Page 140 of Anchor

I’m doing this. I’m really, really doing this with Seth.

“There’s your breakfast. I assume you know the address?” Because that would save us time and I didn’t even have to bother Cassie at all.

“Are you serious?” He showed me the bag of chips when I drove onto the main road.

“Give me the address, Seth,” I said, and he continued to just stare at me for a good minute.

Then he slammed his hands onto the sides of the bag of chips and itexplodedopen, making a deafening sound that had myears whistling. I didn’t want to give him the pleasure of seeing me react, so I just gritted my teeth and kept my eyes on the road.

“Fine. But we’re stopping for breakfast as soon as we get to Silver Spring.” And he started eating.

We really aren’t,I thought. “Sure,” I said.

“So, tell me about yourself, Rosabel. What’s it like growing up with all the riches of the world in the palm of your hand? Did you have butlers and maids? Did they wipe your ass for you?” He stopped, straightened up his shoulders. “Wait—do theystillwipe your ass?!”

Really, really hard not to laugh right now, but I managed to keep my expression neutral and ignore him as best as I could,whilestill keeping my focus on his body, on his hands, on those lips in case he wanted to start chanting out of the blue.

“That a yes?” he said after a minute, the sound of him chewing those chips making goose bumps break all over my arms. “Nothing? You’re not going to give me anything?”

I figured this was his strategy. I figured this was how he planned to get me to stop paying attention to him, so he’d make his move and knock me out cold before I could stop him.

That thought kept me in control.

“Okay, fine. I can tell you plenty about me…” Seth said after a moment.

And he did.

He made himself comfortable and ate my chips. He then reached in the backseat to see what more I had there and grabbed a can of soda, while complaining that I’d gotten diet. He told me about his first crush and his high school sweetheart, and how he used to put cactuses inside Taland’s pillowcases when they were little.

“You should see his face—I actually have the picture. Kaid took it with a polaroid camera. I keep it under my pillow just so I can look at it as soon as I wake up.”

He laughed and laughed.

Not going to lie, I really wanted to see that picture, though I was sure he was exaggerating it a bit. I mean,probably.

Seth then proceeded to tell me about how he once spread a rumor about himself that he was gay because he wanted to have more female friends and know what we talked about when guys weren’t around.

“It wasn’t what I thought it was. Seriously—how much makeup can a girl really have?” He sounded really disappointed, the poor guy. He visibly shivered—I saw it through the corner of my eye, and this time I barely held myself from smiling.

Still, he had to be faking it. A game to distract me, that’s all. And he didn’t plan to stop anytime soon.

He told me how Radock had once saved him from an actual bear when they’d gone hiking, and how his mother had made sure they always said their prayers before bed, and how she’d woken them up every single morning with kisses.

“It was embarrassing. I started cringing at it when I was ten—like, I’m a grown man now, Ma. Grown men don’t want to be kissed by their mothers all the damn time!”

His mouth did not stop.

“So, then Kaid told her the same thing, and so did Radock, so she eventually stopped kissing us when we were around other people, and just started touching us on the nose every now and again.”

When he said that, my stomach fell all the way to my heels and I almost dropped the fucking wheel.

“She said they were smallI-love-yousto carry around when she couldn’t be close to us during the day, but other people didn’t know that,” Seth continued. “Our friends had no idea so none of us complained.”

Tears in my eyes.

“And soon we started to slap each other, too, to express our love for one another—” Seth laughed out loud. “We started slapping our friends, too, and convinced them that it was a sign ofaf-f-ffection!” He was doubled over on the seat now. “You wouldn’t believe how long that went on…”

Seth continued to tell me all about his friends and his brothers, and my mind spun and spun with every single time Taland had touched me on the nose. That was the first thing he always did when we saw each other—just tap the tip of my nose. I’d asked him about it once but he said,just to make sure that you’re real.

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