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“Don’t touch anything,” he warns me.
“Trust me, I don’t want my fingerprints on any of your stuff,” I snort.
He gives me a dirty look and I roll my eyes.
“I already know, Edgar told me. I was at some amazing boarding school studying music the last four years. But you better find some excuse for me to not be putting on any performances,” I hiss at him.
“Obviously,” he rolls his eyes. “What else did Edgar tell you?” He asks suspiciously.
“That the step monster's name is Mother May I?” I chuckle with a smirk.
“Stop being so childish,” he says as he pours himself some whiskey and he rubs his temples as though he has a headache.
“My bad,” I snap. “Guess I have some emotional maturity to catch up on after being locked away with coloring books and no shoelaces for four years.”
“Keep your fucking mouth shut,” he snaps so loudly that I flinch. “We aren’t the only ones in this house anymore. You’ll watch your mouth if you have any hope of seeing that trust fund in two years.”
“Are we done here?” I snap as I stand up abruptly. “I want to shower. It was a long plane ride, you know? From overseas.”
My father gives me a dirty look at the sarcastic comment. We both know it was a three hour bus ride and not a flight from overseas. Either way, a hot shower and access to razors to shave without some nurse's aide watching me sounds like heaven.
“Actually no, we aren’t. Dinner should be just about done. You are meeting Mary and the boys.”
“Mother May I has kids?”
My father gives me a dirty look but I smirk when I realize he isn’t going to reprimand me about the nickname. Screw him. I’ll be as childish and petty as I want to be.
“Not her sons, no. But they live here for a multitude of reasons.”
I raise my eyebrow at him, thinking he will go on, but he doesn’t. He just swigs the last of his whiskey and motions to the door. “Let’s go. I have a flight to catch this evening.”
I grit my teeth and push down the pain of being abandoned by him yet again. I should be used to it by now but for some reason it still stings.
I had a warmer welcome from Edgar.
CHAPTER TWO
I follow my father down the hall towards the sound of voices and find the dining hall less than empty. The woman I presume to be my new step mother sits beside the head of the table and seems half done with her champagne already. The least they could have done was wait for the guest of honor.
My eyes trail along the three broad shouldered men I don’t recognize and they fall silent as their eyes land on me.
“Finally!” Mary-Mae says, clapping her hands and standing. “We assumed you got lost on your connecting flight.”
I say nothing, wondering if she is as oblivious to the fact I was only a few hours away as the rest of the world seems to be. “My bad,” I say with a forced smile.
I sit awkwardly next to one of the strange guys as my father takes his seat at the head of the table. It’s silent except for a woman in a white apron who lays out our food on the table. I thank her softly and she lays a hand on my shoulder with a nod of her head. I flinch out of her grasp and eye the food on my plate.
“Before we begin, how about some introductions?” My father says, catching my attention. “Katelyn, this is James, Elijah, and Asher,” he says nodding one at a time to the guys occupying our family dinner table.
“Eli,” the one next to me says with a smirk.
His dark eyes look me up and down without shame as he runs a hand through his short blonde hair. Asher, the one beside Eli, gives a short wave with a smirk. His dark hair is pulled in a bun,revealing piercings lining his ear. The one across from me looks less than amused as he eyes me. “And no one calls me James, it’s Ax,” he says simply.
My eyebrow raises at the strangely familiar name. His black eyes watch me curiously as I rack my brain through the foggy memories.
“And I’m M—”
“Ax?” I snap as it finally comes back to me. “As in Axel West?!” I scream, standing so suddenly my chair rocks.
