Page 26 of Miss Understood

Serena leans back and grabs onto the sides of my face with her inch-long nails. “What’s with the scruffy, angry look you’ve got going on? Lose your razor?” She reaches up to scratch the longer-than-usual stubble on my head, but I manage to dip away from her before her nails connect.

“Sorry, sorry.” She laughs as I fix my lapel. “Wouldn’t want to ruffle those beautiful feathers.”

I plant my hand on the top of her carefully straightened hair, palming her head like a basketball, and she shrieks at my retaliation. She swats at me as I hold her at arm’s length. “Did you shrink since the last time I saw you?”

“You know it’s not fair when you use your Michael Jordan height against me.” She stops in place with a stomp of her foot and pouts out her bottom lip, knowing it’s my weakness.

I let go of her head, and she gives my arm a final swat before I drop it.

“Careful with those claws,” I tease her.

She holds up her long, manicured hand, rhinestones covering the cherry-red points on her fingers. “Don’t you like?” She smiles, wiggling them around.

Honestly, I think they look like they’ll easily take an eye out, but the pride on her face stops me from throwing barbs. Serena is finally pursuing something she’s passionate about: she’s going to school to become a beautician. And even if I don’t understand the look she’s sporting on her hands, she is finally discovering what she’s good at.

Plus, anything is better than her continuing to run around with the Marchettos. She’s tight-lipped about her time in their circle, even to me. And that secrecy scares me more than knowing the truth.

“As I live and breathe.” Mateo rushes past me and pulls Serena in for a big hug. “Where has Jesse been hiding you, love? It’s been far too long.”

“His dungeon; thinks it’ll keep me out of trouble.” Serena grins.

“My apartment in Olympia is not a dungeon,” I correct her. “Besides, I don’t hear you complaining when I pay the bills every month. You’ve got your own floor, for goodness sake.”

“For goodness sake,” she repeats, straightening up and seesawing her shoulders. Her thumb sticks out at me as she laughs. “Who is this guy? I swear we aren’t even related sometimes.”

Mateo barks out a laugh, and they delve into a fit of giggles. It’s a stark reminder of the age gap. There are only a couple years between them. I’ve twelve got on Serena, but sometimes it feels like a lot more.

“So, big bro, where are we headed?” Serena swings an arm around Mateo’s neck, but her gaze falls over my shoulder. A curious darkness plays in her eyes as the scent of floral perfume hits me, and I realize who’s approached us.

“You must be Serena,” Luce says, sliding past me and reaching out for her hand.

“And you must be the wifey,” Serena says to Luce, but her eyes are on me. Somehow, bringing Serena into the mix sounded like a good idea at the time. I don’t hide anything from my sister. But the look on her face matches Mateo’s wicked smile, and that makes me question my decision-making skills.

Serena unravels from Mateo, and pulls Luce into her arms, which, from the wide-eyed expression on Luce’s face, means someone was actually able to catch her off guard.

“In this family, we hug,” Serena says with a smile.

Luce pulls back, and her eyes slice at me. “Are you sure he’s part of the same family?” She juts her thumb my way, and Serena laughs.

“Honestly, no,” Serena says with a shake of her head. “Big bro’s the stick-in-the-mud of the Davis clan. If you met the rest of us, you’d honestly wonder if an alien spaceship just dropped him off one day on Mom and Dad’s doorstep and they were too good of people to send him back.”

“Now that, I believe.” Luce turns to me with crossed arms, and I’m suddenly facing a firing squad.

This happens every time with Serena. She’s got the kind of personality that overtakes a room the second she steps into it. People fall in love with her big laugh and uninhibited character. Where I’m cautious and calculated, she’s a free spirit, always doing things on a whim. People tend to fall in love with that kind of freedom.

It’s not that I don’t wish I was more like her, or the rest of my family, for that matter. It just wasn’t an option. I didn’t have the luxury of being wild growing up. I was too busy working multiple jobs through middle and high school to help Mom and Dad pay the bills. It wasn’t until I made partner that I had enough to really help them out, and it was around then that Serena was old enough to reap the benefits without knowing the struggle that came before it.

Just because we shared the same parents didn’t mean we had the same childhood. In those twelve years between us there is an ocean of distance, and right now the waves are crashing all around me.

Luce darts her eyes between me and Serena, reading the situation. With the two of them standing there, side by side, I already know this is trouble. But at the same time, there’s no choice. If I’m going to keep this marriage mess under control, then I need to maintain it on my terms.

“I just need to grab my purse, and then we can go,” Luce says.

“Go?”

She nods. “I thought it would be nice to make thismeetinga field trip. We’ve been locked in that conference room all week. I could use a break, couldn’t you?”

Luce is giving me a piece of rope with that statement—I’m just not sure if it’s a lifeline or something to hang myself with. But I also don’t want to discuss our plan within company walls, so I know it’s better to just agree and let her win this one.