by Brea Viragh
“Better than dealing with the rest of them.” I shrugged.
His expression told me he didn’t believe my sincerity. He picked up on something, like his radar had at last clicked on; he glanced over at the door, then back at me. My shoulders went stiff at the tension that refused to release. “We’re supposed to get snow,” he said at last.
“They always call for snow this time of year. It’s November,” I grumbled, and used the dishtowel to dry each piece of cutlery he handed me.
“I know you’re skeptical, but the Farmer’s Almanac said it would happen.”
The façade of apathy collapsed and I felt about nine years old again. I bent closer to give him a kiss on the cheek. “You always were crazy for the almanac.”
“It gives me something to look forward to.” Curran used his head to motion. “After this, we’ll hide the whiskey and go sit by the fire. I’ve got the heat going good now.”
A roaring fire in the living room. There was also hot tea ready to warm the soul and body. No matter what weather came to call, we were prepared to resume our regularly scheduled Norman Rockwell holiday. “Not me. I’ll skip the weather and head home tonight.”
“Can’t, kiddo. Mom’s planned a fun evening of games. She insists you stay overnight again.”
Yeah, sounded about as fun as having a rusty nail shoved up my nose. I let out a moaning chuckle. “I’m sure no one would mind if I called it quits and left early. Given the scene in the dining room, it’s for the best.” I was embarrassed to think about it.
“You gotta fight back.” Curran unplugged the sink stopper and together we watched the soapy water spiral down the drain. “You’re the warrior in this family.”
“And you got the raw deal here,” I told him.
“Go sit. I’ll finish up and bring you a piece of pie once it’s cooled.”
“Thanks.” I flashed him a smile, knowing I could always count on Dad to bring me down to earth.
“Prepare yourself for board games,” he said, kissing the top of my head.
Resigned, I headed back to the parlor to wait for the others to return from their walk. The universe must have been trying to play a quick round of make it worse with me, and family bonding games definitely qualified. I hated where I was mentally, and I didn’t know how I could get someplace better.
It also didn’t help that the first words out of Thessaly’s mouth when she saw me were, “Kai, you should be ashamed of yourself, picking someone up against their will. What were you thinking?” She didn’t mean it. If anything, she was satisfied, settling on the floor with a plate of pie she hadn’t wanted balanced on her knee. “Now, who wants to play?”
Kai struggled not to be amused. I saw it on his face. I also caught the look of death Nolan shot in my direction. I might have been naked for all the attention I was getting. Seeing no other choice, I curled up on my corner of the couch.
The dishes were done and put away. The aphrodisiacs hadn’t kicked in.
Nolan drew in the deep breath of the persecuted. “I don’t understand why we can’t all go our separate ways, Mom. I wanted to watch a movie in the den with Kai. It’s bad enough you came on the walk with us,” he complained, then jerked back when Thessaly dragged a board game from beneath the table.
“Scrabble!” she announced.
I stifled a groan, leaning back against the cushions. “There is nothing I would rather do than play this stupid game with you.”
“See? I knew it was a good idea. You used to love this when you were little.” With an exhale, layers of dust scattered across the room. In my mind, they were running away. I wished I could join them. “This way we can all get to know each other better.”
I leaned closer to Nolan for a conspirator’s whisper. “Like we didn’t get enough of it at dinner?” Shock coursed through me when he turned his head and pretended not to hear.
“I want to be the dealer,” he offered. “He who controls the bag of letters is guaranteed to win the game. Right?”
“Tell yourself whatever you need to sleep at night,” I retorted.
Instead of doing as he requested, Thessaly handed the bag of tiles to Kai. A notebook and pencil came from her back pocket. “Here you are, dear. Go ahead and get everyone set up.”
Nolan merely stared at her with his signature pout slashed across his features. He was used to getting his way, although I had to say, with his attitude lately, it pleased me to see him pouting.
