Page 28 of Rituals & Rivalry

The sight makes my stomach sink.

I miss this.

My family is living together now, physically closer than ever, but being with them doesn’t feel like this anymore. I’m unsure if it ever will. My dad was the coldest of us, but once he was gone, it became clear he was the heart. The glue.

Sterling turns his head suddenly, locking eyes with me, and my stomach flips in a new way.

To my surprise, he waves me over.

Even more surprisingly, I go.

“Aurora!” His father, Arnold, who always seems sillier than the other, greets me with a bright smile. “I should have known you would be a brunch fan.”

Who isn’t?

“Guilty.” I grin and look at Sterling from the corner of my eye. What am I doing here? “I, um… just wanted to say hi.”

“Do you want to sit with us?” Farrah asks, peering up at me innocently. “We can pull up another chair.”

Their table is already jammed, but even if it weren’t, I would find a reason to leave.

“Oh, there’s no need⁠—”

“We really wouldn’t mind.” Val smiles at me, and Sterling glares right at him.

Val has been nice. We haven’t talked much outside of coven meetings, but there’s no denying that he’s flirty—not just with me, with everyone. He’s kind of handsome, but I’m not sure I’m into the whole fucking both brothers thing.

Maybe if Sterling keeps pissing me off, I’ll reconsider my stance. It would serve him right.

“I actually had something to ask you,” Sterling says, facing me directly, his azure gaze piercing me in the chest.

I’m starting to hate when he looks at me like that.

My stomach flips, and it doesn’t quite fit the stabby sensation in my chest. I tuck my curly, puffy hair behind my ear. “Oh, um… okay?”

“Let’s meet up soon.”

I narrow my eyes. “That’s not a question, Sterling.”

Farrah stifles a giggle behind her hands, and Sterling sighs.

“But fine,” I blurt before he can say anything else. “We’ll, like, plan something. Soon.”

I guess I can’t keep putting it off.

“You have my number,” he says. “Use it.”

There’s something about the short, commanding way he speaks to me—even in front of his family—that makes my entire face red.

“Because I still don’t have yours,” he says slowly, as if trying to explain away his previous words.

“Right, right.” I nod over and over again. “I’ll text you as soon as I get back to my seat.”

“Text me too,” Val says, grinning ear-to-ear.

I smile back at him, just to piss Sterling off. “I will, handsome. Don’t you worry.”

But I don’t.