I sighed “I know. It’s not easy but someone has to make this world a better place.”
---------------------------
“What are you two doing here?” Aunt Trudy said not looking up from her game of solitaire.
“Remember, I said I would come round with the new menu for the bakery, Aunt Trudy.” Niki said gently, placing the paper on the table.
“New Menu? Hmpf. What was wrong with the old menu? We don’t need any of this new fancy froufrou nonsense girlie.” Aunt Trudy said caustically, still not looking up from her game.
I snorted at her response and pointed out “You can move the five of diamonds under the six of clubs.”
“I don’t need your help to play a card game, Malinda.”
“It’s Mah-Lee-Ya and you know it.” I said sounding out my name loudly for her. “Do we need to up your meds, Aunt Gertrude?” I asked, knowing full well how much she hated the use of her full name.
I saw the ghost of a smile on the crazy old lady’s face as she flipped me off with arthritic hands. I smiled brightly at her.
“So… You’re still alive. Congrats.”
“MALIYA! Behave!” my sister reprimanded me in a stern tone, as if I were a misbehaving puppy.
“What? I was making an observation. She’s alive and kicking. Well. Not so much the kicking bit because of the hip and all.”
I turned to Aunt Trudy. “By the way, you could be kicking a lot better if you actually did the exercises the physiotherapist is telling you to do.”
“How did you know I haven’t been? Nurse Ratched tell on me again? That woman has it out for me. She hasn’t liked me since the day I got here.”
“Hmmm.” I agreed “Probably because you call her Nurse Ratched to her face instead of just behind her back like everyone else.”
“I never say anything about someone behind their back that I wouldn’t say to their face. People who do can’t be trusted.” Aunt Trudy said sagely, and placed an ace of clubs at the top of the table.
“You and I have that belief in common. Now, put the cards down, pick up the damn menu and tell my neurotic, people-pleasing sister, what you think about the freaking food so she can get the validation she needs and we can get out of your hair.” I said to her firmly.
“There’s no rush Aunt Trudy, honestly. We’re happy to spend the day with you.” Niki told her as she looked at me reproachfully. Aunt Trudy looked about as a thrilled as I did to be spending the day together.
I turned to my sister. “You and I have very different understandings of the word ‘happy’.”
“You both need to stop being so difficult. It is a beautiful sunny day out, there is not a cloud in the sky and I want to make to the most of my last free Sunday before the bakery opens and I get busy. Sundays are usually a busy day at the bakery, right? So, what do you say Aunt Trudy? Want to see if we can find you a wheelchair and sign you out for the day? We could go get lunch and then stop by the bakery so you can have a look at all the changes and what we’ve been doing there?” Niki said quickly in one breath.
Aunt Trudy turned to me. “Does she always talk this much?”
I heaved a dramatic sigh. “Yep. Pretty much. It’s my burden in life to bear. You might as well give in about going out for the day. She’s like a dog with a bone when she gets an idea.”
“Fine. Let’s go.” Aunt Trudy said standing up slowly, tutting in annoyance when Niki tried to help her. “But there better be ice-cream involved.”
----------------------------------
“Oh my God. That was exhausting.” Niki sighed as she fell next to me on my bed.
I smirked at her smugly. “What happened to; ‘She’s just a misunderstood lady, Liya. Give her a chance. Be more understanding of her situation. She’s lovely once you get to know her’?” I said imitating what she had said to me on the drive over to the nursing home in the morning.
“I wasn’t wrong! She is lovely. Deep down. Deep, deep down. She’s just had a hard life. Imagine what your life would be if you were all alone.”
“Well, I would still probably be in my pyjamas right now, binge watching episodes of Sherlock with my two favourite guys.”
“You do realise Ben and Jerry are not actually your friends, right? Also, did you finish the entire carton by yourself yesterday?”
“Hey!” I protested “I have been a loyal customer for decades. I even gave my input on the new flavours they brought out. Trust me. We’re besties. And the information on the side of the carton said ‘recommended serving sizes’ not ‘mandatory serving sizes’. No judging allowed.”
Whoever had thought about putting a cookie core into ice cream should really be sainted.
“Hey, Liya…” Niki began tentatively.
“Nope.” I stopped her immediately, knowing exactly what she was going to say next from her tone of voice.
The less said about your pathetically non-existent love life, the better.
“If you even think about setting me up with anyone while we’re here, I will head butt you so hard you will be seeing stars for a week. I’m a medical professional. I know ways to inflict pain on you without hurting myself. Remember that.”
“Okay then… Warning duly noted.”
Chapter 4
Caleb
I looked down at my watch and realised that I had been running for nearly two hours.
I nodded to a couple I recognised who were out walking their dog and another couple who walked into the park with their toddler. I felt a small pang of envy when I saw them. I had never had trouble finding dates, but lately I found that dating held no appeal to me, much to Aunt Debbie’s disappointment.