Curran sat in his favorite arm chair closest to the woodstove. Any closer and we’d have to use the emergency fire extinguisher sitting next to the mantel. With his arms crossed over his chest, he dozed, oblivious to the rest of the world. Thessaly knelt near his feet with a predatory stare on her face. She watched Kai write our names on the paper.
I could practically see the little demon on her shoulder rubbing its hands together in anticipation. There was no need for an angel. This game was part of her strategy to put me center stage this evening and make me pay for the earlier upheaval. A punishment for my behavior.
I eyed her suspiciously while Kai distributed the pieces. Four players, one board, and a world of horrible opportunity.
A sweltering ache began in my gut that had nothing to do with food and everything to do with dread. Ever notice how the two are different? With an upset stomach, the burning sits high and insistently taps against the esophagus. Dread digs deep, diving to the bottom pit of no return and reigning there. Sovereign.
“Here.” Kai handed off the required number of tiles and I gripped them close, reluctant to touch him.
“Thanks.” My palm opened to reveal my pieces, the tiny square corners pressing into my skin and forming instant patterns. The letters blurred together and my mind blanked. Spell. What?
Thessaly shifted until she was Indian-style, facing the table and concentrating. “I’ll go first.” Within seconds she set the first four squares on the board with her word. Kale.
“I can live with KALE. Let’s keep this rated PG, okay?” I commented, sparing a glance at Kai. Don’t think I hadn’t notice the twinkle. “Clockwise?”
Knowing she’d do anything to put me on the spot should have made me feel more prepared. Ready to put up a good defense. It didn’t.
Thessaly nodded. “Kai’s turn.”
Between the two of them I couldn’t determine which one was worse. My mother who thought I needed rescuing, or the man determined to do it. There might have been bugs in my pants for my inability to sit still. My rear scooted back and forth and refused to remain in the same position.
“Do you remember when you were kids?” Thessaly addressed me and Nolan. “You used to beg me to play this game with you. We’d sit around this same table for hours while you practiced your spelling.”
“She always cheated,” Nolan grumbled. He glanced at me. It was a flick of a look, making it clear I wasn’t worth a full second of his attention despite the complaint.
“I did not. You were too young to keep up with me and my Honors English.” Huh, what kind of words could I spell with an E and X? Nothing good.
“You took advantage of me,” he insisted. “Every time I turned around you were digging in the bag for different consonants. You could never take the hand you were dealt. I was stuck with the worst letters while you stole the blanks.”
A petulance had crept into his voice that I hadn’t heard since we went to his sixth-grade recital and he forgot the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“I would never do such a horrible thing. Your mind is playing tricks on you.” I was jolted out of my slightly nostalgic memory by a perturbed elbow against my ribs.
“Nellie, it’s your turn.”
I stifled a grimace and the urge to strangle my baby brother. Whatever had gotten into him since dinner, it wasn’t good. And he was taking his bad mood out on the person closest to him. Me. I might not have any decent letters, but I was one M away from murder.
Glancing at the board, there was nothing for me to rebound off. T
aking the easy way out, I used several vowels to get the attention away from my spelling.
“Thanks for the reminder. Five points for me. Next.”
Kai jotted down my score, handing me more game pieces along with a shit-eating grin. I was brought back to the top of the stairs at the look. The way his shoulders felt against my midsection, the sway of his backside I’d tried—truly, I did—to keep from noticing. It seemed I was failing at a bunch of things lately.
Nolan slapped a random, low score word down and passed the buck, unwilling to do more than pout.
Thessaly considered her options before a wide smile spread from ear-to-ear. I almost expected a candle to light from within her mouth and illuminate the jack-o-lantern smirk.
“Read ’em and weep.” She placed the pieces down with care. “PROGENY! Luck is with me.”
“I’ve been weeping all night,” I groaned. The sinking feeling in my stomach ratcheted down a few more notches. “Wow, that was fast.”
