Page 79 of Cross + Catherine: The Companion

Her ten-year-old brother’s gaze narrowed. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Naz climbed up the last couple of steps, and pushed his body into the treehouse. He sat down right in front of the door so that Cece couldn’t get past him at all.

“Supper is ready,” he said.

“So move, and we can go eat,” Cece replied.

Naz cocked a brow, and then shook his head. “Nah, I don’t think so.”

“You’re super annoying, Naz.”

He only shrugged.

Cece sat back down. “How was school?”

“Boring,” her brother muttered, “like always.”

Naz was crazy smart. People liked to toss around the word genius, but he didn’t really like being called that. At least, not to his face. He was so smart, though, that he could do Cece’s math and science homework—with a guaranteed A.

“So, what’s wrong?” Naz asked.

Cece shook her head. “Nothing, Naz.”

“Yeah, except you only come up to the treehouse when something is wrong. Like the last time—it was because Ma had to go to Cali last minute, and wouldn’t take you with her. So you sulked up here for half the damn day.”

“I do not sulk!”

“Okay,” Naz drawled.

“I don’t, Naz.”

“Point is, this is where you go when you’re upset. So—”

“It’s just something little and stupid,” she said, wishing he would drop it.

Naz frowned. “Is it stupid if it made you cry?”

“I’m not—”

“I know what you look like after you cry, Cece.”

Of course, he did.

Cece’s very first best friend had been her little brother. He looked out for her even though he was four years younger than her. Sometimes, he could be the typical, annoying little brother that never left her alone. Other times, he was the only person Cece cared to share her secrets with at all.

“It’s really nothing, Naz,” she told him.

Mostly, she just didn’t want her brother worrying, or getting pissed off.

“Want me to tell Dad that I found you upset?”

Cece scowled. “Blackmail, really?”

Naz smiled, and tipped his head down so that the top of his beanie was all she could see instead of his face. “It’s what I do.”

Well … crap.