Page 10 of Papers Don't Lie

Her arms are encircled around our father’s neck, his red face smiling at me while he pats his daughter on the back. She’shugging him to death, but then that’s how Lacey’s hugs are, and she wouldn’t be herself without them.

My little sister’s blue eyes find me, her cheeks lifting from how hard they stretch. Lacey glances at me over her shoulders before she sets Dad free and quickens her steps to catch me at the bottom of the stairs. “Kai-Kai!”

The nickname she gave me when she was just a baby causes a smile to form on my lips. My biggest fear is that she’ll drop it at some point, and I know that time will come, but I’m glad she’s not there yet.

I envelop her in my arms, kissing her blonde hair. “How’s my little peanut doing?”

She’s not the size of a peanut anymore like she was when Mom showed me an ultrasound of her. Lacey is now twelve years old. She’s at that time of her life where she’s growing at a high speed, turning into a new person every year. Unfortunately, I’m not always there to witness it, and I hope it won’t become something I’ll regret later.

Either way, it’s not like I have a say in this. It was her decision to live a month with each one of us. Lacey said she couldn’t choose between us, so Dad gave in and let her do whatever she wanted as long as she was homeschooled in her brothers’ care.

“I missed you.” She bats her brown lashes, one of her hands landing on my shoulder in a caress.

“I missed you too,” I tell her, kissing her head one more time as I inhale her scent. “Where are your brothers?”

Lacey takes a step back, giving me a view of her long braid and the floral dress she’s wearing. “They said you should go outside,” she says before turning around and walking back to her father. “How do you feel, Dad?”

“Good, good. Don’t worry about me. How was your vacation?”

A smile forms its way on my face as my feet carry me toward the exit. Dad always likes to say that Lacey and my brothers are on vacation instead of facing the truth that they’ll never live here again. I think it’s his way of coping with their absence, even if it’s been years since they left.

My lips twist in thought.

What are they doing outside when Dad has been in the same chair Lacey found him in since early this morning, waiting for them?

Before I can open the door, Ryker, the youngest brother, almost knocks it into my face.

“You have to see this.” He laughs, rushing me outside.

The unfamiliar sound makes me stop in my tracks.

Did I hear right, or was it all in my head?

I can’t remember the last time I saw Ryker smile, let alone laugh. When he notices I’m not moving, he raises his brow, and my eyes jump to his freshly shaved hair. I want to ask him what has gotten into him to go bald, but I stop myself from doing so, and because I don’t want to take him out of his rare good mood, I follow his lead and close the door behind me.

With each step closer to the back porch, I get a better view of my other two brothers, Tristan and Kiaran. They are lined up, looking somewhere that is out of my vision.

Beside me, Ryker can’t wipe the grin off his face. Strange, but I’m glad to see it enough not to question it.

“You’re being weird,” I tell him, hitting him with my elbow.

He turns to look at me, the same blue in Lacey’s eyes mirroring his. “You’ll be too after you see what we saw.”

I throw him a glance, trying to read the motive off his face, but while his lips smile, his eyes are stern as ever. It’s impossible to figure out what he’s talking about.

With careful steps, I round the corner taking us to the pavilion in our garden, my limbs locking at the image rolling in front of us.

“Fucking hell,” I curse out, pinching my chin.

A fanfare made of five people dressed in flashy clothes is standing in front of a giant dick at least two times taller than the members. What it’s made from or what they are doing here is a mystery to me.

One of them, a man, looks down at a folded paper before his eyes move on me. “Are you Kai Graves?"

I open my mouth, but before I can say something, Kiaran intervenes. “Yes, he is. Go ahead.”

What the fuck is this?

And just like that, thanks to my pain in the ass of a brother, they start singing. It’s the whole package—voice, guitar, and clarinet.

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