“No! I want one that really spurts fire and lava!”
“Like napalm?” I said. “I don’t think your teachers will approve.”
Bruno shoved his tablet in my face. “Did I do this chemistry lab right? Also, can I intern with you this summer?”
“You don’t want to go to Manhattan?” Hunter asked from the doorway to the dining room.
“No, Parker’s way cooler!”
“I feel like you’re flattering me,” I said, ruffling his hair.
“Is it working?”
“Probably,” I said, smiling at him. For all my complaining, I did love my younger brothers.
“I want to be like you!” Bruno said.
“I don’t see why,” Garrett said, appearing from the shadows at the top of the grand staircase that wound up to the ballroom on the top level of the mansion.
“Is this about Sadie?” I shot back at him.
“The girl that you stood up,” Garrett said quietly. “Yes, it is.”
“I never even talked to her until last night. She’s crazy and making things up!” I said.
Hunter looked skeptical.
Garrett’s mouth curled. “I have the full chat log you two exchanged. The messages originated from our IP address.” He held up his tablet. “In addition to the veryforwardmessages, you sent her pictures of the kids.”
“No, I didn't. I would never send a stranger pictures of our little brothers,” I countered, baring my teeth.
“There was a credit card charge to your account for the dating app,” Garrett said, wading through the pack of boys.
Ellis and Billy, two of my middle-school-aged brothers who were in the awkward gangly stages of early puberty, were subtly trying to leave the room. Hunter pounced on them. My older brother didn't have to say a word before they immediately started ratting each other out.
“It was him!” Ellis cried. “He thought we should use Parker’s picture for the dating site.”
“It wasn't all me,” Billy insisted. “You thought we could talk to a girl and she would send us—” he clamped his mouth shut.
Hunter’s voice dropped an octave as he said, almost inaudibly, “Pictures of what?”
Billy swallowed, big eyes darting between me and Hunter.
“You can't just use my picture to try and seduce someone three times your age,” I chastised. “Honestly. You're as bad as Dad.”
Billy and Ellis started sobbing. “Parker, we're sorry! We didn't mean to be like Dad.”
Hunter shook them roughly by the backs of their shirt collars.
“Grounded. You're doing community service for the next year. No phone. No internet. You will write everything by hand or on a typewriter. You're going to be subjected to whatever punishment we all come up with over the next few months. I'm sure it will include an excessive amount of cleaning. But first, you're going to apologize to Sadie.”
* * *
Wack!
The noise half woke me. I had been dreaming of a curvy blonde that was definitely not Sadie. Last night, after another hour of yelling at Billy and Ellis about their egregious lack of judgment, I had scrolled through the dating account they had made to see how bad the damage was. Fortunately, they'd only talked to Sadie. The last thing I needed was for my younger brothers to impersonate me and send cringey messages to every woman within a five-mile radius.
The pictures Sadie had sent of herself made her seem cute, friendly, and fun. There were images of food she had made, photos of her with a corgi, and pictures of her out and about in Harrogate. There was one picture in particular, though, that had caused the dream. Sadie was leaning toward the camera, a brilliant smile on her face, hair windswept, her cleavage drawing a line that bisected the deep V of her thin shirt, the outline of her bra visible through the fabric.
