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Pepper and Atlas took what felt like forever to join us, and when they did, I was reeling in the smallest fish I’d ever seen.
“Is it a keeper?” Pepper asked as she came to my side.
I had no idea.
“There’s no size limit on catfish in Texas,” Atlas answered her as he reached forward and pulled the tiny fish off my hook. “But there’s a limit size to what we’ll clean. And it has to be at least sixteen inches to make it worth our while.”
And that’s how the day went.
The men caught quite a bit. I lost more than I caught because apparently, you had to pay attention to catch a fish. And Pepper sat to the side, as far away from Atlas as she could, and let her toes dangle in the water as she looked out into the distance.
Eventually, Atlas went inside and came back out with food for us all, and we made sandwiches on the dock. Auden went and caught up all the food we hadn’t donated to the police department.
When he came back, he was laughing at something on his phone.
My eyes automatically went to him, and he twisted his phone so that I could see what was making him grin.
In the photo, all the food that was made to sell this morning was gone. In its place were a bunch of empty boxes.
And in front of those empty boxes, glaring incredibly hard at them, was my father.
He had his hands on his hips, his eyes narrowed, and I could practically see the steam coming out of his ears.
Good.
Served him right.
I wonder how many people hear my name and think, ‘fuck that asshole.’
—Auden to Maven
AUDEN
We started loading the fishing poles up, and since my brother was acting so fuckin’ weird, I decided to call him on his shit.
“What is your issue?” I asked him, keeping my voice low so the women next to the truck didn’t hear.
His movements were erratic, and he kept tossing looks over his shoulder at Pepper, who was standing next to Maven with her arms crossed, glaring daggers at Atlas.
“Nothing.”
Yeah fuckin’ right. I knew my brother better than the entire world. I knew when he had a bug up his ass about someone.
“What is your issue with Pepper?” I pushed. “I feel like I’m missing something.”
“You aren’t,” Atlas snapped.
“Atlas,” I grumbled under my breath. “I wasn’t born yesterday. I know you better than you know yourself half the time. And I know when I’m seeing something wrong between two people. And let’s just mention now that you were a complete and utter asshole to her all day. I’m sure she would’ve left if she could.”
Atlas paused, his hand over the side of the truck, and clenched his jaw.
He turned to me and said, “For once, Auden, I don’t want to fuckin’ share, okay?”
I held up my hands and walked away, heading back to the front of the house where I secured the door and checked twice to make sure it was locked before heading back to the vehicle.
When I got there, Atlas and Maven were in the front, so I took the seat in the back next to Pepper and said, “Guess it’s just us losers in the back.”
Pepper gave me a tight smile and crossed her hands over her lap and looked out the window, dismissing me.
