Page 37 of By All Accounts
So transparent.
“Not yet.”
Hunter took another bite of his sandwich, chewing slowly and swallowing hard. “But soon?”
“Maybe.”
He nudged his leg against the outside of mine. “You need to eat.”
“Oh, do I?”
“Please.”
I took a bite, smaller than the ones my brother had been doing for himself. When I swallowed, he stared at me expectantly so I did it two more times.
“I’m older than you, you know.”
“Not by much,” I said. “And if I wanted to be parented, I would have shown up at Marshall’s.”
Hunter sighed and ate the rest of his sandwich. I still had most of mine and didn’t want to be bullied again, so I ate some more of it while he finished up.
“Whatever it is, you don’t have to do it yourself,” Hunter told me, taking my mostly empty plate and stacking it in top of his.
I started to regret my choice to come over. Hunter had seemed like the safest option for me, but that had been poor planning on my part. There wasn’t a person in the world who knew me better than Hunter, and that was for better or worse.
“I promise you I’m not, and I promise you I’m fine.”
Hunter lifted his hand between us, fingers curled and pinky outstretched. With a petulant groan, I hooked my little finger around his and we shook on it.
“Seal it,” he said next.
“You’re being ridiculous.”
Hunter yanked our joined fingers, smashing his mouth against the pad of his thumb.
“Seal it,” he said again.
“I’m fine,” I repeated, mirroring the pose and kissing my thumb.
The move brought us close together, and I had no choice but to let Hunter give me the kind of scrutiny that confirmed I was a lying liar.
He raised a brow and I corrected myself, “I’ll be fine.”
“You aren’t alone.”
“I know.”
“Call Andrew if you need to.”
The suggestion was so preposterous, I broke the pinky promise and reeled back. “Excuse me?”
“Call Andrew,” he said. “Or text, I don’t care.”
I rolled away from Hunter, moving onto all fours to push myself to my feet. I was too old to get up from the seated position, and Hunter laughed when my hip cracked.
“I don’t even want to talk to my favorite brother. Why would I want to talk to one I don’t even know?”
“Because you don’t know him.” Hunter stood and brushed some crumbs off his lap, the plates in hand. “Have you even seen him since I got promoted?”
