Page 21 of Skin Deep

“War, don’t,” said the kid.

War pushed past him anyway and stormed into the house shouting, “Xander, get your ass down here and face me like a man!”

“Oooh, somebody’s in trouble,” Lettie said in a taunting tone.

“Guess that makes you Xavier,” I said to the one at the door. Maybe calling him a kid was being generous. He was probably twenty or so, which made him fifteen years younger than me, a kid in my eyes. “Any more copies of you I should be keeping an eye out for?”

“We’re triplets,” he said sharply. “But there are only two of us now.”

I winced, suddenly feeling bad. “Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean…”

A shouting match started in the house behind him and Xavier sighed, pulling open the door a little wider. “Welcome to the mad house.”

“Where’s your bathroom?” Lettie asked immediately.

Xavier pointed. “Second door on the right.”

We stepped into a narrow hallway with a coat rack on one side and a pile of shoes and work boots on the other. War and Xander stood at the end of the hall, or rather Xander was backing away from War while War threatened to eviscerate him for being a liar. There were times I was glad to be an only child. Sibling rivalries were weird.

“It wasn’t me! On God!” Xander insisted, lifting his hands in defense.

“It was me.” Another young man stepped out of a room off to the left, his arms crossed. He was short but built like a tank, like he moved a lot of heavy things around for work or something, and he appeared to be of Asian descent.

War spun on him. “Why, River?”

“Because you’re taking stupid risks, and I won’t have you putting Theo in danger so you can flirt.” The two of them stared each other down.

“You don’t have any room to talk after what you put this family through,” War shot back.

“Boys!” A diminutive older woman entered the hallway carrying a wooden spoon, her bifocals sitting low on her nose. She wore an apron with strawberries printed on it, her silver hair up in a loose bun.

All the brothers took an instinctive step back at the sight of her wielding that wooden spoon. Everyone but River lowered their heads a little when her eyes fell on them one at a time. River didn’t so much as flinch.

“That’s enough,” she said firmly. “I will not tolerate your bickering. You are grown men, not children. Act like it and make up.”

“But he—”

She cut River off with a glare. “Make up, River. Now.”

River snorted like an angry bull and glared at War. “I don’t know why you’re so pissed. You shouldn’t be keeping secrets from your family.”

“Well, he’s here now,” War snapped shortly and gestured to me.

Every head in the hall turned to look at me all at once.

I lifted a hand in greeting. “Um. Hi. I’m Paxton. This is Charlie.”

“Charlie’s a boy’s name,” River said.

“It’s short for Charlotte,” Lettie said, and my stomach dropped. I hadn’t even realized she’d come out of the bathroom. “And I’m Lettie, short for Scarlet.”

“You’reshort,” River replied coldly.

Lettie crossed her arms and canted a hip. “I’m a kid. I’m supposed to be short. What’s your excuse? Didn’t drink enough milk growing up?”

“Lettie, be nice,” I hissed.

“He started it,” she muttered, walking over to take my hand.

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