Page 34 of Rules of Association

This was doubtful. Clint had strange tastes in food and aside from maybe one or two outliers in the last couple years, nothing he chose was ever good. Ever. I decided to hold my tongue on the matter, though, since fair was fair and itwashis turn. But Clay didn’t know what a high road was.

“Man, your taste in food is crap. I’d rather not eat.”

Clint didn’t even look up from his screen. “Then don’t.”

Tiney sighed and did a little grunt in frustration. “Boys! Stop it now. Connor, put the phone away and spend some time with your family. Clay, stop being such a menace. And Clint…”

She just sighed and shook her head before going back to what she was doing.

“What?” Clint’s eyes popped up defensively and slid around the room. “At least saysomething.”

“I don’t even know where to start with you,” she said. “Can we just order a pizza or something? Not everything needs to be a fusion concept.”

He huffed and turned his head away. Then his eyes seemed to zero in on Clay who was still holding the light up as high as it could go. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Where have you been all night, dipshit? I’m helping Tiney with her pictures,” Clay shot back, but we had no idea where he was looking because he had those stupid glasses on.

“You look like an idiot,” Clint said, repeating my sentiments from earlier.

Tine giggled, and I felt laughter bubble up in my chest too. I wished I could fully enjoy this. I loved spending time with my brothers and sister, but there was something clawing at the back of my mind.Worryingme.

Quickly, I shot off one last text before clicking my phone lock on and set it down on the table. I needed to stop obsessing over this and just relax.

“Connor.” The deep unhurried sound of my oldest brother’s voice rang from my right. Glancing over I noticed Clint glowering at his tablet screen. “Can you come here for a second?”

Perfect. Something else to distract me.

I crossed the room to come up behind Clint at the table. Leaning down I peered over his shoulder at the screen and questioning him with a simple, “Hmm?”

Blinking a quick look over his shoulder he glared to the screen. “I’m trying to see these files but I can’t get access. It’s driving me crazy.”

I gave the screen a quick scan. “You need to access the server for these.”

“I’m logged in.”

Frowning, I leaned down again, taking a longer look. He was right, he was logged into the company’s network server and his access was correctly verified. Reaching around him I did a quick command prompt to pull up the browser code but immediately confirmed that everything looked fine.

Clicking around, I moved to the server code and confirmed that it looked good too. It was hard to truly tell what was stopping his progression with such a small screen and limited permissions. And to top it off, from the corner of my eye I could see my phone had just lit up and I was instantly distracted by wondering who it could be.

To Clint I said, “I can’t backtrack the blocks without proper tools. I told you we needed better security ages ago.”

“Nothing should be blocking me at all,” he huffed. “I should have full access.”

“Hmm,” I hummed as I blinked away from my phone. I couldn’t even read it from here, I was worrying about nothing. Focusing on Clint I said, “It could be your equipment. This tablet really shouldn’t be what you work on. Its CPU is shit.”

“You’re speaking another language again,” he sighed frustrated. “I just need to see one thing and I didn’t want to have to go all the way back to the office to get it.”

“Alright,” I said. “Send me the location and I’ll see if I can look into it at home.”

“Okay, thanks,” he said, already tapping furiously on the thin little tablet keyboard again. I shook my head. I hated when he tried to use that thing as an actual work-computer. It just didn’t work like it was supposed to. I was about to make my way back over to my seat when I heard his steady voice murmur, “Connor?”

“Yeah?” I blinked down at him with a chill. I hadn’t moved yet, but I was just about to when he caught me.

He had a weird knack for knowing people’s moves before they made them. His eerie, dark eyes seemed like they were able to see the future. Like right now, it was as if he didn’t even have to be looking at you to figure you out. “Are you seeing someone?”

I blinked.Several times.Across the room Clay almost dropped the light stick onto Tine’s head. And Tiney fumbled her camera in her hands. Stunned, we all looked at Clint in confusion. Me most of all.

“No, why?” I answered, genuinely confused.

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