Page 72 of Dating and Dragons
“It wasn’t fun living with you after that,” Andrew continues. His shoulders slump. “I didn’t like seeing you that way.”
Some of the sharpness in my chest softens. I guess there are worse things in life than having an overprotective little brother. Although his timing could be a lot better.
I take a Diet Coke from the fridge and scrub a hand over my face. “Thank you for worrying, I guess, but it’s not necessary. I’m happy here too. And this new group really is great.”
He sniffs.
“You certainly seemed interested in Kashvi before,” I say with a raised eyebrow.
He shrugs me off. “She doesn’t count.”
“Hmm.” The solution to the riddle from before comes to me. I betthat’swhy he was logging into our game. He wasn’t doing it to see me; he was doing it for Kashvi. I’d almost be impressed that he was trying to learn about her interests ifI weren’t absolutely horrified at the idea of my little brother wanting to make out with my closest friend.
“The game wasn’tasboring as I thought it would be,” he says begrudgingly.
“You’re full of surprises today.”
I take him in, an idea coming to me. He did watch my livestream, which is more than I’d ever expect of him. Maybe I should make more of an effort to do things with him too.
“Would you want to try hanging out sometime?” I ask. “Maybe playing a game of pickleball at the rec center? I promise you’ll crush me at it.”
“The weird sportGrandmaplays? Yeah, no. You aren’t the worst sister in the world, but I have my limits.” He pushes away from the counter and heads upstairs without a backward glance.
Good to know he’s still my charming little brother.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Wow, that went so well!” Kashvi says on Monday when we get back into her car. I haven’t shaken off the disaster of this weekend, but I’m still glad to be hanging out with Kashvi again so soon. Today we’re taking our newly finished jewelry—including multiple pieces with the halfling dice—to a few different stores around town. To our surprise, the stores have been eager to stock more of our pieces on consignment. We celebrated by using our newly earned money to buy expensive iced coffees. Not exactly financially responsible, but very tasty.
“We’re going to need to get back to work if our stuff is moving this quickly,” Kashvi continues, and puts on her seat belt. “Unless you’d be willing to part with a few of those pieces?”
“Not a chance.” I play with my bracelets—spinning them around my wrist until my favorite stones and dice are on top. This particular combo pulls together all the earth tonesfrom my skirt, and if I get rid of any bracelets, then it won’t tie together. I glance down at my phone and find a text from Logan.
Logan:Do you have time to come by my work? I can offer free ice cream as a bribe, but only mint chocolate chip. It’s time I win you over.
A zip of electricity runs through me. As if it’s possible for Logan to win me over more than he already has. But I can’t respond right now, so I turn my phone over and focus on Kashvi.
“Luckily we still have tons of dice from Logan, so that’ll help,” I say.
“I still can’t believe he gave us all of those. He’s always been such a great guy. It’s annoying, actually.”
“Annoying?”
“It’s not fair for him to be hotandkind. It’s always the unattainable guys who’re like that.”
My throat closes and I turn to her, hoping her expression will make it clear she’s joking. But she looks dead serious.
“You think Logan is hot?”
“Oh, come on.” She glances at me with an almost disgruntled expression. “It’s no secret. I mean, unless you’re not into beautiful boys.”
“I’m into them,” I say faintly, and take a sip of my coffee.
“I figured. Be honest, what was your first thought when you saw him in that costume at the comic fest?” She grins at me before looking in the rearview mirror and backing out of the space. “I practically had to wipe the drool off my chin.”
I swallow my coffee wrong and start hacking. “Whoa.” I cough a few more times. “Um, I didn’t know you thought about Logan like that.”
Kashvi pulls onto the road with a dreamy sigh. “I have lots of thoughts about Logan.”