I started my cooling down stretches and began the walk over to Uncle Jeremy’s house for our traditional Sunday morning breakfast.
I decided on showering there instead of going home to change. Even after Nate, Jake, Josh and I moved out, Aunt Debbie had insisted that we keep spare clothes in our old bedrooms. Despite the fact our new house was only across town, she had still cried buckets on the day we had moved out.
Walking into the house, I kicked off my trainers to the side. There had always been a strict ‘no shoes in the house’ policy, on pain of being denied dessert for a week, if the rule was broken.
“Aunt Deb!” I called out knowing she would be awake and in the kitchen.
“In the kitchen, honey” her hollered reply came. My aunt was born and bred in the Midwest. She had met my Uncle in her twenties, when she had been on vacation in Sin City. After a week-long whirlwind romance, he had proposed. She said yes and they had been married that night by Elvis.
Thirty years later, they were still happily married. Unfortunately for us, we often got an eyeful of exactly how happy they were. They had never really seemed to grasp the concept of locking doors or that we lived in an open-plan house.
“Why the hell are all of you shouting? It’s so fucking early.” my sister grumbled under her breath as she came down the stairs in her Captain America pyjamas and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
My sister had grown from adorable little kid to awkward teenager to a beautiful, nerdy, young woman. She was short with light brown skin, long black hair and dark brown eyes and looked deceptively adorable. Alex pretty much looked like a male version of Addie with the same shade of skin, hair and same eyes.
From my light brown skin, dark brown, curly hair and my unusual blue eyes, I had assumed that my sperm donor was probably mixed-race. Nate looked the most like our mother and Uncle Jeremy with his brown hair and green eyes.
The twins, Jake and Josh, both resembled surfer dudes with their blond hair and blue eyes and had the laidback/idiotic (depending on who you asked) personalities to match.
Our colourful little family certainly made for an interesting picture on the front of the yearly Christmas cards Aunt Deb sent out.
“You watch your mouth young lady! It is 10 o’clock. You should not be sleeping the day away. The early bird catches the worm and al
l that.” Aunt Debbie called from the kitchen.
“I swear she has supersonic hearing.” Addie muttered looking at me.
She was constantly being berated by my aunt about her frequent cursing. Addie blamed us for being bad influences on her as she was growing up. Honestly, she wasn’t wrong.
“Addie! Come give your favourite brother a hug!” My sweaty arms open as I walked towards.
“Get the fuck away from me Caleb! You’re all sweaty and gross.” She squealed in disgust as I gathered her in my arms and lifted her off the floor, spinning her in a circle.
Bugging our baby sister had become somewhat of a hobby for me and my brothers as we were growing up and at times it had been a competition to see who could annoy her the most.
“Caleb! Leave Peanut alone!” my Uncle said as he came into the house, kicking of his shoes. Being so young, Addie and Alex had formed a close bond with my Uncle and Aunt soon after we had moved in with them.
It took longer for them to win over the rest of us, but over time the wounds left by our rough start began to heal through the warm embraces of Aunt Debbie and the security provided by Uncle Jeremy.
Nate had been their biggest challenge. He had remained wary and withdrawn even into his teenage years. It had taken a massive argument with Uncle Jeremy to get him to realise that he was just as loved as the rest of us were. Nate had been fifteen when the school called about him skipping classes and when Uncle Jeremy confronted him about it, the conversation had turned into an ugly yelling match.
That night Nate had run away. He was so sure that he was going to be kicked out anyway, and had decided he didn’t want to go into the system again. Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Debbie had driven around in a panic for hours until they finally found him sat at a bus stop.
When they reached him, Aunt Debbie had shocked him by grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him hard while sobbing. She said that if he ever ran away again she would “kick his ass” because our family would not be complete without their eldest son.
The first time he hugged Aunt Debbie at the age of nineteen without her being the one to instigate the hug, she had burst into tears, freaking him the fuck out.
I put Addie down and grinned at her. I saw the gleam in her eyes too late. She lifted up her foot and kicked me hard in the shin.
“Fuck! That hurt Princess.” I howled rubbing the now throbbing bone. Addie’s response was to flip me off as she turned to walk into the kitchen. She hated being called a princess more than anything. So naturally, that was the nickname we had given her.
We had made sure that Addie knew how to protect herself as she was growing up and by the time she was eight she had been getting in more fights than the rest of us.
My Uncle Jeremy just chuckled, slapped me on the back and walked into the kitchen. “You boys sure taught her well.”
I limped into the kitchen after him and gave my Aunt a kiss on the cheek. “Morning, honey. You’re here early.” She said smiling up at me while whisking eggs.
“Josh and his new friend were so loud, I didn’t get a chance to sleep.” I grumbled pouring myself a cup of coffee.
“Josh has a new friend? How lovely!” my aunt said flipping over a pancake. “He should bring him round for breakfast. What were they doing up this early? They weren’t playing those video games at this time were they?”
