Page 50 of Battery Operated

Brady stared at her. “You can’t possibly still be hungry.”

She squirmed in her lawn chair. “No, but it’s just with the fire, I thought maybe we could roast some.”

“Sorry, I don’t think we have any,” Cole said, exchanging a look with Brady.

Lila nodded. I tried to keep a straight face, but I couldn’t. She stared at me as I laughed.

“They hate marshmallows,” I explained.

Her jaw dropped as she looked at the cousins. “How can you possibly hate marshmallows?”

“They’re sticky and gross,” Brady said, and Lila started laughing, too.

“If ever there were an inoffensive food, it seems like it would be that,” Lila said as she giggled. “They’re so cute and little.”

“Too squishy,” Cole said judgmentally. It sounded odd in his deep, solemn voice, and I couldn’t help laughing again.

“You guys are too much,” she said.

“We all have our preferences,” Brady scolded. “You didn’t seem very pleased by that first fish I pulled out of the water today.”

“Yeah, because it was sticky, squishy, and gross.” She giggled again, making her sound younger.

“We can get some from the store if it’s important to you,” Cole said.

“Thanks.” I thought that was all she was going to say, but then she spoke again, in a soft voice unlike the one she used when talking to her followers. “It’s just that when I was a little girl, my dad sometimes took me camping, and we’d roast marshmallows.”

Shit.

I gave a sigh and leaned forward in my chair. “I think there are some inside.”

Brady’s head whipped around. “There are?”

“Yeah. Remember that family from Wichita? They wanted to roast them over the fire, too.”

“Oh, yeah. But I thought they used them all up.”

“Nope.” I got to my feet. “I stashed them in the back of a cabinet so you two wouldn’t find them and throw them out.”

“Sneaky,” Brady commented.

“I’ll go get them. You guys find some sticks.”

Apparently, Brady’s hatred of sticky marshmallows didn’t prevent him from hopping up to escort Lila to the edge of the woods. Oh, yeah, there was definitely something going on there. But if he thought Lila had completely forgiven him for his part in our deception, he was in for a nasty surprise.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t Lila I was irritated with as I strode up the stairs. No, it was Cole, who remained by the fire. I’d told Lila the truth earlier when I said I was doing the books to help out a friend. But it frustrated the hell out of me that Cole only let me do so much.

Somedays, it felt like we were brothers. Other days, I was just the friend who was good with finances. What he didn’t seem to realize was that this was my family home, too. The couple who had lived here for decades were pretty much the closest thing I’d had to parents. They’d loved me as much as I loved them. I understood why they’d left the house and the land to Brady and Cole, their blood kin, but I didn’t understand why Cole kept me at arm’s length for certain aspects of running it.

Well, there was pride. But shouldn’t family trump that?

Anger made me slam the door of the cabinet too hard after I plucked the bag of marshmallows off the back of the top shelf. I froze, wondering if I’d disturbed Penny, but she didn’t make an appearance.

I grabbed another bottle of wine as I headed back. As I went, I noticed the peeling wallpaper in the hallway. The way the windows in the lounge needed to be sealed. And the way the boards of the deck had too much give under my boots. I had the money to fix all those things and more—but Cole wouldn’t let me. Apparently, I was only a brother in some ways, not others.

I heard a light laugh and caught a glimpse of Lila’s radiant mane as she and Brady returned from the woods.

It helped a little to know that I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t living the life I was supposed to.