My brother’s shoulders slumped as he hung his head, and he toed the stone floor with a scuffed sneaker. “I’m really sorry. I won’t do it again.”
“No, you won’t.” Her voice softened, with a small smile playing on her lips. Caidan glanced up, half-relieved, half-nervous. “Because you are on dish duty for the entire month.”
Ha! Yes! At least I was going to get some help with my punishment.
Caidan tipped his head back and groaned. “A month? Come on, Mom, that’s like—”
“Would you like me to make that two months?”
He quickly shook his head. “Um, nope. A month’s fine.”
She crooked a finger at Caidan, urging him closer. “Besides the dishes, there is a whole lot of polishing to be done.”
Caidan let out a sigh of the world-weary, but he knew not to argue, and shuffled over to her side. She slung an arm around his shoulders while making an outward sweeping gesture with her other hand. “Imagine thousands of years’ worth of trinkets,all needing to sparkle and shine. And who better to do it than my little Caidy?”
“Mom!”
She raised her brows in question.
He frowned. “Stop calling me that. You purposely make it sound like Katy.”
“Me? I would purposely make your name sound like Caidy?”
“You did it again!”
She gave a toothy grin and ruffled his hair. “Right now, Caidy, I think I can call you anything I feel like, and you’d best not argue.” She squinted and tapped her lips with a finger, pretending to think. “Because, besides the polishing, I might get you to—”
“No, I’m okay,” Caidan burst in, throwing up both hands in surrender. “Whatever, Mom. I’m fine with Caidy.”
She rounded on us all, slowly giving each one of us the serious-mom-eye and poking a finger our way as she spoke. “Let that be a warning to you all. Leaving your toys strewn about the house is dangerous. Skateboarding is for outside, not inside the house. And if I step on another Lego, I will toss every single one of them into the blender, and that goes for your board games too, Gray.”
I gaped in shock.Oh hells, no!
Ferne twisted around in my arms, her mouth falling open. “Fuuuck…”
My mother sucked in a sharp breath as she pressed a hand on her chest, her fingers stretching across her collarbone.
Holy Zrenyth, we were in so much shit, it wasn’t even funny.
Squeezing her eyes shut briefly, she let out a long hiss of air. “Okay… My baby girl just said… I can’t deal with this any longer.” She glared at each of us. “Family meeting after dinner.”
She spun on her heel, snapping her fingers at Caidan. “Right, time to start polishing.”
Caidan hung his head and followed.
I pulled a smarmy face at him as he passed by.
He pulled one back.
I huffed a gleeful chuckle. “Caidy.”
He flipped me off.
I laughed harder, a full belly laugh that jostled Ferne and had her limbs clamping tighter around my hip and shoulders while she giggled.
My aunt swept her braid aside, so it fell down her spine like a rope. Her flip-flops smacked against the stone floor as she approached. I gently bopped Ferne on the nose, enticing another giggle.
Aunt Valarie smiled, reaching for Ferne, and settled my baby sister on her back. She arched a brow at me as she hooked her arms about Ferne’s chubby legs. “Gray, with me. Let’s go through what’s going to h-happen t-tomorrow with your father. He’ll be b-back from House Novak sometime soon with Kenton.”
