Page 105 of Rules to Love By

“You should ask him.”

“You’re very reasonable.”

There was a pause behind him. He frowned and turned on the water to rinse the potatoes.

“I think he’s good for you, Marcus. And I think you like him. I just want you to be happy.”

“Because you are.”

“Because you deserve to be.”

“People who are deliriously in love just want everyone else to be that way too.” He swirled the potatoes, letting the cold water running over his hands numb his fingers.

“Done with those potatoes?”

“Yeah. Here.” He brought the bowl over to the counter. “What next?”

“Call Eli.”

“Tris.”

The pendant lights above the countertop blinked and flickered.

“You see?” Tris pointed at them. “Mildred agrees with me, and she wouldn’t push you two together if it wasn’t a good fit.”

“She’s a house. What does she know about my love life? God, I can’t believe just asked that.”

“I have no idea what she knows, or how she knows it. I just know she does.” Tris shrugged, took his pot off the stove, then pulled a bowl of grated cheese out of the fridge. “She cares about her people, Marcus, and like it or not, you are one of her people now.”

“What if I don’t stay?”

Tris’s head snapped up. He swallowed, but flashed a grin anyway. “Then you don’t stay. But you don’t stop belonging here. She even looks out for Rod and Kristie, and they never lived here, so… You’re stuck with her.”

Marcus nodded. He couldn’t deny it did feel like home in a lot of ways. It reminded him of the apartment he’d shared with Aunt Iris above the diner. At first he’d put that down to the same sounds, the same smells, kitchen noises and people talking and eating, that he was used to.

Now he wasn’t so sure that was the extent of it. He watched as Tris put his scalloped potatoes together, reminded of doing the same when he was small, watching Iris create the much simpler dishes she sold at the diner.

“What?” Tris asked as he poured the contents of the pot over the pan of cheesy potatoes.

“What if I did more than leave Aunt Iris’s diner behind? What if I abandoned it?”

“What do you mean?”

“If it’s alive? Like this place…”

Tris stared at him. “I—” He frowned and got thoughtful.

“I never felt at home like I do here anyplace else but there. And seeing the place so wrecked last night? It killed me. I let that happen, didn’t I?”

“Johnathan let that happen. He’s the one who chased you out.”

“But I wasn’t there to stop it either.”

“You had to heal. Everyone understands that.”

“But will the diner? If I go back there, will it…”

Tris frowned. “Will it what?”

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