attention to what we're saying," I said with a glance around and a shrug. "The only thing they're paying attention to is the exhibit. Well, except for that group of women over there, they were definitely giving us the fuck eye earlier."

He turned toward me, nostrils flaring. "My point is that if you stopped acting like a jackass all the time, people might take you seriously."

Realizing he wasn't going to let it go, I turned to him and cocked my head. "And what makes you think I'm worried about that? Don't get me wrong, I get it. You're so concerned with the way other people see you, that's who you are. But you need to stop pretending like everyone else needs to care about shit like that as much as you do. Some of us are just here, enjoying what we can out of life and not worrying about other people's opinions."

"So, what? You're just going to go through life, doing and saying whatever you like without giving a shit about the consequences or how it might affect other people?"

"Look," I said, finally unable to stop the annoyance filtering into my tone. "I've managed to go this many years without making a completely shit show of my life, all on my own."

"You have a whole family to back you up and put up with your bullshit."