“I know.”

“Okay.” I walk over to the microwave and pop the glass dish inside, not sure what else to say.

“How was practice?”

I raise one brow at the question, mildly surprised she knew today was our first day. It suggests a level of interest in the basketball team I wasn’t expecting her to have. “It was fine.”

She sets the sponge down on the counter. “Ben and Maggie talk a lot. Maggie talks a lot about what they talk about,” Cassia explains.

“Guess that means I’m excellent at match-making.”

Cassia rolls her eyes. “You think you’re good at everything.”

“Do you think I’m good at…everything?”

I don’t mean it as an innuendo, but it comes out that way. I don’t think I’m imagining the way her pupils dilate. How her breaths quicken.

“Okay, what about this top?” Sydney’s voice announces her entrance a few seconds before she waltzes into the kitchen.

She barely spares me a glance, but I do a double take when I see her. Sydney’s usually straight hair is curled in long spirals. She’s wearing a full face of makeup, jeans, and a sweater that exposes an inch of her midriff. Most of the time when I get home, she’s in sweatpants and a ponytail that’s busy falling apart.

“It’s cute,” Cassia replies, looking Sydney over and nodding.

“Too little boob?”

“Jesus, Sydney,” I say, running a hand through my hair. There are some things you don’t want to hear your sister say, and that was definitely one of them.

“What? I didn’t ask you, Holden.”

“I’d definitely go with that sweater,” Cassia states, drawing my sister’s attention back to her.

Sydney nods and heads back upstairs.

“How many options have there been?” I ask.

Cassia laughs. I want to bottle it up, how that genuine amusement sounds. Tuck it away like a secret only I know.

“A lot.”

I smile, then clear my throat. “Look, about Friday night…”

She straightens, all the amusement immediately falling off her face. “We’re good. We don’t need to talk about it.”

Jesus, this girl. Maybe this is karma for how I’ve handled hook-ups in the past. The difference is, I made it clear to those girls I wasn’t looking for anything serious. Cassia is far more complicated. “I know we don’t need to talk about it. I want to talk about it.”

Sydney bounces back into the kitchen. She looks at Cassia, ignoring me as she pirouettes. “You sure this is what I should wear?”

Cassia nods. “Yeah. You look hot.”

The words are aimed at Sydney, but she looks at me as she says them. I quirk a brow at Cassia, trying to figure out what that means. If my sister wasn’t talking a million miles a minute, it would be a lot easier to figure out.