My uncle snorted into his mug and exchanged a glance with Addie.
“I don’t think that’s the kind of friend Josh had round, Deb.”
My aunt looked confused for a second before she realised what I had meant by friend. Her face flushed bright red and she went back to pouring more pancake batter on the griddle.
“Well. As long as all you boys are being safe. Remember: no glove, no love.”
My sister groaned and pretended to dry heave onto her plate.
“Oh hush, Addie. I had the same talk with you. Just because you’re a girl, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have condoms on you! It’s important to be prepared.” At my aunt’s words both I and Uncle Jeremy groaned.
“Addie better not be having sex with anyone! I haven’t seen you go on any dates or bring anyone home.” my Uncle exclaimed looking over at her. “Any man who thinks he’s good enough to date our Peanut had better be man enough to come to my front door and talk to me before taking her out.”
Addie groaned and let her head fall forward and thump on the table. “I’m going to be alone forever and die a bitter old spinster.”
I snorted, knowing that she was possibly correct about this too. Between my brothers and Uncle Jeremy, Addie hadn’t dated much. Well, that we knew of anyway. My sister could be a wily little thing when she needed to be.
My aunt noticed my slight limp as I walked to the table with my coffee mug. “What’s wrong with your leg?”
I glared over at my sister. “Addie kicked me in the shin.” I stole a piece of bacon from Addie’s plate and leaned back in my chair, smirking at her.
“Adelaide Jameson! That is not ladylike behaviour. You know the house rules! No kicking, no slapping, no pinching, no punching, no spitting, no biting and no stabbing anyone else in the house.”
No stabbing had been added onto the list about six years ago. Addie was an imaginative little fighter. She had stabbed Jake in the hand with a fork when he tried to steal her fried chicken.
He claimed she was acting psychotic. She claimed he had it coming.
We all sided with Addie that day, no one wanted to be on her bad side while she was surrounded by so many sharp objects.
“A lady? Is that what we’re calling cave trolls these days?” Jake said strolling into the kitchen.
“Go fuck yourself, Jacob!” Addie mumbled her face still planted in the table. Did I mention my sister was really not a morning person.
“Adelaide!” “Peanut.” my Aunt and Uncle reprimanded at the same time.
Jake strolled over to my aunt, kissed her on the cheek and placed a dish on the counter.
“Oooh what’d you make this time, pumpkin?” Aunt Deb asked lifting the cover as the delicious smells of egg, ham, onions and peppers filled the air.
Jake had developed had an obsession with food when we moved in with my Aunt and we discovered the joys of good home cooking. Whenever she was in the kitchen, he had always been by her side.
He asked her questions, watched everything she did and acted as her guinea pig for new recipes. Before long he was experimenting in the kitchen himself, creating some amazing and some truly horrifying dishes.
If anyone ever tries to tell you that peanut butter, jelly and fish are a good combination… Run. No matter how convincing they may be. That particular experiment (or Catfish à la Jake, as he dubbed it) had us all diving for the nearest toilets/sinks/bushes.
Josh didn’t make it that far and ended up throwing up in the actual dish of fish itself. We were all pretty wary of Jake’s cooking after that incident but he redeemed himself the next week with a lasagne so good it brought tears to Aunt Debbie’s eyes.
After graduating high school, instead of going to culinary school, he went to Chef Marco, head chef and owner of a local restaurant and asked for a job. Over the years he worked his way up from a kitchen assistant to Executive chef. When Marco retired last year he had named Jake the new Head Chef of Marco’s.
We were all proud of him, but especially my aunt who had bumper stickers made that she forced us all to put on all our cars which read “Money can’t buy happiness but it can buy you food at Marco’s, which is pretty damn close.”
My personal favourite moment, was when we went to eat at Marco’s and she wore the special shirt she had made, which had Jake’s face printed on it with the words “World’s No.1 Best Chef Ever” printed underneath.
Jake hadn’t been able to live down the teasing from his staff for a month after, until he finally threatened to fire them all if they didn’t shut up about it.
“I made a baked Denver omelette and I also brought a maple glazed ham, especially for you.
” Jake said shooting her a winning smile.
“Awww my boy. That’s why you’re my favourite.” Aunt Debbie says squishing his face and pulling him down to kiss his forehead. “Finish making the pancakes for me while I get the bacon out.”
“You’re such a suck up.” Addie murmured into the table.
“Don’t hate, Princess.” Jake slid over to the table, kissed Addie on the head before messing up her hair and stealing a piece of bacon from her plate. I saw Addie’s fist rise, but before I have a chance to warn him, she planted her little fist firmly into his crotch.
“Ughhhhh….. whhyyyyyy?” Jake whined as he fell to the floor. I heard Addie’s menacing chuckle as my Aunt began to yell at her about House Rules again and went to help a moaning Jake up of the floor.
Falling Completely (Starling Falls #1) Page 3
