“Everybody wants you here, Archer,” I argue. “Every single one of us. And what Tatum and I have…it’s not a mess. I love her.”
“Enough to marry her for money,” he spits back. He shakes his head. “It’s fucked up, and it shows me exactly where I fit into your life.”
“You’re putting me in an impossible position. You want me to choose you, who pulled out of this family years ago, over the chance to give both her and me everything we’ve always wanted.”
He shakes his head. “You two don’t want the same things.”
“You don’t know that.”
He lifts a shoulder. “I guess that’s for you to discover on your own.” He leaves that as his parting shot as he walks out of the room, and now it’s me leaning forward on the counter with straight elbows when Tatum walks in.
“I was dying out there. Everything okay? Where’s Archer?” she asks.
I blow out a breath. “He stormed out. It didn’t go well.”
She reaches up to touch my arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect it to.”
“Yeah,” I mutter.
When we head back into the dining room, my father and his lawyer have disappeared. I pull a chair out as I remember something from long ago, and instead of sitting on the chair, I pull it back until I’m right in front of the large glass cabinet displaying family heirlooms here in the dining room.
I stand on top of the chair, and conversation ceases as everyone looks over to see what the hell I’m doing.
I reach on top of the cabinet and over the lip on the outside. It’s tall enough that I can’t see on top even standing on a chair, but I feel around, and sure enough, it’s still there.
I pull it down, and Madden, Dex, and Liam start to laugh. Archer would, too, if he were here—or in a laughing mood.
I turn the ancient Nerf gun over in my hands, and I see it’s still loaded. “I hid this up there when Archer and I were in a war back in seventh grade.” Jesus, that was…sixteen, maybe seventeen years ago.
I aim it at Madden.
“Don’t you dare,” he warns.
There aren’t enough of these to start a fight—at least not a fair one.
When it comes to Nerf wars with brothers, though, it’s never a fair fight. It’s an old instinct that calls to me when I pull the trigger just after I switch my aim to a completely and totally unsuspecting Liam.
I nail him right in the forehead.
“What the fuck, man?” he yells, jumping up out of his chair as he rubs his forehead. He lunges toward me, and I take off running.
I need more ammo. This gun holds five darts, but it only had three in the chamber.
I’m hiding behind the curtain in the formal living room that we weren’t even allowed to step foot into when I hear a whisper.
“Psst. Ford!”
I peek around the curtain, and I spot Ivy.
“There’s a trunk in the garage with some old stuff, and I know there are more blasters and darts in there,” she says.
I narrow my eyes at her. “Why are you helping me?”
She twists her lips. “Because I just want us all to have some fun. Make some new memories together.”
My chest tightens for my baby sister. She’s always worn her emotions on her sleeve, and I think this whole thing is hardest on her. And if this will make her smile, then that’s what she deserves.
I step out from behind the curtain and move toward her to hug her, only to get pinged in the arm with a dart.
