Page 213 of Silver Sweet

He says just the right thing to make Audrey beam.

I take a seat across from my two youngest siblings and scroll through my phone—trying to stop myself from opening my mouth. I can’t help myself. I really can’t. “Is it to piss off our older brothers?” I ask her. “Because I’m almost positive they’re going to pretend you arrived in a paper bag.”

Audrey sinks down in her chair. “No, I have better and more fun ways to do that if I truly wanted.” She narrows a hurt look at me. “Charlie has shown up shirtless countless times. But I show a little bit of shoulder and suddenly the world is burning?”

“Hey, it’s me—I love fire,” I defend. “And it’s not the shoulders. I’m just making sure you’re okay because this…” I wave my hand at her. “Seems like a cry for help.”

She untangles a strand of orange hair from her small gold hoop earring. “I have news. I thought I’d look the part. That’s all, really.”

“Fair. I did the same thing.” I motion to my face with the partial skeleton paint. “I’m dating Phoenix. I have a boyfriend.”

She applauds rapidly in excitement, but then abruptly stops.

“No, no, keep going.” I gesture her on.

Her face has fallen. “Why are you telling me now? Don’t you want to announce it?”

I rock back on my chair legs. “Unfortunately, I’ve been a fucking broken dam all night. Mom and Dad will be the last to know.”

“Unless Dad already knows,” Ben says.

“And Mother,” Audrey adds.

“Doubtful,” I say. “This literally just happened.”

“Mother and Father have sixth senses, though,” Audrey notes. She’s really the only one who calls our parentsMotherandFather.

It reminds me of the night Phoenix met my sister, and he told me, “Your sister sounds very proper.”

“She purposefully layers it on at times,” I told him. “She did it when she was little to try to sound older than she was since she’s the baby of the family. But it kind of stuck. Whereas I love using as much slang as possible because it drives my dad nuts. He should’ve never let slip that he can’t stand the worddude.”

Thinking about that conversation is easier on my brain than Audrey’s impending bomb-drop.

I hold out my hand. “Merlot me,” I tell Audrey.

She stands and passes the bottle of wine across the table. Grabbing it by the neck, I put the rim to my lips.

“Starting without me, brother?” Eliot saunters into the room. His eyes are on me, not even sparing a single glance for Audrey. In fact, the rest of our brothers do the same thing. Charlie and Beckett file in one after the other and silently take a seat at the long ornate table.

Jane follows close behind with a baby monitor in hand. Maeve must be down for a nap. Thatcher, Jane’s husband, got called in as extra security for one of my cousins tonight. He’s alead bodyguard on the team, so he often gets assigned elsewhere when Jane doesn’t need a security detail.

Eliot scoots his chair closer to mine, just to whisper more seriously, “Our sister is barely clothed, isn’t she?”

“Nightgown attire,” I whisper back. “And not likeLittle House on the Prairie. More like Gwen Van der Holt.” I name one of our party friends.

Eliot keeps his face impassive. “She wants a reaction out of me, Beckett, and Charlie?”

“No, dude,” I whisper. “It’s something else. Like I don’t think this is going to be a hilarious thing.”

“Fuck.” He takes the wine out of my hand. “You think Charlie figured it out already?”

Charlie is whispering with Beckett the same way I am with Eliot.

“No,” I murmur. “I think we’re steps ahead.” I’m telling myself that, at least.

Jane is careful with her feathers around the candles.

I have a sudden light-bulb moment. Leaning back into Eliot, I whisper, “If Jane knows something, then what if she dressed up for Audrey?” Because no way did she dress up for me. That was merely an unfunny coincidence.