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I mean, there we were, talking to his family, when he reached over and absently placed his hand on my upper thigh.
Not anywhere that was totally ‘inappropriate’ or anything. I mean, hell, there were a thousand kids in the room. And Hannibal would never cross that line when there were kids.
But my mind went to other things. Things that included me scooting closer to him on the couch, and him holding me there by his grip on my thigh.
How, if he could just move one of those long, scarred fingers an eeny, teeny, little inch, he’d be rubbing the seam on my inner thigh. And if he moved upward…
“So, Hades,” Tessa, Harrison’s oldest that was on her way to college in January, said. “What did you do for Singh Circus?”
“If you go to their social media pages, you’ll see.” I paused, trying to get my head back on track. “I took their website down, though, so you can’t go there.”
“Why’d you do that?” Gracie asked, folding her now dried swimsuit and putting it into her bag.
I appreciated her allowing me to wear the bathing suit to swim with Darcy, but the sad fact was, I didn’t like that much of me exposed, and I’d probably never borrow another one of hers again.
I thought about omitting part of the truth for a moment, but decided that if they wanted the real Hades, they were going to get her.
“I’m tired of doing a lot of work for nothing,” I answered truthfully. “I’m tired of learning every routine and covering where I’m needed, when I’m needed. I’m tired of never having a day off. I’m tired of taking promotional photos, using my skills as an artist to put promotional stuff together, only to have a minimum wage hourly rate thrown in my face for compensation. Honestly, this was a wake-up call for them to finally notice me, and if not then…oh well.”
Drake, who was quiet but watchful, turned to look at me then, catching my attention.
“It’s funny how family works,” he said gruffly. “They can be your best and worst enemies. Sometimes, it’s nice to shake things up a bit, and remind them that you’re not a pushover, and that you don’t like it when you’re treated like you don’t matter. They’ll come around, and when they do, they’ll all hate themselves for their actions. Then you’ll be the bigger and better person and forgive them for their transgressions, and life will go back to a new normal. Until the next fiasco starts up with someone else.”
If that didn’t hit the nail on the head…
“Yeah,” I said. “And today they found out that I wasn’t actually related to them, only my twin sister, Tony.”
There was a long pause and then Holden carefully saying, “Tony? Wouldn’t that make him your brother?”
I grinned. “Her name is actually Caristonia. We call her Tony. Though her new NFL soon-to-be husband, though that’s not something she’s admitted yet, calls her Ari.”
“Ari.” Holden nodded. “I don’t know. Tony definitely has a ring to it.”
“Wow,” Penny, Holden’s oldest, said. “These photos are awesome. The way you captured the fear and the love in her face…”
I looked over to see her showing the room one of my favorite photos I’d ever taken.
It was of Keene when he had to catch Zip after a fall.
She’d plunged something like fifteen feet from an aerial silk tied to a couple of beams erected over the tent poles. Keene’s arms were held out as he readied to catch her. His eyes were intense and fear-filled as he waited for her with open arms.
Meanwhile, Zip was laughing.
Then there were the rest of us, all staring at the actions of the two of them in horror, because that was not how the show had been supposed to go.
No, in fact, in reality it was supposed to be her falling something like four feet with him catching her. But her foot had gotten tangled up in the silk.
He’d caught her, though, and they’d both gone down to the ground.
The subsequent photos I’d taken following the fall, that were up on the Facebook page, were of Simi wrapping her arms tight around Keene’s neck and kissing him all over his face.
He’d endured the kissing for a solid ten seconds, then he’d remembered that his sister annoyed him and set her away from him.
Keene had been sixteen at the time. Zip younger, probably around thirteen.
“Tell us the story behind this one,” Drake said next.
So I talked them through all the photos, beginning from a few short weeks ago, to the very first photo that’d been posted on our social media.
That one had been of me.
And it was the only photo that I hadn’t taken.
Val had started the page when we were very young. Why I’d been the one to make the first official social media photo, I didn’t know. But there I was, in all my gangly glory.
