“Showed you his baby snake?” Brenden snorts.
“Keep it up, brother,” I warn, my tone enough to temporarily pause his movement and mute him. “You deserve what’s coming.”
Just as I say it, a small spray shoots up from beneath Brenden as Wyatt soaks his shirt. Erin, Serena, and I burst into laughter.
“That a boy, Wyatt,” I smirk as Brenden sighs.
“Witches, son. I’m telling you.”
Erin speaks up as Brenden glances over at the three of us, his eyes weary, posture defeated. “I can’t speak for college Eli, but current Eli seems to be a really nice guy. And not bad looking.”
“Nope, we hate him,” Serena declares. “Not a chance. I missed him when he got here. Where is this asshat?”
“Dad’s showing him to his room. And don’t even think about it,” Brenden warns.
“I’m going in,” Serena says, pushing up her hoodie sleeves which instills a fear in me. I grip my sister’s arm. Even I know sending her in is going too far. “Don’t you dare,” I clip. “I’ve already made an ass of myself.”
“Correct,” Brenden mutters as Erin scowls at his profile. Brenden lifts his face heavenward, his voice a weak plea. “Help me. Someone, help me.”
“You can’t stop me,” Serena taunts, “If he came into the lion’s den knowing you were Brenden’s sister, he’s fair game for hazing.”
Serena scrutinizes Brenden, the question none of us have voiced yet hanging in the air as she plucks it and fires at him.
“Do you have any family pictures in your office?”
“Just of Erin and the kids.”
“What about at home, in plain sight?”
Erin speaks up. “There’s one in the family room.” She flashes me a grin. “Thanksgiving last year, you look really good in it, too.” Erin winks as Serena turns to me, her eyes morphing into a creepy sort of crazy, like a deranged Sherlock with his first clue, but scarier. “Then he’s got an agenda.”
The darkening look in her eyes has me backpedaling.
“Serena, listen to me, don’t pull your older sister crap. I got freaked out. I’m fine. It took me by surprise is all. It was a long time ago.”
“We’ll see,” she retorts, wetting her lips like a psycho.
“Seriously, let it go. I have already, see?” I show her all my teeth—she fires back with a Finding Nemo shark-toothed smile as I begin to panic.
Oh, shit.
The thing about the Collins family is, we can rip each other to shreds and get over it. It’s par for the course, but if any outsider messes with or hurts any one of us individually, they may have well signed their own death warrant. It’s an unspoken truth—which makes Eli a target. I can only hope he can move as fast as he did in college.
In an odd and gravity-defying move, Serena spins toward the door on one foot, and I charge out of the room behind her, hearing Brenden’s fear-filled whisper to Erin. “This isn’t good.”
“No shit, brother,” I call back toward the room, chasing my rabid sister as she breaks for the stairs. “Maybe I’ll invite crazy, drunk, no eff’s given Tasha for New Year’s.”
I sense the shift in the air in the bedroom above us and dive for Serena on the stairs just as Erin pipes up. “Who’s Tasha?”
Brenden’s voice booms out of the bedroom. “You’re dead, Whit.”
Pulling Serena into a headlock, she fights against me as I clamp her mouth with my hand and call up to him. “Bring it on, brother!”
That went as well as I expected—seventeen years later. From what I can tell beneath the clown makeup—the years have been good to her. Better than good. Evidently, Whitney still gets vocal when she’s pissed, hence the slightly muffled screeches sounding from above.
“Brenden tells me you two work together.” Allen leads me through the bottom floor of the cabin, where I dart my eyes around, taking it all in. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide a continuous view of the surrounding branch-laden trees, giving way to a clear shot of the mountain top just across the street. “Yes, Sir. I moved back to North Carolina from Chicago a few months ago.”
“Oh,” he says, stopping just short of the kitchen. “What made you come back?”
“Honestly, I thought I never would, but as it turns out, I missed North Carolina. Went to college in Chapel Hill.”
“A Tarheel, huh?”
“Yessir.”