Page 17 of Faking Cinderella
Daph hasn’t talked to our parents since they disinherited her, and I’m close—soclose—to being there too.
“We’ll worry about elephants when we have to,” I tell Lucky. “Until then—can you pull over? I want a picture. But only if it’s safe.”
He brakes instantly, and a moment later, we’re on the side of a mountain road, with me leaning out the window, taking a picture of the morning mountain view.
I’ll send it to Daphne later.
And hopefully, Daph will get a chance to come out here and meet Lucky and his brothers herself sometime soon.
If all goes well.
“If Rhys starts to be a problem,” Lucky starts again as I settle back in the car and strap in, “just let me know. Decker’s a disaster with calendar management. But we can find another situation.”
“I’m sure he and I will figure things out.”
“He letting you have the bedroom?”
“Do you really think a guy who’s walked into a human mousetrap made of hair dye, flour, a squawking phone, and a woman armed with a cast-iron skillet is going to make a fuss about having the bedroom?”
Lucky hoots. “No.”
“I’d be happy to share. I mean, take turns.”No, you meant share, my libido whispers.
The manisattractive in a big, broody, scowling, grumpy, exact-opposite-of-everything-I’ve-ever-looked-for-in-a-man kind of way.
“Nah. Couch is comfortable enough. I should know. Decker always claims he needs his inspiration sleep when we’re both there, and Jack says he’s allergic to the pull-out mattress when he and I are both there, so I know firsthand about the couch.”
“What do you do when all three of you are there?” I ask.
“Me? I go home after dinner and crack up at the arguments they’re probably having.”
My heart swells in my chest.
I don’t think it’s instant love of my brother, given that I don’t think I know how to love someone.
I think it’s a desperate desire to have the kind of relationship with him—and his brothers—that they have with each other.
To belong.
To know that even when we disagree, we’ll still have each other’s backs.
If I hadn’t already known from my text and email conversations with Lucky the past few months that the triplets have that, this morning on its own would solidify it.
Daphne and I are close, but we’ve lived such different lives, in such different places since I left for college, which was almost half her lifetime ago.
The triplets—our half brothers—are still tight.
Lucky told me they each went different places after high school—Decker to the Marines, Jack to Colorado School of Mines, Lucky to nursing school in Denver, not far from Jack, but still far enough away that they didn’t see each other often.
But they all made their way back to Snaggletooth Creek within five years of high school graduation.
They have what I’d love to have with Daphne.
What I’m still working on having with Daphne as much as we can when I live in the city and she rarely travels back there.
It’s not where her heart is, and everyone she knew growing up basically abandoned her too when she was cut off.
I don’t blame her for staying in Athena’s Rest, where she was kicked out of her last college and then disinherited, where she’d made tight friends with a woman who took her in and helped her figure out her new life path, and where Oliver’s settling now to be where she’s happy. So they can be happy there together.
