of endearment.
“You’ve either got your security eyes on, or you’re avoiding looking at someone,” she teased as she leant against the bar.
I threw her a sidelong glance. “And why would I be avoiding looking at someone?”
Her smile turned into a knowing grin. “Well, she’s either someone you’re not supposed to look at, someone you looked at quite closely already, or she’s turned you down before.”
I frowned. “I’m not avoiding anyone. But, if I was, it certainly wouldn’t be for any of those reasons.”
“All right. What’s your reason, then?”
“Where’s your boyfriend?” I honestly nearly gagged on the word, but even I knew I had to grow up.
“Kit’s checking in on Nico.”
I nodded. Sounded about right. Nerd needed to touch base now and then to stop him imploding from even the fear of too much social interaction. Lord knew I loved Nico as much as I loved the rest of the team, but I didn’t understand the introvert thing.
“Where’s your date?” she asked.
I looked around, realising that, while I’d been not staring at Leah Carmichael, I’d lost sight of Mrs Fortescue. “Sly old bat,” I muttered.
Bert nudged me in the side and I relented with a sigh.
“I know. I know,” I mumbled.
It was neither fair nor accurate to call Mrs Fortescue old or a bat. She was too kind, witty, and brilliant to earn either of those monikers, and too wonderful for anything else.
“She claimed she needed a rest.”
“She gave you the slip?” Bert spluttered a laugh.
“Has your benefactress finally tired of your idiotic arse, mate?” Chaos asked as he appeared.
His arm wound around my sister’s waist like it was instinctive and I watched her hand rest on his arm equally instinctively. When I looked up to his face, his eyes held a touch of warning. It wasn’t the ‘get over it or I’ll mess you up’ sort of warning. It was a ‘do we need to talk about this again’ sort of warning. It was a ‘this is between you and me, don’t make her feel bad about it’ warning.
And, it was probably a fair warning. I’d tried my best to get over them being together. I had, for the most part, accepted it. But there had been a few times in the last few months I’d been a bit of an unnecessary dick about it. That had caused more tensions between us because it made Bert feel like she was ruining my friendship with Chaos, which had Chaos pissed off with me for making her feel shit, and that made me feel worse.
Chaos and I had done what we always did in those situations. We broke the tension with a few well-placed punches and the minimal amount of verbalising our issues. And things went back to okay for a while.
I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why I had an issue with them as a couple.
They were, my feelings aside, apparently perfect for each other, even if it made no sense to me how it worked. They just clicked. The way they were together, it was like they’d been together their whole lives. They just naturally gravitated towards each other if they were in the same room. Some part of them would always be touching, like they were extensions of each other. Shoulders. Hands. Knees.
I hadn’t seen my best mate besotted, or enamoured, or even with a crush since we were about fourteen – at least, not one that wasn’t one hundred percent lust-driven – but even I could see he worshipped her the way she deserved. He honest-to-goodness cared about her. It wasn’t just that he’d die for her – he would have done that before. He was almost hesitant sometimes because he didn’t want to fuck it up. It was as hilarious as it was adorable.
Sure, they’d had fights. Most were the insignificant kind you have with people you’re close to and don’t have to pussyfoot about when something bugs you. So insignificant, in fact, that I couldn’t even think of an example. They’d only had one really big fight when Bert had been going through her PhD confirmation and the stress made her lash out even at Nico.
Despite all that, I’d never been worried it was about to end. I had this brotherly sense of impending doom that screamed I had to keep her safe, but that was my issue. I had absolutely nothing to base that on and, the longer it went on, the more I realised that I’d never had anything to base that on with Chaos. I