“Don’t forget,”Greg said when I met my brothers and other half sisters in his condo later that evening. “We are moving tomorrow. All of us.”
“Is this really necessary?” I asked. The week had been stressful enough without having to cater to Greg’s insane plans.
“Did you forget that Ophelia flooded your condo?” Liam said with a laugh.
My little sister glared at me over her spaghetti.
“We’re not giving you a hard time,” Mike joked, handing her another piece of garlic bread. “You didn’t flood Greg’s condo, and that’s the important thing.”
“That’s right,” Greg said, leaning back in his chair. “But we will be flooding Belle’s tower tomorrow. I want everyone to arrive at the same time as a show of force.”
“I think she’s going to be extremely ticked off,” I said, reaching over to stop one of the toddlers from lobbing a meatball at her sister.
“She’ll have a begrudging appreciation for my brilliance.”
“And that is how you don’t get a girlfriend, Carl, in case you were wondering,” Walker said to our youngest brother.
Ding-dong!
“Is it cake?” one of the girls asked, jumping up in her chair.
“What is their obsession with cake?” Greg frowned.
“What is your obsession with Belle?”
“You are on thin ice,” Greg snarled at Liam.
I stood up to answer the door since no one else was going to do it.
“Mr. Svensson.” I glanced down to see a woman with a beehive of hair that came to chest height.
“I’m sorry,” the doorman apologized behind Ethel. “I couldn’t stop her. She just barged in.”
“Hi, Grandma!” Annie piped up over the noise of my brothers’ arguing.
Ethel pressed a hand to her heart and beamed.
“Grandma! Oh, I am so looking forward to our dinner.” She swept past me into Greg’s condo.
“Is this where you’re living?” she asked, looking around. “Why is there chocolate frosting on the ceiling?”
“This is my brother’s condo,” I explained.
“I want to see your home. I need to see where you, Tess, and the girls are residing.”
“Tess?” Walker asked in confusion.
“Yes,” I said loudly. “Tess, my girlfriend, who I will be proposing to soon.”
My brothers looked at me blankly. Between the arguments about what to have for dinner and the fighting about who got what condo, I had neglected to mention the big fat lie I had been spinning that afternoon.
“His condo flooded,” Carl said after a moment. “And Tess is in Canada.”
“Tess is not in Canada,” Greg said, blotting his mouth with a napkin and standing up.
As much as I despised Greg, at least he was quick on the uptake. Our father’s son, he could also be extremely charming when there was money or, apparently, our sisters on the line.
“So wonderful to meet Enola and Annie’s grandmother,” he continued smoothly. “It’s clear where they inherited their looks and intelligence from.”
