Chapter Three
Max
My leg bounces hard and fast under the dining table.
I’m nervous.
I sip at my coffee as my eyes dart from Nik to Tina. I watch them eat their breakfast, wondering how the hell I broach this subject. Tina eats her oatmeal; she must feel my eyes on her, because she looks up at me mid-bite. Her eyes widen and she mutters slowly, “What?”
I quickly avoid her gaze and shake my head. “Nothin’.”
Sip your damn coffee and keep your eyes down.
And that’s what I do. I avert my gaze so much that I look directly down into my coffee cup.
Nik’s foot nudges me under the table. Brows raised, I look up at him. He carefully folds the newspaper before putting it down, eyes narrowing at me.
Uh oh.
Nik leans back in his chair, when suddenly, he starts to smirk, his dimple, almost identical to mine, cuts into his cheek.
And I sweat. “What?”
He jerks his chin at me. “You’re acting weird. I mean, you always act weird, but now you’re acting weirder.” Tina looks over at me and nods gently.
“Am not.”
“Are too,” my brother argues.
“You’re going senile in your old age.”
Nik’s eyes widen. He’s a little sensitive about his age ever since he found a grey hair. I know it’s not a big deal. It’s natural. People eventually go grey. But the hair…
It wasn’t on his head.
He leans over and snarls, “Yo’ mama.”
I grin. “She’s yo’ mama too, and I’m telling her you said that.”
He opens up his arms, taunting me, “Do it. I’ll tell her the real story about the dried basil leaves in your sock drawer.”
The motherfucker. “It was yours! I was hiding it for you!”
He shrugs. “She don’t know that.”
I reach over the table to slap him—he hates that shit—when Tina speaks up. “Nik, stop it.”
My bird flips him a hello, then Tina’s on my ass. Gently, of course. “Max, honey, do that again and I promise you won’t get any cupcakes for a year.”
I gasp. She wouldn’t! But the look on her face says she would. I sink back into my chair. “Holy shit, you’re mean when you’re breeding.”
She smiles sweetly then rubs her rounded belly. “I guess I do get a little cranky nowadays.”
I add, “And emotional.”
Nik grins. “And horny.”
Tina yells, “Nik!” at the same time I screw up my face and yell, “Dude!”