Page 16 of Revenge Brunch and Other Disasters

“I’m keeping him hostage,” he admitted. “But in a very nurturing way.”

“Stumps doesn’t look like he minds.”

“He bites everyone else. It's how he expresses boundaries.”

Linda blinked. “Even your sister?”

“Especially my sister.”

Sir Stumps-a-Lot, sensing his cue, burped softly under the table.

The bill came. Rhys reached for it. Linda slapped his hand with her spoon.

“Excuse me,” she said. “This ismyrevenge date. You do not get to pay for the privilege.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Your revenge date?”

She froze.

He grinned.

Linda cleared her throat. “Hypothetically.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” he said, that grin turning criminal, as he leaned in just enough to make her heartbeat file a complaint. “If this is revenge… please, do your worst.”

Linda dropped her spoon.

Sir Stumps-a-Lot barked.

Somewhere in the distance, the alarm clock she had thrown away short-circuited in fear.

Chapter Nine: Emergency Beard Protocol

Rhys

RHYS DID NOT consider himself dramatic.

He was, by all accounts, a chill guy. He drank his coffee black, folded his laundry on time, and once finished an entire book on boundary-setting.

But right now? He waspanicking.

And texting his sisters like a man on fire.

The Room of Requirement

Rhys:

Emergency meeting.

I think I accidentally made Linda think I’m gay.

And she offered to be my beard.

AND I AGREED.

Liv:

…I need context. Immediately.

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