Page 24 of Crossing Lines

Nina takes out three different plates from the cabinet—one blue, one yellow, and one white. I wave for her to serve herself first, but she shakes her head. “You guys go first.”

It’s against everything I was taught, to serve ourselves first and not our guest, but I’m not going to argue with Nina. That’s a pointless endeavor when it seems like she always wins.

I scoop heaping spoonfuls of everything onto Zeki’s plate and my own. Leaning against the counter, I wait for Nina to serve herself.

Except she doesn’t. She stands in front of the spread, appearing almost lost, for a good few minutes.

Zeki shoots me a confused look and I shrug, not understanding what the delay is. Perhaps she’s allergic to something, or maybe she’s vegan. Shit, I should’ve paid more attention to her eating preferences before now.

I watch her closely as she debates what to even put on her plate. Finally, she decides on the chicken and the alfredo pasta before hopping up onto the counter since there are still no chairs or tables in the house.

“What?” She glares at us, as if she knows we saw whatever that was and is daring us to say something.

“Nothing,” I say, and dig into my food, Zeki following my lead.

“Where do you live?” Nina asks Zeki after a while.

“Here and there.”

Nina rolls her eyes. “What’s with all the nonanswers?”

Zeki takes his time chewing and swallowing before saying, “I guess I’m not used to people caring about the real ones.”

“Because,” I say, “the people you call your friends aren’t really friends. They just want what you can give them.”

Zeki snorts. “As if you know anything about friendship.”

I can’t hide my wince. He’s right, I thought I did, but Mert is proof enough that I don’t.

“Sorry,” Zeki says immediately. “I didn’t mean that.”

“It’s fine.” I brush off his apology, uncomfortable that Nina’s looking at me with a strange expression again.

“What do you do for work?” Zeki asks Nina, taking the heat off me.

“This.” Nina waves a hand around the house. “Decorating and managing the house for Stella.”

“You’re decorating it?” I ask, shocked. Sure, we found her painting the bathroom earlier, but I didn’t know she’s been decorating the whole house.

“Don’t sound so shocked,” she says. “I get that my style isn’t your taste, but?—”

“If I didn’t like your style, I wouldn’t have offered what I did.”

Zeki’s gaze bounces between us. “And what did you offer?”

“Nothing,” Nina saysquickly.

I give her a pointed look and tell Zeki, “To give Nina a franchising deal for the team, and she declined.”

Zeki whistles and looks to Nina. “And why did you decline?”

“Yes,” I say. “Why did you?”

She shoots me a glare before focusing on Zeki. I miss her gaze on me, and I hate that it’s on my brother instead.

“I don’t appreciate,” she says, “that he wants to use me to make more money.”

“How many times,” I say, exasperated, “do I have to tell you that I’m not trying to use you?”

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