She grinned. “Does it suit me?”
“Yeah, it does.” It made her look as if she belonged here, and Ed’s heart gave an uncomfortable tug. He took his phone from his pocket, took a photo and showed it to her.
She took the hat off and tried to give it back to him. “I can’t take your hat, Ed.”
“It never fit me.” It wasn’t who he was, it was who he’d tried to be. It made him look the part. “Keep it, please.” He pressed it back on her head. She looked cute.
Not wanting to dwell on the past, he pulled out an old biscuit tin. As a kid he’d stored all his treasures in there, but now he couldn’t remember what they were. The lid was stiff and rusty from years of disuse and when it finally popped, things flew everywhere. A black lump landed on Tess, and her ear-piercing scream stopped Ed’s heart. His eyes took a moment to focus on the large black spider sitting on Tess’s knee. Another second before he registered it was plastic, and that Tess was shaking in terror beside him.
He reached for it.
“No!” She slapped the spider away and pushed herself in front of him—to protect him.
His heart swelled. “It’s all right. It’s fake.” He pulled her trembling into his arms as outside footsteps pounded closer, and then Darcy burst into the room.
“What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
Ed rubbed Tess’s back with one hand as he pointed to where the spider had landed. “Charlie happened.”
Darcy blinked and placed a hand to his chest as Matt and the others appeared behind him. “I thought someone was being killed.”
Tess still gasped for breath, and Ed scowled. “If Charlie was still here, someone would be being killed.” He placed the spider back in the container. “It flew out when I opened the lid.”
Darcy’s chuckle was full of relief, and he swore. “He’s still pranking us from beyond the grave. Why do you have it?”
Ed shrugged, but the memory hurt. Watching his mother pack Charlie’s toys away, seeing the spider. Thinking maybe he could take over Charlie’s role as prankster in the family, but never having the courage to do so. Tucking the spider away for a day when he was feeling brave.
Tess pulled away from him, brushing the tears from her face. “I’m sorry. I thought it was deadly.”
“And yet you protected me. Thank you.”
Her tremulous smile warmed him. Behind him, Darcy reassured the other men no one was being murdered.
Darcy smiled at Tess. “Charlie got me with that spider when I was about fourteen. Made it drop from the door frame onto me, and scared the shit out of me. I might have screamed as loudly as you did.”
“Good lungs,” Matt commented from the doorway.
She blushed. “Thank you for coming to my aid.”
“Any time,” Darcy said, and with a dip of his hat, they left.
Ed shook his head. He’d never been as suave as his brothers. The one time he’d tried the move on a girl he liked, he’d pulled the hat down so far he couldn’t see her anymore. “You OK now?”
She nodded, though her hand shook as she reached for the plastic toy. “It looks so real.”
“Charlie terrorised us all with that for weeks just before he died. It’s the reason for Georgie’s spider phobia.”
“He sounds… a little mean.”
Ed hesitated. “He was Charlie.” How to explain? “He never meant anything malicious by his pranks, he just liked being funny.”
“And he thought scaring his siblings was funny?”
“Yeah. He didn’t really have an off button. He’d always be doing something—riding horses or motorbikes, learning to drive, going fishing or swimming. If I was reading, and Brandon and Darcy were busy, he’d pester me until I’d do something with him.”
“What about Georgie?”
“He adored Georgie, and most of the time he sweet-talked her into anything, but after the spider incident, she wouldn’t talk to him for a couple of weeks.” And then Charlie had died.
