“Please, don’t.”
“Henry and Archie sitting in a tree. F-u-c?—”
“Rhys, for fuck’s sake.” I groaned. “That’s mymom.”
Mom leaned in and pressed a kiss to the top of my head, fingers brushing along my hairline before nudging me back toward the stool.
“Sorry, honey,” she said, guiding me down with a light push at my shoulder. “You know Rhys gives me better details.”
The edge of the stool hit the back of my thighs, and I dropped onto it, one foot hooking the rung automatically. “What details could you possibly need about my boyfriend?”
“Is he good to you?” she asked immediately. “Are you happy? How is he?”
“Thirty-four,” Rhys cut in.
Her brows lifted. “Ten years older?”
“Mhm.” He slurped at his soup. “Got himself a sugar daddy.”
My foot slipped off the rung and hit the floor harder than it needed to, chair legs scraping an inch across the tile. Fingers curling against the edge of the counter, something hot and mean settled under my ribs.
Hewasmy Daddy, but not in a way anyone else got to touch.
“It’s not like that.”
Rhys made a noise into his bowl, unconvinced.
My head whipped toward him. “He pays attention.”
That shut him up.
Heat climbed up the back of my neck as I leaned forward, forearms bracing against my thighs, gaze fixed somewhere past the counter instead of either of them.
“He noticeseverything. The way I hold a pen. If I haven’t eaten. If I’m about to?—”
The word caught and dropped off.
My jaw tightened once before I forced it to settle.
Mom didn’t interrupt. She watched instead, her hand resting at the back of my shoulder, thumb pressing once like she was checking I was still there.
“Archie.”
A breath left me through my nose.
“He doesn’t miss things. He?—”
—keeps me steady.
“That hesitation?” Rhys snorted, dragging his spoon through the bowl like he had all the time in the world. “That was incriminating. You’re done. Absolutely cooked.”
“I’m notcooked,” I snapped.
But I was.
Fully cooked. Borderline burnt.
“Archibald,” my mom cut in, curious in that way that meant she was already piecing things together. “Honey… is he good to you?”