“I can’t help it if I’m chosen by fate. I’m smoking you all. This is going to be an easy win.”
“Look who’s cheating now!” I turned to Nolan and attempted to catch his eyes. Still he refused to look at me. Instead of letting it go a second time, I pushed. “What the hell is the matter with you? You’re sitting over there looking like the last girl asked to the prom.”
“I had different plans.” Nolan shook his head. “It’s none of your business.”
We kept our voices low, covered by the dull roar of the fan behind the woodburning stove in the fireplace. It filled the room with heat and provided the perfect cover for our clandestine conversation.
“Yeah, so did I. And it didn’t involve sitting here and getting the cold shoulder from you.”
“I’m not in the mood, all right? Let it go.”
“If we can’t pull it together and she wins with progeny, then I’m going to make sure no one gets any sleep tonight. By the way, I’m staying over again.”
Kai finished dealing out the new pieces and stared at the board for a moment. “So,” he addressed the question to me, “you were in Honors English?”
“Yup, for four straight years.”
“I took an advanced course or two myself, which did not transfer over when you’re going back to school. Everything I’d done previously meant nothing when I applied to college.”
“I think the guidance counselors only tell you they do so you can feel better about yourself. You work harder and stay out of trouble.”
“I took an advanced placement English class once,” Nolan commented, accompanied by a single eyebrow raise.
I peeked at the scores and chuckled. “Then why aren’t you winning at Scrabble?” With my abysmally low score, Nolan was still several points behind me.
Nolan stuck his tongue out far enough for me to catch a glimpse of the stud he wasn’t supposed to have. Another secret between us. Boy, they were piling up fast. “Because someone is giving me all of the stupid letters.”
Kai shrugged. “I pick them randomly; I don’t know what to tell you.”
I slapped another piece down when my turn came and passed the turn to Nolan. “I suppose you were a straight A student, too,” I said to Kai. “Considering what you’re majoring in at college now.”
“Would you believe me if I told you yes?” he asked.
“No.”
“Ha!” He let out a bark of laughter. “Well, I was. But only in my computer and science classes. The rest might have been iffy.”
“Then it doesn’t count as straight A’s, does it?”
“How many points is string worth?” Nolan wanted to know.
I chuckled. “Not enough to get you the win.”
“Dammit.” His hands fisted. “I’ll never catch up. Your turn, Mom.”
“Oh, I already have mine picked out, and you’ve played right into my hands. Union. U N I O N,” Thessaly crowed.
And to think she’d used my U to do it. Damn her. Instead of focusing on my mother’s scheming or Nolan’s sulk, I focused on Kai. “What about after-school activities?”
“Ah, those. Trips to the piercing parlor while my foster parents were busy at work.” He contemplated the board and the lack of space. “I have a hidden tattoo I’m not proud of, and the only earring I kept is the one in my ear.”
More hidden earrings? The lusty vixen lurking at my core struggled to rise at the mention. “Acting out much?” I asked.
“More like testing my limits. The home I had during my senior year of high school was the first one to impose any kind of rules or limitations on me. It was natural for me to see how far they’d let me go.”
There was a hint of melancholy in his voice. I latched onto it. “You cared about them.”
He shifted his posture, casually slouched and appealing in all the wrong ways. “They cared for me,” he corrected. “I fell into line after too many mix-ups when they had to come to my rescue. The Millers.” His tone turned melancholy when he said their name.
“Typical All-American name. You probably had the white picket fence and two-point-five foster brothers and sisters too.”
Kai’s bright hazel eyes twinkled when he chuckled. “I can see you’re probing me for information.”
“Call it human interest,” I said dryly. “I’m not a monster.”
“No, there were about ten boys and a dog. The picket fence may or may not have been there. Most of us were piled into a single room with the single most useful invention in history: bunk beds.”
He’d left his hair natural, flopping down over his forehead. His face was angelic and, without the pomp and circumstance, looked years younger. He’d marched into my life like a reluctant church volunteer, and here he was still, sitting with his bare feet propped on the coffee table. Nice feet.
