damn handshake.
“Alright, Henry! Stop being a creeper and let her go,” I snap, putting an arm around Mila’s waist possessively.
She looks back over her shoulder at me and frowns. “We were just saying hello.”
“My brother never knows when to back down,” I growl. I yell to Henry, “Tell Mom I’m coming right home.”
“She’ll go apeshit if you don’t invite Mila,” Henry says, horning in on the invitation I just extended her. I’m starting to feel pretty Cain and Abel with this kid. “Mila, you gotta come back with us. Our mom makes this crazy cocoa with cinnamon and just a tiny bit of peppermint. It’s freaking amazing. You gotta have some.”
“I know I said I would, but I’m not sure it’s such a good idea. Um, isn’t this family time for all of you? I’d really be intruding, and it would just be rude, right?” she asks, looking back at me with her eyebrows low over her eyes.
“Nah,” I say at the same time Henry’s yelling, “Not at all!”
I glare at him and he glares right back, then says to Mila, “Trust me, when the Murphy’s are all together for too long, things get way too intense. We need some company around to keep us on our best behavior, you know what I mean?”
She giggles.
At my brother.
He makes her promise she’ll come by, offers her a ride, and pulls away only after she points out that her car is right there on the street and assures him she’ll be okay driving the couple of blocks back to our house.
And this conversation goes on between them as if I’m not standing in plain damn sight.
“Do you need a ride home, Landry?” Mila asks, opening the driver’s side door of her Civic and waving to Henry.
I half feel like I need to walk off some of my stabbing aggravation, but I don’t want to leave Mila’s side.
“Thanks.” I get into the car next to her and point her in the general direction of the crazy ass house where my family is waiting to show off like a pack of frenzied hyenas.
I can’t wait to join the fun.
“Your brother seems so nice,” Mila says, her eyes on the road, her voice a little hitched.
I feel a low growl vibrate deep in my throat. Henry is an alright-looking kid, I guess. He’s gotten more attractive to the ladies now that he’s put on some muscle mass and stopped dressing like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. I realize girls are checking him out, and that he might even be some competition for me. And he can have any other barfly looking for a good time or random pretty girl who wants to cozy up for a night or two. I couldn’t care less.
Mila is off limits.
“My brother is an ass. And he’s kind of a player. Don’t get too involved with him, okay? Left on this next street.”
I lean back in the passenger seat, wishing like all hell I’d been able to drive my car so I didn’t have to be a passenger every single time I wanted to go somewhere in this freezing cold, one-horse town.
“I can totally handle myself,” Mila says flatly, her mouth puckered down in this little frown that looks pretty alien on her usually smiley face.
“I didn’t say that. Although, now that you bring it up, you really can’t. It’s the third house on the right. The one with the freaky Santa in the upstairs window.” She pulls up, and I prepare to get out, but Mila is gripping the steering wheel with intent, liked she’s glued to the interior of the car.
“What is it?” I ask, reaching over to tug on her sparkly silver scarf.
She stops looking straight out the window and turns to look at me. “I’ve been handling myself for years, Landry. Without your help, thank you very much.”
She’s not usually pissy with me at all, and it throws me. “Sorry. It’s just that Henry can be a little bit of a jerkoff, and I don’t want to see you get hurt, okay?”
She lets out a short, hard laugh. “You don’t want to see me get hurt?”
“Why do you say that like it’s some crazy, unbelievable thing?”
The question rips out on a surprisingly defensive note, because I feel pretty defensive.
I’ve always looked after Mila. When she crushed on that asshole with the girlfriend, I was the one who told the guy to back off when he made a dozen too many drunken calls to her cell one long