“Do you have a survival suit?” When he nodded, she asked the question that I’d figured was coming. “Can I try it on? How warm does it keep you?”
Sitting back, I watched as she threw question after question at him – some he dodged, some he answered. There were also a couple of internet searches to look up what he’d mentioned and most of those triggered more questions, too. At one point, he looked up at me like he was begging for me to help him, but I just shot him one of his shit-eating grins back making it clear no help would be forthcoming from this cousin. The grudge – it was real.
Finally, when she’d run out of questions, I repeated my earlier question, phrasing it nicely this time. “So, how come you came earlier than the others?” Before he could answer it, I followed it with an almost paranoid, “It is just you, isn’t it?” And looked around us like more of them were standing behind me.
“Yeah, the others aren’t due for a couple of days, but I heard you had some problems going on and figured I’d come lend a hand.”
Sighing, I groaned, “And who told you I had problems?”
Bursting out laughing, he leaned forward to pick Red up, holding him in front of his face like he was trying to make sure he was of the canine species and not a rat. “Gramps did.”
Covering my hands with my face, my initial instinct was to scream into them but that would make me look like a little bitch. “Fuuuuuck.”
The bark of laughter that came out of Elijah didn’t help the frustration and sinking in my gut. If Gramps had told him, it meant he’d told all of them. That meant that they’d also try to come early, some of them letting us know they were here, the others not doing that. Instead, they’d just get stuck into finding Eric and it would all go to hell.
I had two cousins who were twins, Jackson and Marcus, and they were the worst for it. The last time they’d tried to help out, they’d planted a booby trap near the lake that was on our property, and had blown up five trees. Incidentally, they also blew up the ATV that they’d been riding at the time, having forgotten where they’d set the booby trap and only jumping off at the last second when they saw the wire.
Charlotte’s eyes were huge as I told her all of this, and she looked at Elijah in a new light when she looked back at him.
“That’s crazy!”
Not taking any offense at her saying that about his brothers – not that he could – he nodded his head. “Yup, but I can’t say that the rest of our family are known for being normal.”
“None of us have ever blown anything up.”
“Yeah, but some of you have accidentally hit the trigger on the shotgun,” he pointed out, talking about when Tate was a kid. He’d totally done that, and probably would now, which was why we made it clear that he wasn’t to touch the big guns. Nerf guns, sure. Real guns, he couldn’t be trusted with. Looking at Lottie, he tilted his head as he took her in. “You ever shot a gun, honey?”
I felt her turn to stone under my hand, and she shifted uncomfortably. “Uh, no. I’ve never needed to.”
“You stay with this one,” he nodded at me, “you’re gonna find you need to. It’s safer, trust me. Either that or you’ll want to shoot a gun – at him.”
And just as I’d been softening toward him, he levelled back up to total asshole.Christmas day…
Ever wondered what total anarchy and chaos looks like? It was Christmas day with my family. There was paper everywhere, boxes spilling out the items that had been wrapped in them, people excitedly talking as they played with their presents and ate the little snacks that Mom had put out. This year, the sound of obnoxious music and the loud noises coming from the kids' presents joined it all, too.
Holding out the tray with deviled eggs on it to Lottie, I popped one in my mouth. “Egg, baby?”
It was almost like I’d asked her if she wanted to shove the tray up her ass the way she moved quickly away from it. “No, I don’t eat eggs.”
Seeing the pink on her cheeks, I leaned into her. “Why would that be?”
Not making eye contact with me, she mumbled, “I’m allergic.”
She was lying. “Allergic?” I asked skeptically. “But you eat food with eggs in them.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Pasta, mayo, you had pancakes yesterday, you ate egg rolls at dinner last night, donuts, French toast, potato salad,” I listed, thinking over the foods I remembered her eating with an egg in them.
Wincing as I listed them all, she looked around us like she was looking for help. “I was being polite?”