“Hey, thanks guys.” Aspen knelt with us and began to unload the basket.
Finally, Noel joined in to help her, but the contention he’d started remained in the air. As desperate and determined as I’d been to get Noel to include Oren in the family, I’d also been completely naïve. They were both miserable. Noel wouldn’t talk except to pierce glares Oren’s way, and even as respectful as Oren was being back to him, I could tell by his own uncommon quietness and politeness that he wanted to be anywhere else but here.
Forcing them together had been a mistake. What had I been thinking, pushing them at each other in the hopes they’d make up?
Brandt and Colton chattered as we ate, and Aspen joined in. I was too busy casting worried glances between the two ex-best friends.
When Oren met my gaze, his brow knit. He leaned in close. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.” But when I glanced away, he caught my arm and made me lift my face again.
“Hey,” he said, his eyes full of sincerity. “I’m fine. All right? There’s nothing to worry about, baby. It’s all good.”
I looked him over. The seriousness on his face as he lifted his brows to assure me he wasn’t suffering only made me love him more…and yet it reassured me my worry was completely founded. He was definitely in a bad way.
But then he went and pointed past me, saying, “Shit, look at that.”
I glanced over, but couldn’t figure out what he was trying to show me. “Wha…?” When I turned back, he had half a deviled egg in his mouth. Knowing he’d eaten his own already, I zipped my gaze to my empty plate and gasped. “Is that my egg?”
Still holding the last half of it up to his mouth, he grinned and commenced to chew. “You weren’t eating it.”
Shock made my mouth fall open. “I was saving it for last. Nothing tastes better than Aspen’s deviled eggs.”
“Then you should’ve eaten it first…like I did. I mean, what if something happened before you reached the end of your meal? You could’ve choked and died on your sandwich? A tornado could’ve come along and blown it away? Or someone could’ve...stolen it?” Like he had.
I gritted out, “I want my damn egg.”
“Here.” He smiled way too congenially and held out the half he hadn’t finished yet. “I’ll share with you.”