Zane looked at me in surprised. “What? That doesn’t sound right.”
I nodded. “We have been utter shits.”
“We haven’t?” Zane gasped.
I laughed as Brendan smiled.
“We knew it was coming,” he told Zane. “I think you’re supposed to be shit now until you’re like mid-twenties…maybe even thirty?”
“And you signed up for this?” Zane asked, acting dumbfounded.
“As a parent, you just kind of accept that your kids will be shit for a while. It’s just a whole thing.”
“Why do you put up with it?” I asked.
Brendan shrugged. “Oh, I dunno. I guess we’re paying it forward, you know. We were shit to our parents for a while. We can hardly complain. It’ll be your turn if you two decide to have kids.”
“We’re not…” both Zane and I said at the same time.
I looked at him quickly. His eyes were wide as he stared at me.
“Got some news to share, kids?” Brendan meant it teasing, but it had my heart hammering in my chest.
Zane and I babbled at the same time.
“What?”
“No!”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“We wouldn’t…”
“We’re not…”
“What?”
“Bloody hell,” Brendan laughed. “I meant in general. I didn’t mean you were having them together. Jesus, you two. You’d think the world was gonna end if you two had a kid together!”
I laughed, but it felt forced.
“No. Of course,” Zane chuckled. He looked at me. “He didn’t mean…”
I shook my head. “No. That’d be ridiculous.”
It would, wouldn’t it? Me and Zane. Little versions of us running around. Doing the whole family thing with him. That’d just be…weird. Right? Super weird. Weirder than me half-entertaining a semi-thought that there could be a spark between us.
Yeah. Totally.
“Shall we do some baking?” Brendan asked loudly, bringing me back to the present.
I nodded quickly. “Yes.”
“Definitely.”
“What are we making?” I asked as Zane passed me an apron.
“We’re practising danishes for Mum’s party,” Brendan answered.
“Oh, sweet. Berry?” Zane asked with a grin.
Brendan nodded. “Berry and citrus.”
“Mandarin?” I asked.
“If you want. As long as we do blueberry and lemon, Mum’ll be happy.”
“Okay, what do you need us to do?”
Brendan directed us around, making sure we worked quickly so the butter didn’t melt too much. There was a lot of flour going around to prevent sticking. It was also great fun for throwing at people.
“Oi!” Zane spluttered, looking up at me.
Half his face was covered in flour as he glared at me. I shrugged innocently.
“Oh, you’re getting it now!” he said with a mischievous grin.
He picked up a handful of flour and I squealed as I tried to dodge it. Most of it hit me, but the rest of it splattered across the kitchen.
“Oi!” Zane cried. “Unfair!”
“Unfair?” I laughed. “How is that unfair?”
“You dodged.”
I nodded. “That’s what you’re supposed to do.”
“You didn’t give me time!”
“It is not my fault you go through life unwary of attack.”
“Oh,” Zane snorted. “Like you’re always totally prepared.”
“I am.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“You want to put that to the test?”
I narrowed my eyes in challenge. “I’m ready for you, Lindon.”
“Game on, Baines.”
Zane picked up some more flour and tossed it at me and that was the beginning of all-out war. All powdered baking ingredients were fair game. There was an instance where an egg was threatened, but then we’d decided that was against the spirit of the thing as we chased each other around the kitchen throwing food at each other.
As I turned, I slipped on a patch of flour and Zane tried to catch me. We went down in a jumble of arms and legs and laughter.
“Brendan is going to kill us for this mess,” Zane laughed.
I nodded as I tried to catch my breath. “Where did he go?”
“I suspect he decided to avoid the war zone.”
“Smart.”
We looked at each other, the warm smile I felt on my face mirrored on his. He brushed a finger down my cheek.
“You are covered in flour,” he chuckled.
“I doubt I’m half as bad as you,” I said.
He shook his head as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll pay that bet.”
He lay his cheek against mine and snapped a pic of us, then brought the phone down so we could see it.
I laughed at the two of us. Covered in flour and grinning like idiots.
“Send that to me?” I asked, disentangling myself from him to haul myself up.
“Done. What are you doing?”
“Figured we should probably tidy up a bit.”
Zane looked around, his smile growing as he took in the utter havoc we’d wreaked.
“Yeah, good point.” He held his hands out and I helped pull him to standing. “This place looks like it’s snowed.”
“Snowed cocaine maybe.”
Zane laughed as he helped himself to the cleaning stuff under the sink. “Lot of experience with that?”
“Oh, you know me. When I’m not busy with schoolwork, I’m growing my cocaine empire.”
He snorted. “Definitely. You’ve stretched all the way to… Where now?”
“I’ve got to Rostrevor, but they’ve got their own people that are making it hard to push forward anymore.”
“Oh, a turf war!”
I chuckled. “You gonna back me?”
“Always!”
“You two done already?”
We looked to Brendan.
“Where did you disappear to?” Zane asked him.
“I said you were avoiding the warzone,” I told him.
Brendan’s face got this weird soft smile on it as he looked at us. “Oh, you know. I thought I’d leave you to it. Didn’t want to get in the way of you two…having some fun.”
The way he said was weird – like he knew something we didn’t – but I didn’t have time to dwell on it as Zane said, “You want to help us clean up our mess?”
Brendan laughed. “No. You two are on your own.”
“We’ll get it spotless again,” I promised him.
He nodded, “I know,” and left us to it.