Page 16 of Rules of Association

This is probably what finally set off the alarm bells in Connor’s brain. Because he was suddenly hovering over me from the back of the couch. Large hands moving to remove the makeshift blanket-hood from around my head.

“Mad at me?” he asked.

Tipping my head backward, I looked at him upside down. He looked gigantic from this angle. Larger than life. “What for?”

“For telling you things you don’t want to hear.”

I contemplated this for a second, nodding my head thoughtfully, “Youknowthat was outlawed in our friendship ages ago.”

A corner of his mouth rose and if I wasn’t mistaken, his shoulders relaxed a bit. “Treacherous, I know. What do you have there?”

I frowned, then lifted the computer up so he could see what I was looking at. Taking it, he walked around the side of the couch and sat down in the far corner, studying the screen with a lowering brow.

Horrified he read my tabs out loud. “Find yourself with these simple steps…How to get a job in ten days…What color is your parachute...Cee? What is all this?”

“Research.”

“Seriously?”

“Do I look like I’m joking?” This time the annoyance in my voice was alright with me. I was sick of everyone coming at me today. “You know what? If you’re going to judge, give it back.”

I stood on the couch and moved over to him, reaching for the laptop. He leaned away and batted my hands to the sides.

“Hey,hey! Calm down. I’m justtalkingto you. No need to get defensive.” He looked at me with a‘what the hell is wrong with you’kind of expression that stayed my advances. When he saw me settle down into the couch cushions again, he brought the computer back to his face, scanning through the rest of my tabs quietly.

I tried to be still and wait for his reaction but found myself peeking over every two seconds to see if I could gauge it from his expression. It didn’t take long for me to cave. “You think I’m directionless too?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’tnotsay it.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth, Cee.”

“Well I don't want to have to guess, Con. You either think I’m as flighty as my family does or not.”

“You don’t usually care one way or the other.”

I felt a layer of disappointment line my chest. He wasn’t wrong, I didn’t usually care what was thought of me because I knew whatIthought of me. But with this, an area I was so ungrounded in, I found I was caring whateveryonethought of me, him most of all.

Watching him as he continued to study my research, I tried not to let on to this as I murmured, “I care what you think of me, Connor.”

He flickered his eyes up to me but didn’t say a word. Those eyes could mean anything, but if I had to guess they most likely meant,‘what is wrong with you tonight?’

What he actually said around passing me back the laptop was, “I don’t think you’re flighty, Cee. I’m going to make some dinner. Want some?”

I straightened in my seat, suddenly feeling less at home as I sat next to Connor, remembering that he didn’t have this problem. He knew what he wanted to do; he always had. It was one of the first things I’d learned about him, even before we became friends.

Before I actually knew Connor I’d only really knownofhim. More specifically, of his family. I’d known them only as the family across the city who we did business with. The one with a young daughter who married my grandfather when she was only twenty. And at the time, that had been enough information for me. Enough for me to want nothing to do with any of them, especially the daughter. But shortly after my grandfather died, and his wife was then forced to marry my oldest brother for our inheritances, I started to learn there was more to the Fergusons than I originally judged there to be.

I really had Fergy to thank for that. When I was in trouble and had come to my brother for help, Ferg had been the one to both help me and put me in my place when it came to the assumptions I’d made.

I respected her for that. I was also grateful to her too. She didn’t have to help me get revenge on the guy who both used me and stole from me after only a short time dating. But she did by using “tricks” she’d learned from her computer savvy older brother to hack said ex-boyfriend’s bank account and steal right back. As luck may have it, the next day is when I met that very same computer savvy brother in fate aligning circumstances.

I had been sleeping peacefully in Ferg’s bed the morning after a surprisingly fun night of goofing around with her. She had run off to my brother’s room in the middle of the night to do God knows what, leaving me all on my own. It was morning when the sound of big footsteps woke me up. I’d only just been opening my groggy eyes when the shadow of a big hand started coming toward me. Reflex took over immediately and on instinct I slapped the hand away before it could touch my shoulder, from the looks of its trajectory.

“What the hell?” I scooted up against the headboard while pushing blankets away from my face. Looking up, my eyes connected the hand to a muscular arm, toned bicep, all the way up to a handsome and familiar face. The sight of the youngest Ferguson boy had only made me feel just slightly less freaked out that he was leaning in to grab me while I was sleeping. The fact that I knew who he was making it no less creepy. But the way he pulled his hand back toward himself, his face scrunched up in confusion as he looked at me made my apprehension dissipate further. Enough that I didn't immediately start screaming for my brother and ringing the stranger danger alarm. “Were you about to touch me?”

He didn’t say anything, just skirting his eyes around the room like he was searching for something that definitely was not me. The look made me snort. “Did you think I was your sister?”

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