“Don’t forget the gator-infested lakes,” I pointed out. “Gotta know how to dodge those.”
“Oh, right,” Nate held up his hand, feigning shock at the overlooked detail. “Can’t forget them. You’re not a real Floridan until you’ve hopped over at least a dozen gators to weed whack.”
“That so?” Leo’s expression seemed to relax as Nate steered the conversation in another direction. I leaned back on the grass, watching the two with a familiar feeling of being the third wheel, left out of a secret.
“I only asked politely,” Leo clarified as he opened his own water and took a drink.
“Admittedly, it doesn’t take much to charm Dad,” Nate mumbled while glancing towards our truck where our father stood, doing his best to organize the backseat. Never mind he hadn’t helped out on any of the legwork today. I suppose the messy floor in the back did deserve a good cleaning, no matter if it was ill-timed.
“You would know first hand, wouldn’t you?” I teased my brother, the king of charming our parents into crowning him the golden child.
“I would.” Nate didn’t even pause for a second to think about denying it. “Everyone has their buttons and Dad’s is definitely the easiest.”
He held up his hand to count down on his fingers.
“Simple ‘yes, sir,’ ‘no, sir.’” Nate folded down his thumb.
“He is old school,” Leo nodded in agreement. “He carries a pocket watch.”
Nate laughed. “God, yeah. The pocket watch. Ask him where he got it and nod when he tells his stories and you’ll be his new favorite person.”
“Did that actually,” Leo agreed. “Can confirm it works. I was there for an hour. It was surprisingly enlightening.”
“That’s one way to put it.” Nate moved down another finger. “Taking part in conspiracies will give plenty more points.”
“Careful, Nate,” I warned. My brother always got a little heated when this topic came up. Our parents had a lot of issues. One of which was buying into wild conspiracies they found in the recesses of the Internet. We’re talking about a secret society of cats and radioactive spiders on every neighbor’s window sill.
“What kind of conspiracies?” Leo wondered and I shook my head at him.
“Don’t encourage him,” I said.
“No, he’s already into this kind of shit.” Nate smiled, leaning back on his elbows as he looked over at Leo. “Tell her about that YouTube channel you used to watch religiously.”
Leo’s cheeks reddened. He looked away for a moment, trying to keep the smile off his face. “It wasn’t religiously. And come on, you were into some of that stuff too.”
Nate scoffed. “Yeah, right.”
Leo pointed a finger at him. “Don’t tell me you forgot about Athena?”
It was Nate’s turn to blush. He sat up straight and stayed quiet.
“Who’s Athena?” I smiled, looking between them both. Suddenly, I felt less like getting back to work and more like finding ammunition to embarrass my usually cool brother.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” Nate promised.
“His obsession for like all of the tenth grade,” Leo filled in.
“I wasn’t obsessed, okay?” Nate pushed himself onto his feet, brushing dirt from the sides of his pants. “That one just hit differently. Like, some things you feel in your gut are right.”
“Can’t argue there. Especially when it’s a levitating spacewoman in search of her king. That’ll get a gut reaction out of anyone.” Leo snickered when Nate sucked the back of his teeth in displeasure. I laughed too. No one but Leo could have made my brother want to get back to work in order to avoid a conversation.
“Come on, stop slacking,” Nate said. “Break’s over.”
“Yes, sir,” Leo joked. “Suppose we’ll pick this up later. Athena loves to be in the back of your mind anyway, right?”
“You’re very cute.” Nate shook his head and started to the truck. “Very cute.”
Leo and I exchanged looks and tried to not laugh when Nate threw us a warning look over his shoulder. I liked this feeling of being in on something with both of them. Leo’s subtle change in actually making eye contact, paired with including me in the conversation was a new leaf. Something I hoped was here to stay.
