Page 32 of Freak Show

Banner burst out laughing. “I don’t think there’s much of a difference between young and old people snacks, unless you’re talking about toddlers, and in that case, they’re normal snacks. Little Debbies, powdered donuts, candy. It’s all in a black box on the counter that says ‘Flour’ on it.”

“Okay, good.” Briley pressed her hands to both sides of Banner’s cheeks then said, “Be safe, Soldier.”

Banner choked and turned to Slone with a narrowed gaze. “You put her up to that, didn’t you?”

Briley squirmed out of Banner’s hold before saying, “Actually, Aunt Perry did.”

“I’ll kill her.” Banner shook his head and reached for Annabelle next.

Annabelle hadn’t been paying attention, but she didn’t protest the different position. All she did was lean into his chest and continue playing with her tablet.

“I’ll miss you, Anna Banana,” Banner cooed into her soft curls.

Titus grinned like the proud father he was, then took his kid when she said, “Bye, Ban.”

Ban.

That was sweet.

“See you when we see you,” Titus offered his hand to Banner, who pulled him into his chest in one of those man hugs that had a lot of back slapping and chest bumping. “Be safe.”

“I will. I have way too much to come home to to ever stray too far from safety,” Banner said.

After he let Titus go, he turned to me. “All right, Sleepy Head. I hope you have an excellent vacation with these two knuckleheads…and just know that Martina, Slone’s mom, loves Titus, but she likely won’t ever want him as a son-in-law in a throuple.”

I blinked at him as he said this, then turned to Titus before saying, “I hope with all that’s inside of me that I never gave you the impression that I wanted that.”

Titus grinned. “I know.”

I turned back to Banner with a narrowed look that clearly relayed my thoughts on that issue.

Not that I had a problem with people that chose to have more than one person in their life, that just wasn’t for me. I was selfish and had done enough sharing in my life with my twin. I wasn’t going to share with my significant other.

“I notice that you didn’t tell Slone you weren’t interested,” Banner teased.

I opened my mouth and then closed it, unsure of what to say.

In the end, I settled on nothing as my phone started to ring in the other room.

And seeing as I would rather do anything but talk to my sisters right now—I knew it was Hades—I just couldn’t stay in this room one more second longer. I didn’t do well with pressure, eyes on me, or discomfort of any kind.

Yes, Hades was definitely the lesser of two evils.

I raced into my room and answered just in time to hear her cursing at me for not answering.

“I answered,” I told her with a roll of my eyes. “What did you want?”

Hades blew out a breath. “I’m sorry.”

Then she hung up.

If there was one person in this world that did discomfort worse than I did, it was my twin sister.

She wasn’t sorry in the least, of course, but it was the thought that counted, right?

I started packing up what little I’d taken out of my bag last night, then made the bed.

Once I was done, I tucked everything where it belonged and started to drag it all out into the hallway.

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