“You’re kidding about ten boys.”
“Am I?”
“How did you deal with the noise?” I asked.
“I learned how to meditate from an early age. It was something to calm the mind and tune out the clamor. It came easy.”
“A family deal?”
“Wouldn’t know. I never had the chance to find out my birth parents’ names.” He was quiet for a moment while the others took their turns, as if he wasn’t sure what to say next. I had no clue either.
Finally, he said, “I heard I was born in Oregon, near the coast, and my birth certificate says ‘baby boy Ingles.’ That’s the extent of my knowledge. I went from hospital to orphanage to foster home.”
“Don’t you want to find out more?”
“I will, one day. But for right now…another ten points for me.” He was pleased with himself. “You better step up your game.”
Nolan snatched the bag while Kai tallied his points. “She’ll have to get through me first.”
“If I am reading the score correctly, I’m still in the lead.” Thessaly threw her head back, euphoric. “I have more tricks up my sleeve but this win is guaranteed. And it is Nell’s turn, so give the bag back to her.”
I made it through my turn, then Nolan finally got to choose. He grabbed a hand full of letters and closed his eyes.
“Don’t get your feelings hurt when I kick your ass,” I said as I watched Nolan finish before he passed the bag.
“I’m not sure I can let you win now. Those are fighting words,” Kai commented.
I shook the game pieces in my hand like dice. “Oh, you were planning to let me win? How thoughtful of you.”
“Well, everyone needs a confidence boost now and then.”
“Who says I want a confidence boost from you? You’re the last person I would go to if I wanted my ego stroked.”
Somehow the word stroked came out harder than I intended. With more emphasis. More...innuendo?
“No question about it.” Kai snapped his chin up, caught between a shake and a nod.
“You know what? Yes, I think I’ve got another twenty points here.” Thessaly paused for a moment, seeing the winning move in her head before executing
it. “Matrimony. M A T R I M O N Y. Did you mark me down? Matrimony for twenty points.”
I shook my head. “How do you keep coming up with these words? Do you have a secret stash of marriage-themed letters on your lap? A thesaurus hidden up your sleeve?”
Nolan did not have the decency to stifle his amusement. “She’s doing this on purpose.”
“I have no doubt,” I said, watching Thessaly raise her hands.
She held up an arm, twisting her wrist. “I play what I’m dealt. The words are flowing into me tonight. The universe is using me for a mouthpiece.”
Nolan pushed away from the couch. “I need a drink.”
“Ah, the joys of living in the country.” I watched him walk into the kitchen, knowing exactly where he was headed. “There are a number of Mason jars filled with moonshine hidden in every household.”
Kai made a sound in the back of his throat. “I’ve never seen Nolan drink anything harder than a cream soda. Will he be okay?”
“My apple pie moonshine is one of the best in the county.” My mother made the claim with the sort of pride coming from a long, tender relationship with the manufacturer. “You haven’t had good ’shine until you’ve tasted it. Although we only bring it out on extra special occasions!” She raised her voice to be overheard in the other room. Still, she made no move to stop Nolan.
“And Nolan is going to get it? Right now?” Kai jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Should I be worried?”
If I hadn’t been paying attention, I might have missed the flash of emotion on his face. Something similar to the worry he voiced. “He’ll be fine,” I assured him. A little moonshine might go a long way toward calming the manic energy in the room and removing the stick from his butt.
My turn came too quickly. With the last of my letters, and little space left to fill on the board, I added my word to the others. “There. Bow before your master. I am the Scrabble champion.”
“Good luck backing up your claims.” Thessaly pulled the board in her direction. “We’re not finished yet. I still have room for one more word.”
“I’m not sure what could possibly be left to use up. The bag is empty.” Empty bag, and nothing left for me to spell. “Aren’t you finished embarrassing us for one night?”
