Falling for his Step-Sister by Alie Garnett

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Everyone, we need to talk,”Buzz said an hour after leaving Jonas outside the house. Now she was walking into the living room with a bottle of water, two bottles of wine, and a case of wine coolers. She hoped it would be enough.

“In a minute,” Lucy stated, her eyes not leaving the TV.

Setting down the alcohol, she handed the water to Maby, who gave her a dirty look. She hated being targeted as different. It had only come out a few months before that she had an issue with alcohol and was trying to stay away from it, not an easy task when you were a Lovely.

“Now, TV off,” Harper barked at Lucy as she came in carrying as many glasses as she could.

“God, Harper, can you be a little nice? I was in the middle of that episode!” Lucy barked back at her sister. For a moment, Buzz thought they would start fighting over the TV. The tension between them was high and getting higher all the time.

“You’ve seen it before.” Maby said from beside her. Her feet were on her twin, and her head was on her husband’s shoulder. “We’ve all seen it before.”

“It doesn’t matter. I wanted to see it again.” Lucy pushed her sister’s feet off of her lap.

“Can I leave yet? Louisa and I need to get on the road,” Frankie said. She was sitting on the arm of the couch, as close to the door as possible.

“I should pack.” Louisa started to get up.

“Not yet. We’re having a family meeting,” Harper stated.

Agatha looked over at Harper. “Should I call Sera?”

“No, we can have a meeting without her.”

“I don’t think we can,” Cliff stated as he played with his wife’s hair.

“I’m not even calling Kaine for this. I’ll give him a summary later.” Harper grabbed the wine and started filling the glasses.

“Summary. Is that what you call it?” Agatha snarked.

“Shut up, Ag. I’ve always and will always call it sex. You know that.” She handed her a full glass.

“Harper, really! There are kids here.” Agatha took the glass and frowned at her sister.

“No, there aren’t. Lou is like nineteen. If she doesn’t know about sex yet, she should be informed.” Harper handed the girl a glass of wine after just saying she was only nineteen.

“What are we meeting about?” Maby asked, handing her bottle of water to her husband to open, as if she was worthless.

“Louisa and Frankie,” Buzz started.

“I don’t need to be the subject of a meeting.” Frankie got to her feet, declining a glass of wine.

Harper pushed her back onto the couch, as she would have with any of her sisters—no special treatment for the new ones. “First off, I have never had to do this before, not once. So, if I get it wrong, you’ll have to tell me, though I’m usually far from wrong about anything. That’s the first thing you’ll learn about me.”

“What are you talking about, Harper?” Maby demanded,

“Shut up, Maby. You’re interrupting my speech,” she hissed at her sister before turning back to the two newcomers. Clearing her throat, she went on, “As the oldest Lovely sister, I want to extend an invitation that you will always have a home here. No matter what happens in life, you belong here.”

“Hold up, Harper. This is my place, not yours anymore. Need I remind you that you’re supposed to be moved out since you are married and all. And I don’t really know either one of them.” Agatha sat up, suddenly caring about what was happening around her.

“I don’t know any of you,” Frankie agreed with Agatha and got to her feet again.

Harper pushed her down again. “You will in time.” Harper then rapid-fire named everyone in the room as if the girl would pick up on any of the names.

“I’m not going to remember any of that,” Frankie pointed out.

“I said in time, you will remember us all. Just give it time,” Harper assured her, even patting her on the arm.

“Are you holding us hostage?” Louisa looked around the room at all the faces looking at them.

“I think you messed this up, Harper, completely,” Buzz said and turned to the girls. “What Harper forgot to mention was that everyone in this room, except Cliff, is the daughter of Judith Rowley.”

Louisa choked on her wine and looked around the room. “My mom?”

“Yup, our mom also. We haven’t seen her since we were very young. I would say before Frankie was born,” Buzz said.

“I don’t see it.” Lucy was analyzing them from behind her wine glass.

Her twin pushed her aside and sat on the coffee table, staring at them for a second. “Louisa … Louisa May Alcott! Am I right? Little women? Little Men? I am so right!” She spun around and looked at her sisters as if they knew the answer. Well, two did.

Buzz nodded in agreement. “You’re right. Her name is Louisa May Alcott Raiden.”

Maby tried to get a high-five from Louisa, who just stared blankly at her. “Really? That’s who I wanted to be, but no, I end up being Mabel Lucie Atwell Lovely. I never have any luck.” Maby groaned and turned to Frankie, then smiled.

“You people make no sense,” Frankie stated, shaking her head.

“Frankie … Frankie, I got nothing. Seriously, I’m going to fail this one,” Maby mumbled, and her husband leaned forward to pat her on the back.

“It’s Frances,” Harper said.

“Frances makes more sense. Okay Francis, Francis, F. Scott Fitzgerald—”

“Francis Elise Hodgeson,“ Frankie answered at the same time.

Maby recovered before Frankie could. “Burnett! I knew it. Of course, The Secret Garden. I was seriously thinking another damn illustrator.” Maby popped up and rubbed the brunette’s head as she walked away, her task complete.

“Did you want a shot at our names, or did you just want the tests over with?” Harper shot a look at Maby.

Buzz pushed Harper aside and explained. Based on the two sisters’ expressions, they thought everyone in the room was crazy. Harper pushed back and said, “We all have long names, Frankie. Or really, we were all named after authors. I’m Nelle Harper Lee Lovely. Buzz is Beatrix Potter Lovely. Agatha is …”

“Do not say it, Harper,” Agatha cut in.

“You can look it up later. It’s an easy one. Maby is Mabel Lucie Atwell Scott now, and her twin is Lucy Maud Montgomery Lovely.”

“This doesn’t prove anything,” Frankie argued.

“It means you are a Lovely and will always be part of the family,” Harper stated.

“I don’t need any more family. I have Louisa.” Frankie got up and turned to her sister.

“Frankie, come on,” Louisa argued.

“No, Louisa. I don’t need any more family like Judith. I’ve finally worked myself past being raised by that woman, and I’m not going to be rejected by these women also.”

“They won’t reject you. They’re great.” Louisa looked around the room. After all, she had been living with them for a few days now.

“I don’t care. I’m leaving now, with or without you,” Frankie stated.

Louisa looked around the room. Buzz knew she was torn. She loved her sister but really wanted to get to know the rest of the sisters. With her sister’s words, Louisa finally got up from the couch and said, “I will get my stuff.”

“I’ll be in the car.” Frankie fled the house.

“So, Judith popped out two more kids. Who saw that coming?” Lucy took a drink of her wine.

“What are we going to do about them?” Buzz asked the room.

“Nothing, they are adults and have to come to terms with this the way they need to. They know where we are,” Agatha said, her glass already empty.

“But …” Buzz started to argue. They shouldn’t be leaving, not yet.

“Nope, it’s not up to you. If you marry the brother, then they’ll have to talk to you. You’re sneaky about that.” Harper tapped her hard shoulder with a fist as she said it.

“Not why I did it,” Buzz mumbled, hoping no one else noticed, except they did.

“Sure, Buzzy, sure,” Agatha said from her corner of the couch.

A few minutes later, when Louisa finally came down with a bag of stuff, most of which Buzz had borrowed her, everyone could tell she had been crying. With hugs all around, she finally left to go with her sister.

Buzz was sure she would see her again soon. Maybe not her sister, but Louisa. Unfortunately, she didn’t think she’d ever see Jonas again. She had blown that out of the water … big time.