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“I…” I was going to come up with something smart aleck, but yeah, I’ve got nothing. She’s right. I could have included Orion. “I’ll ask him,” I finish, even though it’s not what I was going to say.
“He’s being broody right now. He’s not talking to you, but you probably have your head crammed up your pooper so far that all you can see is brown. I mean your own business.”
“I…I’ll…well, if he doesn’t want to come with me, that’s fine. I’ll still ask him. And when I get back tonight, I’ll make sure we talk. And I’ll apologize. I’ll make it right.”
“With Lennox and Cass too?’
“You mean they’re—”
“Yes, Atlas. They’re pretty hurt too. You disappeared for ten days, and we’ve barely seen you until I contrived actual reasons for you to be here. With your own family. Working on a business that we’re trying to grow.”
“We don’t have any work,” I point out, acting like a class-A arsehole.
Granny shrugs. “Don’t we?”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. I’m asking you.”
“Uh, no. We don’t.”
“Okay. Go enjoy your flowers, then. And your other plants. And your new girlfriend’s charms. And when you feel like manning up and telling her the truth about your family instead of being ashamed of us and creating a web of lies to catch her like a juicy fly to suck the blood out of, and she gets super pissed that you’re a big old spider and not a handsome, charming young man like she thought you were, we’ll be here because we’re your family, and family always has your back, even when you’re heartbroken because you fell hard and fast and didn’t use your head instead of your other male anatomy to think with.”
I slap the origami book close. “I was using my heart!”
“I see that. Mmm hmm. Because real emotion and real stuff are deceitful. Oh, wait. That’s not how it goes.”
“You know I can’t tell her what we do for a living! And who we really are! Are you insane?”
Granny shakes her head, but then she pauses and slowly grins. This is the same lady who takes down supervillains, drug lords, and high-ranking asshats for a living. She also regularly totes around her favorite set of Glocks and whips them out without any provocation just because she likes them way too much. Even if she only uses them at gun ranges and gun clubs, she’s still always packing heat. Always. So yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have asked that.
Her sly grin only deepens when she can see me coming to the same conclusion she’s already reached.
“You could have told her more of the truth and a little less of the other fabrications,” Granny says softly, correcting us as she always corrected us. With wisdom, kindness, and grace.
It makes me feel even worse. I’m not normally an insensitive, lying douchebag. I swear, I’m really not. To me, family is everything. “I’ll make it right. Somehow. I promise. Starting with Orion tonight.”
Granny nods and steps back. “Alright, then. I believe you. Go ahead. Pick out your flowers and vegetables and go get dirty in the dirt. But please, Atlas. Don’t hurt that girl. She seems very, very sweet.”
“As in, not a badass?”
Granny’s lips wobble. “A badass in her own right, but in more of a bookish, hasn’t seen much of the world, and you might be her first heartthrob kind of a way.”
Seriously? Why did I never consider that? Victoria is what? Twenty-one? Twenty-two? She’s done with college, so she has to be around that age. She’s been through all that—high school, college, the whole going off into the world to do your own thing. Except she lived in her parent’s basement. And she told me she’s shy. She loves books, and she’s a self-professed loner.
That doesn’t mean I’m her first…uh, boyfriend? Crush? Love interest?
It doesn’t mean you’re not.
If I am, though, things just got way more complicated. I do want to tell Victoria the truth, but Granny’s right. I’ve acted like a big old spider, spinning my tales and webs. I can explain to her why I couldn’t tell her who we were, but what about explaining the rest? I’m going to sound like a straight-up lying, scheming buttface of a jerkholio times mega infinity, no returns.
Plus, the rest of my family is mad at me, which is a first. Granny’s also right about the fact that I can’t remember doing anything without Orion. He’s not just my twin. He’s my best friend. And he’s always been included in every detail of my life. How can I explain this to him when I don’t have any words for it myself?
“Hey, do you have any more paper? I’d like to try a few designs from that book. This place is boring, with an emphasis on there’s nothing fucking going on around here.”
