I'm in the Mays' kitchen, leaning on the green Formica table.

The smell of their mother's coffee hangs in the air, the kind I'd recognize even on the other side of town.

I've spent so much time here that I know every sound. Every tick of the clock, every creak of the floorboards.

And then I hear them. Their voice in the living room. Deeper than before, but with that same gentleness that's never changed.

I turn, just a little, enough to see them laugh.

They’re putting away books, talking to your mother, making those quiet gestures… gestures I saw a hundred times when they were a kid.

Except now, they're no longer innocent to me.

I catch myself staring for too long.

Listening too intently.

Dallas walks into the kitchen unannounced and slams his cereal box against the counter.

“What are you staring at?”

I sit up abruptly.

“Nothing.”

He walks over and glances toward the living room.

“Still keeping an eye on my sibling? You’re going to start thinking you’re their babysitter.”

I chuckle to hide my discomfort.

“You’re the one who asked me to watch them.”

“Yeah, but not like… that. You’ve been here for ten minutes, man.”

I roll my eyes, but I feel an unpleasant heat rising in my neck. Dallas is joking.

He doesn’t get it.

He doesn’t see how their smile is turning my heart upside down. How you went from “little sibling” to… something I shouldn’t touch.

Dallas finally pulls a box of cookies out of the cupboard.

“Hey!” He call from the living room.

“Ryder? Are you coming?”

I close my eyes for a moment. Bad idea. It only makes their voice stick even deeper in my head.

I go over to them.

They look at me with that sweet, familiar, dangerous expression. I smile. A real one this time.

“I was watching you.”

I run a hand behind my neck. I've never been afraid of anyone in this city. Not even guys with knives.

But them?

They scare the hell out of me. And for the first time in a long time, I feel completely defenseless.