Page 32 of Chips & Checks
Violet rolls her eyes. “We’re not killing Chad.”
Cam scowls. “Are you sure about that? Once your brother finds out about this…”
Violet jabs a carrot stick at him. “Yes.”
Ash takes an angry bite of sharp cheddar. “Fine. But we’re not waiting for an internal investigation, either. We need to take matters into our own hands.”
“I agree,” I say. “I’m just not surehow. They won’t transfer him to another PT. She’s stuck with him, but I hate the idea of just waiting around in the hopes that red tape will save the day.”
In the next room, the oven timer goes off. Violet and I get up at the same time.
“Oh,” she says, “I’ll grab everything.”
“I’ll help you,” I say. “There’s a lot to carry out.” I trot off to the kitchen before she can insist on doing everything herself.
We shift everything from the trays to party platters in silence. Violet points to the upper shelves without a word, indicating the ones she wants. When I start looking for an oven mitt, she hands me one without me having to ask. Ash is right—we’re strangely in sync. It feels… nice.
Once again, Ash and Camden stare at us when we return with our bounty of obscenely hot snacks. I can practically hear their brains whirring away inside their heads.
Violet brushes past me to grab a napkin. Our hands touch—just for a second.
Nothing dramatic.
But the silence after?
It’s loud.
Camden snaps his fingers. “Wait, I’ve got it.”
“Got what?” Ash reaches for one of the mini hot dogs. Her fingers barely brush the pastry before she yelps. “Ow! Hot!”
I shoo her away. “They came out of a four-hundred-degree oven about five seconds ago. What did you expect?”
Ash gives me a sullen glare and sucks her burned fingers. “Thanks,Dad.”
Violet sits back down and reaches for her wine glass. “What were you saying, Cam?”
“I wassayingthat I know how to get rid of Chad.” Cam scoots forward on the navy-blue loveseat he’s sharing with Ash and steeples his fingers. “Guys like him want to stake their territory, right?”
“Vi isn’tterritory!” Ash snaps.
“I know that. But if Chad was looking at Bowen when he touched Vi, I bet he’s the kind of guy who thinks any single woman in his vicinity is up for grabs, so to speak. Telling him to fuck off clearly isn’t cutting it. But you know what would?”
Ash punches his arm. “Yes.Yes!Holy shit, Cam, you’re a genius.”
I raise my hand. “Slow down, I’m lost.”
Ash swings toward me with an evil gleam in her eye. “Let’s say you went to a bar. You see a hot chick and start talking to her. What’s the one thing she could say that would make you lose interest like that?” She snaps her fingers inches from my nose.
“That she has an STD?”
Ash pauses. “Okay, yes, that too. What else?”
“That she’s already seeing someone?” I suggest.
“Bingo!” Ash lifts her wine glass in the air triumphantly. “Chad’s comfortable going after Violet because he knows she can’t physically defend herself. But if she had a big, protective, totally jacked boyfriend hanging around…” She wiggles her eyebrows.
“No,” Violet snaps.
