Page 10 of Shaken Knot Stirred

(hums Jeopardy theme)

Pay:

(bomb emoji)??

Win:

Must you?

Pay:

yes

Win:

If you’re going to be a childish ass, do that at a reasonable hour.

Pay:

it is reasonable

Win:

10am is not reasonable.

Pay:

best time on the bay is sunrise. Been here for hours.

Pay:

this is why I always beat you. Willing to do the hard stuff like get my ass in a boat before dawn.

Win:

Some of us have actual jobs.

Pay:

you don’t have a job. You have a trust fund and a bar. You play dress up as a CEO.

Pay:

now little brother on the other hand… he is under direct and immediate threat of having to be employed.

Pay:

hence… tick tock tick tock

They went on for quite some time. The insults brought a smile to my face. Being the youngest gave you a thick skin fast. Winston’s aura had presented when I was still in diapers. But the age difference was meaningless to him. He took being the eldest son and older brother very seriously.

I scrolled up through our message history for a while as coffee brought my brain cells back together. I sometimes got the sense that while they had better things to do with their time, like managing their packs or running their empires, they kept up this stream of nonsense because they feared that, without it, I’d just evaporate off the face of the earth.

I looked around the rental. They would both hate it. Tiny and minimalist and devoid of any personal touches. I liked the clean simplicity of it. Bright yet homey in a way with blond wood and undecorated white walls. My place in Port Haven was the opposite of this. Vast, expansive, jewel tone colors and leather couches.

And it wasn’t technically mine.

That technicality was coming to bite me in the ass.

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