My mother had made me my favorite, pancakes, every morning. I didn’t feel worthy of her spoiling. Instead, I felt like a dirty traitor. Nathan kept texting me random stuff, and it took every ounce of effort I could muster to respond with nonchalant comments. I felt guilty, not only because of what happened with Farrah, but because I still didn’t trust myself around her despite knowing the consequences.

My mother placed another hot flapjack on my plate. “Everything okay between you and Nathan?”

“Yeah. Why do you ask?” I poured lines of syrup over the pancake.

“Just thought maybe that had something to do with why you’ve been here.”

“Why does there have to be something wrong for me to want to visit my folks?”

“Because I know this isn’t your favorite place, even if you love us.” She walked back over to the stove, then turned around. “I forgot to mention that I saw Farrah.”

My ears perked up. “Oh yeah?”

“She was with a guy. Looked like she was on a date.”

I stopped chewing. “What do you mean?”

“Well, what else would she be doing sitting across from a handsome guy at Dean’s?”

Dean’s was a restaurant not far from my parents’ house, which was also close to Farrah’s job.

The syrup turned in my stomach. “When was this?”

“Yesterday.”

Pissed at myself for feeling a jolt of jealousy, I exhaled.

“You look like that upsets you,” she said.

“What?” I felt my face turning red. “No! She just...doesn’t have the best judgment sometimes.”

“How do you know that?”

Because she wants to fuck around with me, for one. I ignored her question. “What did this guy look like?”

“He was older.”

My fork fell out of my hand. “Older?”

“Maybe around your age, possibly in his early thirties.”

“Are you shitting me?”

“What’s wrong with that? Your father is ten years older than I am.”

“She’s practically a kid. There’s a huge difference between twenty-one and early thirties.”

I felt like my head was going to explode. I wanted to jump in my car and go find her. But I shook that insane thought from my mind.

“What you just said about Farrah goes against everything you’ve told me before. I thought you felt she was mature.”

I rubbed my temples. “She is...but that’s because she’s had to handle a lot from a young age. That doesn’t mean she’s ready to be messing around with a dude in his thirties. She hasn’t had a lot of boyfriends.”

My mother tilted her head and smirked. “You seem especially vested in her well-being.”

“I am, because I care about her,” I said, feeling caught with my pants down.

Mom wasn’t dumb.

“Are you sure there’s nothing more?” she asked.

One thing I could never do was lie to my mother’s face. So I had to get the hell out of the situation. I wasn’t about to admit I had inappropriate feelings for Nathan’s sister, even if that was the truth.

“Breakfast was delicious.” My chair skidded against the floor as I stood up. “Thank you.”

“Ah, the famous eat and run. I remember that from back when I used to confront you about smoking pot in high school or whether you were having sex.”

“Drop it, okay?” I dashed out the door to head to work.

Yeah. She knows.

• • •

That evening, I forced myself to show my face at Nathan’s. I couldn’t disappear from the house forever, so I’d suck it up and spend my first night back there tonight.

He had just gotten back from the dealership when I arrived. I hadn’t seen Farrah’s car outside, so I assumed she wasn’t home.

He opened the fridge and grabbed a beer. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages. How are things with your parents?”

A wave of guilt hit me. “Dad’s doing much better now.”

“Good to hear.”

“How’s the job going?” I asked.

“Really well. I sold an Escape today.”

“That’s amazing, man.”

“Yeah. I never imagined I’d end up with something I liked better than my last job, but this proves everything happens for a reason.” He chuckled. “Now I sound like Farrah.”

The mention of her name made my pulse race.

I did my best to act casual. “How is Farrah?”

“I haven’t seen much of her over the past week or so.”

Hmm… “That’s probably because she’s going around town with some guy.”

His forehead wrinkled. “What guy?”

It was wrong of me to rat her out, but my selfish side wanted Nathan to know about this. Aside from the fact that I was likely the most dangerous man Farrah had nearly gotten involved with, we needed to make sure she wasn’t getting herself into trouble.

“My mother said she saw her with a guy at Dean’s.”

“Really? Well, she never mentioned it to me, but I’m probably the last person she’d tell.”

“I’m only telling you so you can keep an eye out, make sure she’s not running with the wrong kind of people.”

“I appreciate that. You know I’ll be on it.”