The rest of my brothers ran into the foyer, and the boys and the girls started screaming at one another.
“You’re animals!” Enola insisted. “Uncivilized.”
“You’reinsane,” Nate said, waving his arms dramatically. “This is crazy! Cleaning in the middle of the night—you’re worse than Hunter!”
Arlo looked around in shock at my older brothers. “I can’t live like this!” He wrung his hands.
“I want a breakfast burrito,” Davy wailed.
“Heathens!” Enola exclaimed
“You’re unhinged!” Bruno thundered.
“Don’t insult my sister!” one of the littler girls yelled, tackling him. She was a fourth his size and clung to him like a raccoon.
Bruno looked at me helplessly.
I started to disentangle the little girl, who had a mouthful of his shirt. Then the three toddler triplets and the two toddler girls squared off and started brawling on the floor.
“Holy smokes!” I tried to break up the tussle and was bit on the hand for my troubles.
Meg stuck two fingers in her mouth and let out a piercing whistle over the din. The kids all froze.
“You know what?” Meg said brightly to the girls. “My sister owns a café, and she bakes very pretty desserts. She’s absolutely slammed right now, and I’m a bad cook, but I bet you all are great! She would love for you to come over and help her bake. Wouldn’t you like that? Then we can leave the boys to wallow in their own filth and bad decisions.”
Enola was suspicious.
“We have all sorts of kitchen gadgets,” Meg bribed.
“Do you have a stand mixer?” Annie asked, eyes sparkling.
“I do,” Meg told her, “and it’s pink!”
“Okay!” She glared at her brothers. “We’ll leave the boys and help you bake. Right, Enola?”
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll help.” She turned to the boys. “This house better be spotless when I return.”
My brothers all clamored around me when the girls were gone.
“Absolutely not, absolutely not!” Nate said. “They cannot stay here.”
“They’re family,” I reminded them. “Where else can they stay?”
“They could stay with Meg,” Calvin suggested.
“I want to go over there and see Minnie,” Isaac complained. “But I can’t if Enola has it under lockdown.”
“They’re gone?” Crawford asked, walking into the foyer.
“All of you are terrible.”
Crawford shrugged. “I’m not living with them. I just wanted to rescue them, not get bossed around by a bunch of little girls.”
The toddlers were licking the Nutella off the carpet.
“Maybe the girls do have a point,” Mace said, jerking his chin in their direction.
“What am I supposed to do with our sisters?” I asked.
