Page 31 of While You Were Trending

“You like it? Pip’s teaching me bigger words.”

“Eh? I’m sneaking you bigger worms?” Pip calls. “I saw that horno you made. I know you don’t need a bigger worm.”

“Horno?” I mutter to Ten. “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”

“Mom’s favorite movie. My one and only horror porno.”

“I said don’t tell me.”

“You could’ve made a killing doing it too,” Ten says. “Like, there’s a whole market for chicks like you.”

“Stop talking.”

“I meant chicks who went viral as adults. For the record. Not child reality TV stars.”

“Hey, Pip, Ten wants to try the chardonnay,” I call.

“He wants a harlot named May?”

“Thechardonnay. Thewine. The old stuff we found in the cellar. The stuff that Winona and Dori both said is so bad it would take a miracle to turn it into vinegar.”

Ten grins at me. “You try so hard to be mean, and you fall so short every time.”

I look out at the vineyard again.

Declan’s closer to the house now.

And he’s looking at us.

Watching.

We make eye contact, and I break it instantly as a shiver races up my spine.

There’s something different about him.

I don’t like it.

“You coming to dinner, young man?” Pip calls to Declan. “Cricket’s cooking spaghetti. And she hasn’t dropped a single egg or thrown any milk or anything.”

“Does she usually do that?” Ten asks me.

“She had a moment when she first got here, but it’s passed.”

“She still dating that handyman guy you all keep around?”

“Heath? Your buddy? The one whose basement you’ve been staying in this week? The one you hang out with at every opportunity anytime you’re here? The one who’s gotten your drunk ass to bed so many times I’ve lost count? That handyman guy?”

“Yeah. That’s the one.”

My brother is somehow the most annoying and also the funniest person on the planet. “The one who kept sneaking kisses from Cricket all day yesterday? Whichyou commented on?”

“Lot can change in a day. Maybe they broke up last night.”

“Go inside and help set the table. You’re annoying me.”

“Who’s boingy-boingying you?” Pip calls to me.

I laugh.