Page 106 of Fallen Flame

From the kitchen, Oliver looked over his shoulder.

His laugh wasn’t loud, but I heard it. I always heard him.

Drew sat in the middle of the chaos with both hands over her face. “I panicked,” she said.

“That was perfection,” Alice told her.

“It wasn’t even dirty.”

“That’s why it won,” Clove managed between laughs.

Demi wiped beneath her eyes. “I’m never letting you pretend you’re normal again.”

“I never said I was normal,” Drew cried.

“You wore sweater sets for three years.”

“They matched.”

“That is exactly my point.”

The game kept going until we lost track of whose turn it was and Alice started claiming cards she hadn’t earned. The guys drifted in and out of the room, pretending they weren’t listening while reacting to every answer.

Nickel came through during a round about an inappropriate children’s birthday party and immediately turned around.

Pipe made the mistake of drinking coffee while Alice read a card involving a mime, a church organ, and an inflatable pool.

Coffee shot out of his nose.

The entire room erupted again.

Oliver closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face.

“I don’t know these people,” he muttered.

Pipe coughed into his sleeve. “I raised you.”

“That doesn’t help your argument.”

Arlo slapped Oliver on the shoulder. “You can’t escape genetics.”

Oliver looked at him. “We don’t share genetics.”

Arlo grinned. “You still got stuck with me.”

The words were casual.

A joke.

Nobody reacted to them except me.

Oliver’s expression didn’t change, but I saw the slight pause before he looked away. It was gone so quickly I might have imagined it if I hadn’t learned to watch him.

He belonged here.

Everyone in the room knew it.

Sometimes, Oliver was the only one who forgot.