Page 77 of Prickly Romance

Am I throwing my baby sister under the bus?

Yes.

Yes I am.

And shamelessly too.

Yaya scrunches her nose at me.

“I think Niko would enjoy that,” Sazuki says finally. “As long as Akira can accompany her—”

“Of course. Yeah. Akira’s more than welcome.”

“Ask him to come too,” a robotic voice chimes.

Horror fills me like a swirling tsunami when I look back and see my sister.

With her phone out.

Using her evil text-to-speech app.

“Was that your sister?” Sazuki asks, sounding amused.

“Yes, she’s…” I push Yaya off me and smack her phone away. It lands at the foot of the bed. “She’s very friendly.”

“Tell her I said hello.”

My eyes bug. “What?”

“Did you tell her?”

“Why do you want to tell my sister hello?” I screech.

“It is called being polite, Miss Williams.”

“You? Polite?”

He chuckles and the sound rolls over me in waves.

“I am the definition of cordiality.”

I snort. “That hasn’t been my experience.”

“Your definition of politeness is clearly flawed then. I have no recollection of you being cordial either.”

“Well, I’m not nice toyou,” I allow. “But in all fairness, you were rude to me first, so I think that’s only right.”

Yaya signs, “What is he saying?”

“He says hello,” I speak and sign at the same time.

Her grin nearly splits her face in half.

“She said hello back,” I translate as I watch my sisters hands. “And that I’m—” My heart stops. “Yaya, I’m not saying that.”

“Saying what?” Sazuki asks.

“Nothing.” I smack my sister’s shoulder. “Sorry to take up so much of your time, Mr. Sazuki. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

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