Page 12 of Play Pretend

“Dispatch does not need bedazzled phones,” I said, pouring in a generous helping of sugar and cream into my coffee.

“Well, you better get used to it.” She laughed. “Because Tracy wants one, too.”

I dropped my head back with a groan. Of course she did. Because everything Jess did, Tracy had to copy. And then Jess will get mad that the other woman was copying her, and I’d have to hear about it.

Sometimes it was like dealing with toddlers.

Trinity pushed herself onto the counter at my side and swung her feet back and forth. The heels of her Converse hit the cabinets, but she didn’t care. She just grinned away at me.

“So, big bro. How’s life?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why?”

“Can’t a sister ask how her brother is?” She batted her lashes innocently as I took a sip of my coffee, testing the sweetness. “Any potential girlfriends on the horizon?”

I nearly choked, the hot liquid dripping from my mouth and soaking the front of my uniform. Of all the things I thought were about to come from her mouth, that was most certainly not one of them.

“What the fuck, Trin?” I wheezed. “What are you talking about?” She shrugged, but she had a gleam in her eye I didn’t trust.

“I heard Eden is newly single,” she drawled, wiggling her eyebrows. I shook my head as she spoke, turning to grab a fistful of napkins to clean up.

“I’m not interested.”

Eden owned the apothecary in town. She was cute, and incredibly kind, but I meant what I said—I wasn’t interested.

Inanyone.

Trinity hummed, but I didn’t look at her. I knew if I did, her expression would only piss me off. Not because she wanted me to start dating again—that was an old, tired conversation—but because she knew how much I hated when she pried into my life.

“Willow is single, too.”

The napkins fell from my hands, and my eyes bugged out of my head—Ifeltthem do it. I stared at her for a beat, the look on her face borderline infuriating.

“I’m definitelynotinterested,” I repeated, though my voice was a barely-there rasp. “She’s—”Insufferable. Cute. Too loud. Adorably annoying.“I’m not interested.”

Trinity rested her head against the cabinets, letting out a low laugh. “You’re very convincing,” she teased, and I rolled my eyes, dipping to grab the fallen napkins from the floor. “She seems fun, like she could show you a good time.”

“Oh my god,” I muttered, raising my eyes to the ceiling. “Please, fucking kill me.” If there was a god, I needed them to smite me right that second, becausethatwould be preferable to talking to my baby sister about a womanshowing me a good time.

“I’ve talked to Gracie?—”

“Wait, what? Adam’s going to kill you.” I tossed the napkins in the bin, then leaned my hip against the counter. “You know he doesn’t want us talking to her.”

She rolled her eyes. “She makes the best cinnamon rolls in the world. Does he really want to deprive me of that?”

“If it means talking to her, then I’d say yeah, he wants to deprive you of that.”

She huffed out a breath as she slid off the counter, her sneaker-clad feet thudding against the old tiles. “Anyway, I talked to Gracie the other day, and she said Willow isverysingle.”

My throat went impossibly dry, like a giant cotton ball was wedged there. I didn’t need to know about my neighbor’s love life—I didn’twantto know about it. Trin was right about Willow being single, though. In all the years we’d lived next to each other, I’d never seen her bring a guy home.

Not that I paid much attention to her comings and goings, but it would be hard to miss a man coming into her house. I would’ve known.

Unless she went to his place.

I shoved that thought away. I didn’t want to think about her—aboutanyone—getting laid when the only intimate partner I’d had in the last decade was my fist.

I tapped my fingertips against the linoleum countertop. My gaze met my sister’s, and she grinned. “You should ask her out,” she said, and I shook my head, pushing off the counter.

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