Page 6 of Jesse and the Ice Princess
Something slammed into Jesse's legs and he looked down at the top of his little brother's shaggy head. "Slow down, Will."
Will grinned up at him, showing the gaps where he’d lost teeth. His breath whistled through the holes, a talent he'd acquired over winter break. "Sorry, Jess. Eli was chasing me."
Sure enough, Jesse glanced down the hall to where the identical Eli ran at them with a Nerf gun. He aimed high, and Jesse ducked before the dart hit him in the head.
A laugh rumbled low in his throat, and he lunged like he was going to run after the boys. They squealed and took off to another part of the house.
Roman shook his head. "I don't know how you tell those two apart. They're tiny, identical, eight-year-old monsters."
Jesse shrugged. "It's not that hard. I look at them and just know who is who." A talent not even his dad always possessed. Cassie was the only other person who could tell the boys apart as easily as Jesse.
A door in the hall opened and Jesse's dad appeared, his glasses crooked on his face. "Jesse, you're back. Thank heaven. Those boys... I wish Mary would consider working for us full time." He shook his head, a tired smile forming on his face.
Carl Carrigan put up with a lot from his four children. As a single parent, he did the best he could when he wasn't working on a case.
Jesse couldn't even take a half-hour long run without the house turning into chaos. It was a good thing he loved chaos. "She has a family of her own. I've got them, Dad. You can go back to work. I'll go start dinner."
He rubbed his eyes. "Is it that time already?"
Jesse only laughed as he led Roman down the hall into the kitchen. Dishes lay scattered across the counter with various bits of food on them. A package of crackers spilled across the floor. His brothers must have tried to get a snack.
Without being asked, Roman started loading dishes into the dishwasher. That was why he was Jesse's best friend. He just got it.
Jesse started browning meat for tacos, his dad's favorite.
"She sure hates you." Roman finished cleaning the counter and wiped it down.
"Who?"
"The ice princess."
"Do I care?"
Roman hopped up to sit on the now clean counter and grinned. "It's a lot of anger for such a small package."
No one would ever call Charlotte Morrison tall. Her diminutive frame only added to her air of break-ability.
"Why are we still talking about her?" Jesse dug in the fridge for a half-chopped onion and threw it to Roman. "Make yourself useful."
Roman got down and found a cutting board and knife. "We're still talking about her because she seems to have it in for you. It doesn't help that her mom was eating out of the palm of your hand."
"She was just being nice."
He laughed. "People fall for your charm, and you always think it's nothing. No one is that nice to me."
Jesse pointed the spatula at him. "That's because you say stupid things. Besides, I don't use charm."
Roman barked out a laugh. "Yeah, okay."
Jesse's mom brought him up to be kind to everyone. He didn't like the idea people considered that to be charm. Charming someone meant trying to get something out of them. He was just polite.
"Am I not allowed to be a nice guy?"
Roman slid the onions from the cutting board into the frying pan before reaching for a tomato. He tossed it into the air and caught it. "You're Jesse "the king" Carrigan. You can be whatever you want."
"You know I don't like that nickname. I'm not the king of anything."
"Au contraire, mon ami."
