Page 53 of Billionaire Games
The expression that covered Kel’s face nearly made Ethan laugh but he managed to hold it in. He’d told the little acting troupe to lay it on thick and they were off to a remarkable start.
When Herbert shouted at the top of his lungs, “Shit fire and save the matches!” Kel froze as she watched the man’s arms fly into the air as if he was praising God or something.
Ethan leaned in close to whisper, “He has Turret’s Syndrome. Please don’t be offended by anything he does or says. He can’t help it. Things just burst out of him.”
“Oh,” she whispered back as she watched Herbert walk in a circle three times then sit on the sofa. “And the circling behavior, what’s that called?”
Ethan had no idea, so he made something up, “Poor guy thinks he’s a puppy sometimes.”
“That’s awful. How’d that happen? Did he have an accident and damage his brain? Is that why he wears a helmet?” she asked.
“No, he wears a helmet because he thinks it looks cool, Kel. You should compliment him on it,” he told her as he held back the urge to laugh. “And the Turret’s is genetic. We have twelve people in the family who have it.”
“So, anyone could get it then?” she asked him as her head swam.
“Yes, one in my family never knows if any of their children will end up with it. The luck of the draw, I suppose.” He took a seat as the woman playing his grandmother took hers after a lengthy time of trying to ease her crooked body into the chair.
Kel couldn’t help but notice the hump that was already beginning to form on Crenshaw’s back. “Is the hump thing something a lot of your family has too?”
“Mostly only the women,” Ethan said as he sat back and pulled her close to him.
“Well, I think if it’s caught early enough, doctors can do something about that.” Kel looked around the room at the many roses and wondered why in the world one would have so many of the same flower around the inside and outside of the house.
“I don’t know. Crenshaw wore a brace for most of her younger years. It didn’t seem to help her any,” Ethan said as he watched frown lines form in the middle of Kel’s forehead.
He was happy with her reaction to the mess of a family he’d created. When his fake granny let a whirlwind of gas blow her up off her chair a bit, Kel gasped as the old woman said, “Soap!”
The others echoed her, leaving Kel stupefied. Granny decided to explain, “I have terrible insides, honey. If I apologized every time gas escaped me, then I’d never stop. So, we came up with one word. Soap.”
“Soap,” Kel said. “How um, uh, cleaver. Yeah, that’s the word I was looking for, clever.”
“She’s a sweetheart, isn’t she, love?” Ethan cooed in her ear.
Kel didn’t think the old woman was sweet at all but she nodded. “Sure is.”
Ethen pushed it a bit further as he asked, “Think you could get used to this?”
Kel stared at him without blinking and wondered why he’d ask such a thing. Was he really going to go so far as to give her what he thought she wanted, a marriage proposal?
