Chapter 31
“Donuts,” I’d suggested twelve months earlier, not bothering to gaze into my cell-phone screen as I lounged on the sofa and ribbed my little brother about his favorite dessert—a mystery he’d yet to elucidate a year into our long-distance relationship.
“Because I look so sweet and fluffy, right?” Derek countered, a growl in his voice. Still, I knew my only sibling well enough by this point to be certain he was amused. So I refused to relent.
Grabbing the phone in one hand, I carried our connection into the adjoining kitchen and started pulling ingredients off the shelves with the other. “Oatmeal cookies? Vanilla pudding? Ooh, I know,” I teased. “Pecan pie....”
“...because deep down inside I’m really a nut,” Derek finished for me. His laughter was real this time around, a rari
