Page 48 of Our Radiant Embers

“Imagine the things they could do if they stopped pulling each other’s pigtails,” she stage-whispered to Jack.

“More like comparing dick sizes,” Jack said, and wow. This was a bit of a detour from the first time Adam and Gale had visited when my siblings had been on their best behaviour. Problem was they took their cues from me, always had. I couldn’t expect them to handle Adam with kid gloves if I did no such thing.

“Mine’s bigger,” Adam said almost absently, the sly twist to his mouth belying his casual tone.

“Oh, excuse you,” I told him. “I think you’re jumping to conclusions here.”

“Need a reminder?” He grinned at me, full and bright. When I’d initially mentioned that my entire family knew about our pub encounter a year ago, he’d needed a moment to digest it. Now, it seemed like he enjoyed being able to joke openly, to treat his sexuality like it was no big deal.

Which it shouldn’t be. But, well. Bloodlines and all.

“Okay,” Laurie said loudly before I could offer an appropriate response. “My childhood innocence just died a tragic death.”

I scoffed. “Says the reigning queen of Cards Against Humanity.”

“What’s Cards Against Humanity?” Adam asked.

“Is he serious?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know,” I told him, and turned to Adam. “Are you serious?”

“Based on the name, it sounds like a game that my family would not play at the dinner table,” he told me. “Or anywhere else, really.”

Yes, fair.

“It’s…” All right, how to explain this in one sentence, and for the uninitiated? “It’s a card game where the funniest, most outrageous, or most politically incorrect answer to a question wins. It’s not for the easily offended.”

“I always win,” Laurie said with pride.

“Because you have no filter,” Jack told her.

“I do. I just use it selectively.”

“Can you selectively use your filter somewhere not so…here?” I asked. “Might help if Adam and I could concentrate on the task at hand.”

“Is that code for something?” Laurie asked. “It feels like that’s code for something. If it isn’t, it should be.”

Fortunately, Jack chose this moment to activate his occasional ability to act like a proper adult. “Come on,” he told her. “Let’s go take another look at that watering system, see if we can make it work for a bigger area.”

Laurie sighed as though it was an enormous burden to place on her bony shoulders. Truth was that she loved tinkering with machines and electronics. After taking a year to decide on her future, she’d begin studying engineering in the summer. I had no doubt she’d give all the boys a run for their money.

Once Jack and Laurie had left for the backyard, I sent Adam an apologetic look. “Sorry—they’re under the delusion that they’re funny. But they pick their moments, I promise. They wouldn’t accidentally out you.”

“I trust your word.” His smile sat mostly around the eyes. “And honestly, they are a bit funny.”

“Please don’t encourage them, or I’ll be paying the price.”

He cocked his head at an inquisitive angle. “And that’s my problem…how?”

“I’ll make it your problem.”

“You and whose army?” Something heavy clunked above our heads, and he moved on quickly. “Really, though—your family seems very close. It’s nice.”

The wistful note in his voice pulled me up short. We were, yeah, partly because we’d always been a little different. Nan Jean and I were able to see others’ magic and several of us hid a talent for all four elements—it had made us a tight-knit bunch. Even more so with Dad’s air magic sufficient for the construction job with J. Brown, but not enough to earn our family wealth or respect.

“You and Gale seem close,” I replied gently, and Adam nodded, pursing his lips in thought.

“We are.” He didn’t bring up the rest of his family, and I didn’t ask. No need when I already had a good idea of what the answer would be.

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