Page 7 of Hold

They bored into her as if searching for something in her own. A tingle began somewhere behind Thea’s navel. She might have parted her lips.

“Do you think,” he said, his breath brushing her cheek, “that you could go find me anadjustablewrench? One that has some hope of fitting your antiquated pipes?”

Her new friends were watching them, crowded into the doorway like the Keystone Kops, Seth and David somehow managing to appear one head on top of the other. And the wrench sat heavy in her hand, obviously too big and heavy to do any good against a kitchen faucet.

Thea burned with humiliation. She’d never wanted to be wrong-footed by a man again, and here she was, the first time she’d let one in the house since Gabe. Not that Liam was here to… Not that she was thinking of…

Shit. She turned around and climbed back down to the basement.

Cursing Gabe, Liam, and the perished pair of rubber gloves upstairs, she dug deeper into the bag, found an adjustable wrench, and took it back to Liam. Everyone except Chloe had gone back into the living room. Thea shoved the wrench at him and pushed past Chloe, who barely moved, her gaze riveted by Liam’s fine jean-clad butt again sticking out of the cupboard.

“Aren’t you gay?” Thea said from behind her.

“I can recognize a work of art when I see one, can’t I?” Chloe said. Thea pulled her away from the door, but not before they heard Liam give a snort of laughter that echoed a little in the cabinet.Hey, look at that. A sense of humor after all.

“Come on, I need to outline this paper,” Zahra said—bless her understanding heart—and the four of them went back to work.

In a few minutes, Liam, wiping his hands with paper towels, came in, said, “I’ll be back,” which made Chloe almost spit out her soda, and swept out of the house.

“‘Come with me if you want to live,’” Chloe said.

“Uh-huh,” Zahra said.

“Excuse me,” Thea said to avoid her knowing look. “I have to go put Benji to bed.”

Benji had been remarkably self-sufficient tonight. Putting a movie on his tablet had held him in one place. Jake had been doing his homework, of course. She hoped to God.

Now that he had his mother’s attention, however, Benji was not about to relinquish it. “Comeon,Ben-ben,” she growled as he changed his mind for the fourth time on which pajamas to wear. Then he whined and groused like a two-year-old when she tried to help him brush his teeth, and she told him so. So he grizzled and whined and wouldn’t pick out a book. Thea finally got pissed and said, through gritted teeth and in a quiet but furious tone, “Fine! I love you! Go to sleep!” and she left the room.

Benji started crying louder.Goddammit. This whole fucking thing is to help me be a better mother, and the first time I have people over, I screw that up, too.

“Mom?” Jake was right behind her.

“What?” she snapped. Would her fellow students think she was a terrible mother if she opened a bottle of wine?

Jake took her tone in stride. Which made her heart sink as well.God, all I’ve done for years is bitch at these kids. They didn’t ask for the dad they got.

“Sorry,” she said in her least crazy-mom voice. “What is it, hon?”

Jake looked so much like his father when he got that shifty look in his eye. “Um, a few of the guys are meeting up for pizza. Can I go?”

“Pizza? You just had dinner!”

“Two hours ago.”

“And it’s a school night.”

Jake looked up at the hallway ceiling. “It’s still early. ’Sides, there’re only like three weeks left of school.”

“Nice try, big guy. No going out on a school night. Go take out the garbage and bring Audrey in. Benji,” she raised her voice to cut through the closed door and his crying. “Quit it.”

“Jeez.” Jake pushed past her and went down the stairs.

In the kitchen, he looked at the mess Liam had left on the floor. “I got to clean this up, too?” he said in an aggrieved voice.

“Crap. I forgot about that,” Thea said. “No, just do the regular garbage.” Her sister, Cat, would have told him to throw this stuff out too. But there was Comet powder on the floor, and she didn’t have any other rubber gloves.And why do I always have Cat’s voice in my head, judging my every tiny decision?“But come say hello, first.”

Jake reluctantly turned to the living room, a hand going to his hair, to make sure it was spiky enough, she assumed. He stopped on the threshold, blinking at all the new people.

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