“The hell I will.”
“There was nothing to what you saw and heard. Bram was helping me with my lines for a play.”
River chuckles and swipes his hand over his facial scruff. “Well, damn. That stuff you were saying to each other sounded real.”
Claudia looks at me and then back at River. “It was supposed to sound real. It’s called acting.”
“Fuuuck. I thought… well, I guess you know what I thought.” He offers his hand to help me up from the floor. “Sorry, man. I completely misjudged that situation.”
Nothing about his reaction is surprising. “Don’t worry ‘bout it.”
“No, I feel like a complete jackass. I know you wouldn’t screw around with your best friend’s seventeen-year-old sister.”
Claudia groans. “Ugh, you do realize I’m about to be eighteen?”
“Well, you’re not yet, so it’s still my job to look out for you.”
River really thinks it’s his job to take care of Claudia? What a fucking joke. I swear to God it takes every ounce of self-control I have not to tell him he’s full of shit.
Claud collects the loose papers that scattered here and there during my scuffle with River. “I thought you and Owen would be on your way back to Chattanooga by now.”
“We were about to leave. Owen just wanted to stop by and see how the tutoring was going since you hadn’t come home yet.”
“We finished a little while ago but I decided to stay and cook dinner for Bram since he was nice enough to spend a large part of his day tutoring me.”
“Since when do you cook?”
Claudia grins. “I took an interest several months ago.”
“You any good at it?”
She lifts the top covering the meat sauce and the aroma floods the kitchen. “I think I’m very good at it.”
He looks over her shoulder as she stirs the sauce. “Shit, that looks good. We may need to stay for dinner.”
“You can if you want. I made plenty.”
Well, damn. There go my leftovers. “You don’t need to get on the road back to school?”
“You know we always have time to eat. Unless the two of you don’t want us tointerrupt.”
River needs to shut up about what he saw before Owen comes in and overhears. “Drop it, River.”
“Take it easy. I was making a joke. But seriously, you better be glad Owen didn’t see your rehearsal. He’d have lost his shit.”
Believe me, I know. “Where is Owen?”
“Oh damn. I got sidetracked when I overheard your rehearsal and forgot to tell you about what’s happening outside. Owen ran into a girl on the way in. And not just any girl. It’s the girl who was withthe girl.”
Every muscle in Claudia’s face furrows. “What you just said doesn’t make a bit of sense.”
“It does and Bram knows exactly who I’m talking about.”
“The girl with…the girl. Holy. Shit.”
“I know.”
“Would y’all stop talking in code and tell me what the hell is happening?”