Page 23 of Betrayal & New Beginnings

I saw the moment they realized there was another person.Theydidn’t let go of me but stared atEllielike she was an alien.Ifigured it would be best to make quick introductions before my mom and sister made their way over.

“This tall monster isCharlie.”Ipointed at my nephew on my right. “Andthe mermaid isHaley,”Iexplained toElliewhile pointing at the mermaid costume my niece was currently wearing.

“Guys, this isEllie,”Isaid, pointing beside me.

“Are youWade’sgirlfriend?”Charlieasked, but beforeEllieeven had a chance to answer,Haleydecided to interrupt with her own comments and questions.

“You’re very pretty,” she said. “Doyou like mermaids?Youlook like a mermaid.Doyou want to wear a mermaid tail?”Shesaid the entire thing without taking a breath between questions.

Ellie just giggled and smiled beside me.

“Alright, hooligans.Calmdown.Canwe at least letEllieget inside to the kitchen so she can drop off the food?”Iasked while they both still held on to my arms.Tryingto pull away from them slightly,Ifelt my sister come up to us.

“I’ll help with the food.Hello!I’mWilla,” my sister interrupted, sticking her hand betweenEllieand me and slowly squeezed her way in. “Kids,” my sister said conspiratorially. “UncleWadeis justdyingto see your new pet.Whydon’t you take him inside and show him,” she said as the kids screamed and grabbed my arms, yanking me toward the house away fromEllie.

“Hey, everybody, let me getEllieinside first please,”Itried to explain as the kids kept pulling me away fromEllieand my sister kept encroaching closer to her.

“Don’t worry,I’lltake good care of her!”Willayelled, waving me off.

Yeah.That’swhatIwas worried about.

God only knew what she would be telling her whileIwas gone.Myniece and nephew continued to pull my arms, guiding me up the steps into the house.

I passed my brother-in-law, still sitting on the front porch like nothing was at all out of the ordinary.Thator maybe he just became immune to the chaos.Hedid that head lift acknowledgment that men often did asIwas dragged by his kids into my parents’ house.

“Hi sweetheart.I’mso glad you could make it,”Iheard my mom say to me as she appeared in the doorway.Itried to hug her and use it as my way to escape the clutches of the two kids attached to me, but no such luck.

“We’re takingUncleWadeto seeSnickers!”Haleytold my mom.

“Oh well, then go right ahead, dear.Butplease bringUncleWadeback to the kitchen when you’re done soIcan put him to work,” my mom said, winking at me.

I had no idea whatSnickerswas, butIhad a feeling my mother was enjoying this.

“We will!” both kids yelled as they pulled me farther into the house and toward the living room.

Sitting on the coffee table was a cage with what appeared to be a mouse.

“MeetSnickers, our new pet hamster!”Charliesaid. “Isn’the so cool?”

“Definitely,”Itold them while lying straight to their faces.

“When did you get this?”Iasked, becauseIcould have sworn my sister told me no pets until they were older because she didn’t want to get stuck taking care of it by herself.

“We got it from our neighbor,”Haleystarted to explain. “Charlieand me were outside playing in the yard and the guy gived it to us for free because he was moving.Isn’tthat awesome?”

I grinned and nodded becauseIwas sure my sister andPaulwere thrilled with their former neighbor just gifting their kids a free pet with no advance notice.Theyshowed me the cage and setup they had forSnickerswhile also explaining all the cool things he could do.IfI’dlet them, they would have kept talking aboutSnickersand showing me things for an hour, soIused my mother’s excuse and told themIhad to go findGrandmain the kitchen and help her before she got mad.Theynodded and waved me off, moving their attention back toSnickers.

AsIwas walking back toward the kitchen,Iheard several female voices laughing and rolled my eyes.Whateverconversation was happening likely was about me, and if my sisters were in there, it was highly plausible it was embarrassing.Gettingcloser,Islowed up soIcould listen just outside the room off to the side and out of view.

“When you say clumsy child, what do you mean?”Ellieasked innocently enough, andIknew they were absolutely talking about me.Iwas very much a klutz as a kid and had terrible coordination until my late teen years.

“Like a bull in aChinashop, full-blown klutz,” my sisterWhitneyenthusiastically answered. “So,Momput him in ballet and gymnastics classes with me to help him.”

“He gave me his allowance every week for three months soIwouldn’t tell his friends,”Willalaughed.

I rolled my eyes, remembering howIpractically begged her not to tell my friends initially, until it worked out in my favor.

“I still can’t believe you did that to your poor brother,” my mom chided my sister. “Thougha few months into it, he realized all the other girls loved having a cute boy in class.”

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