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“You’re trying really hard to make us like you.”
“Am I?” She held a finger up. “Are you hungry or not?”
“No.”
She went over and set the dials to preheat the oven, and Elton fell silent. “You can go ahead,” she said after glancing over her shoulder to make sure he was still there. “I assume you’re going to list everything I’ve done to—unsuccessfully—get you to like me.”
“The presents. The dinner.” He moved over to the island counter, his gaze studying everything on the countertop. “Trying to get all of us involved.”
Clary pushed the dip she’d just prepared and a plate of carrot and celery sticks toward him.
“No one’s going to eat that.”
She picked up a carrot, dipped it into the artichoke cheese dip and held it out to him. People—especially grumpy people—tended to get into a better mood with some good food.
Perhaps that would work on Elton too.
She doubted it, but what did she have to lose?
He eyed the carrot as if she was handing him a stick of poison.
“If you hate it, you get to tell me my food is awful.” Besides, growing up with Grandma Moretti, she was accustomed to feeding people who wandered into the kitchen while she was cooking.
She and Grandma Moretti were always nibbling away in the kitchen. All in the name of food-tasting, of course.
Clary gave the carrot a shake. “You know you want to.”
Elton rolled his eyes and took the carrot.
“Let’s say I am trying to make you guys like me, which I’m not.”
“Then—” His brows rose after biting into the carrot.
She’d like to be smug about it, but she decided this wasn’t the time, so she merely blinked and waited.
Elton was quick to rearrange his features into a passive, unimpressed look. “Then why are you doing it?” he asked and used the carrot stick to scrape up a heaping scoop of dip.
“Because I think it’ll make Seth happy.” She shrugged. “As for dinner, I like to cook.”
Elton’s brows drew together.
“You’ve been in the kitchen with Grandma Moretti. You should know how much fun it was.”
Elton chewed on the carrot for a long time.
Clary removed the elastic holding her hair up in a messy bun just so she could put it back up in another messy bun. “Just because Holly fooled you, doesn’t mean everyone else is trying to do so.”
Elton, who had just picked up a celery stick, froze. Just momentarily.
“Holly never fooled me. I knew right from the start that I couldn’t trust her.”
“Because you don’t trust anyone?”
“I trust my brothers.”
She shook her head. “You don’t trust Seth.”
“I trust him. I just don’t trust you or your intentions.”
