Page 56 of The Other Brother

“Maybe we should put the books into categories?” I ask in an undertone.

“Great idea,” Cody says.

Mum comes back out into the living room when Cody and I are halfway through our sorting.

“We’ve finished constructing the bed. What else needs to go into the bedroom?” she asks Kate.

“The boxes for the bedroom are stacked over here.” Kate nods at a pile by the wall.

Mum walks over to inspect the boxes.

“I hope Kate and Chris don’t have any stuff that they don’t want the parental units seeing,” I say in an undertone to Cody.

Cody quirks an eyebrow. “What kind of stuff?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. I can just imagine my Mum discovering a prostate massager or something.”

I’m expecting Cody to blush as he usually does when I say things like that, but he simply snickers. “Imagine her holding it up asking where she should put it.”

Oh God. I crack up laughing at that. Cody joins in with his loud chuckle. Our laughter shatters the silence.

When I glance up, Frank, Heather, and Mum are all glaring in our direction. Mum grabs a box and retreats into the bedroom.

Kate’s the only one amused. “Care to share the joke?”

“Nah, it’s okay.” Cody blushes while I continue to laugh.

Cody and I shuffle the books around for a while. After arranging them by category, we then decide we should have arranged them alphabetically instead, so we start again.

When Mum reemerges from the bedroom to grab another box, she stops and surveys the living space with a critical eye.

“I really think you should think about rearranging things in here. Put the bigger couch against that wall, so it faces the television.”

“But that will make it hard to pull the curtains. And we’d have to move the bookshelf,” Kate argues.

“But the bookshelf is blocking part of the window, and there’s not much natural light in here to begin with.”

“Let Kate and Chris decide where to put the furniture,” Frank interjects.

Mum freezes. She slowly swivels her head toward Frank like she’s one of those predator birds that has just spotted a likely victim. “Sorry, I didn’t realize this conversation involved you.”

Shit. If Mum uses that tone on me, the red siren alert starts in my head.Abort. Abort. Abort.

Unfortunately, Frank doesn’t appear to have any survival instincts. “They’re the ones who have to live here, Julia, not you. Let them do it their way.”

Mum huffs up. “I’m just offering the benefit of my experience.”

Cody shoots me an exasperated look. I totally agree with his sentiment. Furniture? They’re seriously turning furniture into a battleground?

Dad comes out of the bedroom to grab a box and stops short when he gauges the temperature of the room.

“Maybe you should let them make their own decisions,” Frank says.

Mum snorts. “That’s rich, coming from you.”

Frank narrows his eyes. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, when have you ever let either Mel or Kate make a decision without trying to influence them?”