Arden instinctively wanted to deny that he had any such intentions to protect him, but Kade didn’t give him the chance.
He asked seriously, "He's not always such a jackass to you, I hope?"
Taken aback by the question, Arden shook his head. “No,” he clarified at once. “That was, um… it’s a new development.” He looked the other way and mostly continued to himself, “But I guess I should have expected that…”
Now that he was thinking about it, he realized it was going to be a problem if Nate made a habit of asking him for help.
Then again, doing Nate’s job for him might be the easier option in the long run. The guy wasn’t going to be here forever anyway. It might speed his cordial departure along if Arden made it seem like he had learned enough here.
While he was quietly making that decis
