Page 5 of Peach Tree Family

Chapter 2

Seth woke up with a grunt, feeling the hard floor under him. He was cold and stiff and the brothers were nowhere to be seen. He blinked remembering those serious eyes of the older brother and the way his voice softened any time he spoke to his little brother.

When it came to Seth, Theo was watchful, ready at every second to deal with him if he should step out of line or try to pull anything. Seth tried not to take it personally. Theo did have a little brother to look out for. He had to think of Ace and protect him.

Seth would have been the same way if he had a little brother or sister of his own. Seeing the bond between the brothers gave Seth a pang of envy. He didn't have anything like that in his life. No one was left for him back home, and he might never find anyone who would care about him in that way.

As he got himself off the floor, Seth heard the brothers outside. For the most part it was Ace he heard. Theo only said a few words now and then.

After packing all the extra clothes into the duffel bag, Seth got his sneakers on. They weren't dry all the way, but there was no helping that.

Going outside through the kitchen door, he looked around. He could hear Theo and Ace, but still couldn't see them. They were somewhere in front of the house.

By the look of it, it was pretty early. The sun was still low. The air was cold and there was a lot of mist between the bare trees.

Rounding the corner, Seth saw Ace on the porch. He was saying. "I can test them out. I'll jump on them."

"No," Theo said sharply. "You'll fall through and get hurt. Get off that porch."

"I wasn't gonna fall in," Ace whined then he saw Seth. "Seth is up!"

"Good morning," Seth said as he and Theo eyed each other. The tension from yesterday was still there. Theo probably just wanted him to leave already.

Ace was friendlier though. "You have to go in the bushes. The bathroom is no good."

"Yeah. I'll just..." Seth pointed his thumb then went off and watered a bare bush then went back to where the guys were poking around and checking out the outside of the house. Ace was leaning down to look under the porch, and Theo was tapping the posts like he wanted to see if they were solid.

Seth noticed that Theo had on a backpack, but not the big camping one from before. That was still inside, in a corner of the living room.

"Are you guys heading out?" Seth asked.

Theo looked at him over his shoulder, but Ace jumped in to answer. "We're going on an expedition!"

"We need to find the well that's somewhere on this property," Theo explained.

Ace jumped in again. "Then we can flush the toilet."

"After all this time, that might be all the well water is good for," Theo said, but they didn't go off just yet. Theo led the way inside and into the kitchen.

He had a galvanized bucked that he handed to Ace and also a collapsible bucket. "I found this pot we can fill too," he said and hefted a huge enameled pot.

"If you want some help, I can take the pot," Seth offered and then noticed Ace frowning up at him.

"Did you have breakfast?" Ace asked. Seth didn't answer right away, and from that Ace knew the answer. Shaking his head, he turned to his big brother. "No breakfast."

"I'm good," Seth told him. "Don't worry about me."

"If you're helping, we can at least feed you," Theo said and got out two breakfast bars. "Strawberry OK?"

"You don't have to," Seth was saying, but Theo was already pushing the bars into his hand.

"Strawberry isn't bad, but peanut butter is better," Ace said.

"Alright, thank you," Seth said but he didn't start eating yet. "Do you have enough?" He looked over at Ace.

"We're going into town afterward. We'll do some shopping," Theo said curtly.

"I'll be going too," Seth said, not that he could stay behind.

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