She didn’t point or even look at me when she said it, but no one needed her to specify who the ‘idiot’ was.
“I know they’re going to find out soon enough,” Sasha said quietly. “I just wanted to buy some time and give them peace for a few more days. After it all happened at my first college, I thought Dad was going to have a heart attack.”
“Sam was distraught,” Mom agreed sadly. “So was Ryan. But that’s because you’re their world, and they hated what was done to you.”
“I know. I just don’t want to keep stressing them out.”
“We’ll find a way to tell them so that doesn’t happen.”
Smiling gratefully at Mom, Sasha looked over at me with a smile I hadn’t seen on her face before.
Without it, she was stunning. With it, she was out of this world.
Clearing my throat and doing my best not to make a fool of myself, I asked, “How long are you all here for?” Before they could answer, another thought occurred to me. “Wait, it is just you guys, isn’t it?”
It was worth checking. My family was large and full of weird people, and they tended to swarm like locusts on locations. It started with one locust just flying along, looking for a place to eat some foliage. Then, before you could blink, the whole area was swarming and the entire landscape changed, and not for the better.
“Oh, your grandad’s got a lot on his plate right now. He’s temporary mayor,” Dad chuckled.
None of us did the same at the news, though.
“My dad put him up to it, didn’t he?” Sadie growled, pulling her phone out. “I’ll kick his—”
Grabbing her hand, Mom squeezed it. “I think he played a part in it, but your dad helped their town out big time, so go easy on him. Plus, think of all of the videos we’ll get on social media of Dad trying to be a mayor.”
I still didn’t find this funny.
“He’s a locust,” I blurted. “He’ll ruin Texas.”
“Don’t forget,” Mom drawled as she turned to me. “You’re part locust, too. One day you could be just like Hurst Townsend.” When my brothers burst out laughing, she added smugly, “All of you could turn out like him.”
If there was an off-switch for our humor it was that, because both of them stopped immediately and glared at her.
And Bronte? Well, she was fed, she’d pooped, she was clean, so she slept through it all. All the while blissfully unaware that she too had Townsend blood in her veins.
She’d learn one day, though.
“This is weird,” Sasha mumbled as I lifted her broken leg onto the bed. “Does this feel weird to you, too?”
The weirdness she was talking about was us sharing a bed.
Sadie and Elijah had decided to stay at a hotel with Bronte so she didn’t wake us up during the night, but Mom and Dad, and Marcus were staying here.
Thinking she was being kind and courteous, Sasha had offered up her bed, but when Marcus had pulled out the sofa bed, she’d realized it meant either sleeping with him or sleeping with me.
Which led us to now.
“It’s not weird. Think of it as an adventure.”
Making sure she was tucked in and comfortable, I eyed her pillows and moved to fluff them up again.
“They’re fine, Jackson.”
Moving around to my side of the bed, I pulled off my t-shirt and unzipped my jeans, letting them fall to the ground to be picked up in the morning.
Then, not thinking about it, I slid under the comforter, breathing a sigh of relief when my back met my mattress.
Ever since I was a kid, I’d suffered from muscle spasms in my spine, so I needed to have a good mattress at night to take the pressure away and help settle them down. That meant what I was lying on at that moment felt like a cloud. With so many people in my space, too, I was on edge, so I needed to release the tension before I fell asleep or I’d wake up in pain in the morning.
“Uh, don’t you need pajamas?” she spluttered.
Keeping my eyes shut, I pointed out, “Why? I’m wearing underwear, and you’ve got pajamas on.”
“Fair point.” When I didn’t open my eyes, she asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m getting there. Having people in my space is hard for me.”
There was a moment’s silence, then she said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was doing that.”
My eyes flew open, and I rolled onto my side to face her.
“I didn’t mean you. I’ve never had a problem with you.” I frowned at the realization. “I think it came from sharing a bedroom with Marcus until Elijah and Jesse moved out, and not having any privacy.”
“I can imagine that’d be a pain in the ass. I never had that problem. From the second I needed pads and a bra, my dads made sure I had my own space.”