Page 49 of The C Agreement

“Good.” She released me and turned around. “Why don’t you all go sit at the table? Your dad is already in there. The food will be ready in just a few.”

“I’ll help,” I told her.

“No, you’ve been at work all day. Your brother can help me.”

Beau sat up straight. “I can?”

Cade pushed his best friend in the knee with his foot. “Yeah, you can. Show your wife that you’re not your father.”

Em snorted.

It seemed like I had missed something.

But at least I wasn’t alone.

“What does that mean?” Mom asked.

“Never mind.” Beau stood. “Let’s go get dinner on the table.”

NINETEEN

RAYNE

My parents satat the head and foot of the dining room table with Beau and Em on one side and Cade and me on the other.

It felt like a normal dinner, except I had to hold myself back from touching Cade. I was so used to doing that whenever I wanted—unless he told me not to. But then that meant he was the one touching me.

A couple of times, I stole glances at him to see if he felt the same way. So far, I couldn’t tell. But he hadn’t snuck any looks my way or tried to touch me under the table, like I had kind of hoped he would.

But then again, I didn’t touch him either.

At the end of dinner, we took our dirty dishes to the kitchen, where Mom shooed us away, and my dad went to the den to watch television. It left the four of us sitting at the dining room table.

Beau sat back in his seat and put his arm around Em. “Since we were interrupted earlier, how are you doing with the bet?” He narrowed his eyes. “For real this time.”

I perked up at this. “When did you talk about it before?” I wanted to know everything Cade had to say.

“Right before you got here,” Em supplied. “But Cade didn’t give us any details since your mom walked into the room.”

“Oh,” I said, disappointed.

“And, yeah, Cade, we haven’t seen you in over a week.” Em looked at him with fake concern. “How are you holding up?”

Cade laughed mockingly. “I’m holding up just fine, thank you very much.”

“Your dick isn’t going to fall off from underuse?” my brother joked and glanced at me in the way people did when they thought the other person was going to get their joke.

I was laughing, but I realized that I needed to say something, or Beau and Em were going to think it was odd.

“I’m sure Cade and his hand are becoming well acquainted this month,” I said.

“Fuck you,” he said to my brother. “Fuck you,” to Em and, “Fuck you,” he said to me, this time with a look in his eyes that said he really was going to fuck me when we were alone.

I raised my eyebrows and scrunched up my nose. “Nah.”

Beau and Em laughed as a hot palm landed on my thigh.

“Hard pass,” I added because I was having fun, teasing him.

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