Page 35 of It Was Always You

I opened the door and found Noah standing there in his coat, with his backpack slung over one shoulder. His hair looked slightly less messy than it had been in his car a few minutes ago, like he had just run his fingers through it, pushing it to the side.

"Hi," I said.

He glanced around awkwardly. "Hey."

I stepped back to let him in. "You're still hungry, right?" I asked, hoping he'd play along and pretend like we hadn't just been talking ten minutes ago.

"Yep." He wiped his shoes on the rug before following me into the kitchen. "It smells good in here."

Easton was sitting at the bar with his plate piled high with food when we walked in.

"Hey, Noah," Easton said with his mouth full.

"Hey." Noah dropped his backpack on the floor by the pantry.

"So, sounds like you and my sister are getting serious if you're taking her to school." He elbowed Noah in the arm playfully when he took the stool next to him.

"Yeah." Noah eyed me anxiously before saying, “Raven's still not buying our fake relationship, so wethought it would be a good idea for me to give Lexi a ride to school today."

I brought our plates over then stood at the end of the counter. My hands were shaky as I tried to cut into my French toast. After attempting it twice, I set my fork down, hoping I'd be less shaky once I distracted Easton with some questions.

I urged my legs to stop feeling so wobbly. "H-how did things go with Mercedes?"

Easton swallowed his bite of eggs and took a sip from his glass. "Really good."

"So, are you official yet?" I asked to keep the small talk going since Noah was just shoveling his breakfast into his mouth, and was, therefore, no help during the conversation.

Easton stabbed a piece of toast onto his fork. "Not yet. But I think it might be headed there if I'm lucky."

I smiled. "Cool. She seems to like you. I noticed you two sitting pretty close at last night’s game."

"Yeah, we weren't the only two people sitting close." He raised an eyebrow at us.

Was he talking about Noah and me? I hadn't even thought that my brother might be paying attention to us.

Noah pushed his plate away and set his arm around my shoulders to pull me in for a brief squeeze. "Yes, Lexi and I just can't keep our hands off each other."

My skin immediately flushed, and Iremembered just how much I had liked holding his hand after the game. But I couldn't let either of them know that, so I pushed him away. "You know we don't need to pretend in front of Easton."

Easton's gaze narrowed at us, and I could just see the cogs spinning in his head. He was catching the vibes that something else was going on here.

He confirmed my suspicions when he asked, "This is still fake, right?"

Noah laughed. "Of course. I just like to give Lexi a hard time."

I laughed awkwardly. "Could you ever see Noah and I together in real life? That would be about as likely as having a unicorn sitting at our kitchen table."

Easton stood and walked around the island to put his plate in the sink. "Just making sure. Because I really don't want to have to make good on my threat to beat you up if you start to get confused on what's real and what isn't."

I swallowed and looked nervously at Noah.

But Noah seemed unfazed by the threat, which meant that in his mind, everything was really just for show.

"We're just doing this for the mutual benefits. No need to bruise your knuckles on my face." Noah stood then turned to me. "Are you about ready to go, Lexi?" he asked.

Did he not want to take a shower then? Or was he just saying it so Easton wouldn't suspect anything?

My food was still mostly untouched, but my stomach was such a ball of nerves that I didn't think I could eat much more, anyway.

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