Rocco came running in, cannonballing into the water and spraying a disgruntled Meatball. I
got out of the pool, moving away from the line of fire, and sat on a long chair, curled up under
my towel. Meatball had run off, seeking a quieter place to sleep.
I watched the two brothers splashing and wrestling in the water. When they stood next to each
other, it was easy to see the similarities. Like Cameron, Rocco had shaggy dark curls that hung
around his face and looked like they had never seen the pick of a comb. They both did this thing
where they would shake their hand through their hair, and then shake their heads like dogs to
get the rest of the water out. The brothers also had the same full-toothed grin and an
infectious laugh—something that I hadn’t heard much of, but that now seemed natural. Both boys
were tall and lean, though Rocco still had a bit of baby fat in his rosy cheeks and stomach.
Cameron was more solid. Rocco was almost as tall as Cameron now—I supposed that within a year
he would probably grow to be slightly taller than his big brother.
When Carly walked out of the pool house, balancing a stack of papers in one hand as she closed
the door behind her with the other, the brothers furtively glimpsed each other. They grinned,
coolly, as Carly too coolly walked too close to the battleground. Then they wound up their arms
like paddles and showered her with half the water in the pool.
With a shriek followed by elongated cursing, Carly, who was completely drenched, shook herself—
and her now-soaked paperwork—off. I shuddered, suddenly reminded of my first encounter with
Carly’s wrath. Rocco and Cameron just high-fived each other and snickered as she stomped away,
still swearing under her breath. She was powerless against their lapse in maturity.
Carly had momentarily disappeared into the house. But, to my utter amazement, she walked back
out after a few minutes and came to share my long chair.
I hadn’t noticed until that moment that Spider had been standing on the sill of the basement
doors, looking at all of us with a confused look on his face. And then he practically tiptoed
over and sat next to Carly. I moved down the chair to give them some room and me some distance
from Spider. As usual, he nervously sat on the edge of his seat, unable to just sit and relax.
Though, after significant taunting from Rocco and Cameron, he went to join them in the pool.
It was strange to see all of them together, playing around. It was as if they were acting their
own age—and I didn’t feel like I was a kid among adults.
Eventually, Cameron gazed down at his water-pruned hands, climbed out of the pool and came to
sit next to me, letting Rocco fend for himself in the pool.
“How is it that you and your brother only just met?” I wondered.
“Technically, he’s my half-brother—same mother, different father. My dad and mom had me when
they were teens. When I was six, I was sent to live with my dad. Our mom had a bunch of kids
with different guys, from what Rocco tells me. The only times I saw her was when she managed to
track my dad down to get some money.”
“Why didn’t you stay with your mom?”
“She’s a drunk and had enough problems of her own without having to worry about another mouth
to feed,” he said. “My dad was forced to take me in when the social worker threatened to put
me in a foster home.”
“So you lived with your father.” I mulled it over. “Where did you grow up?”
“Everywhere, I guess. We moved around a lot.” He continued to watch Spider and Rocco play in
the pool, but he wasn’t paying attention. His mind was elsewhere.
And then he snapped out of it and looked at me with his wide, overwhelming grin. “Any more
questions?”
“At least a thousand more,” I gasped.
He warmly put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed me in a half-hug. “You’re exhausting,
you know.”
Before I had time to get my breath back, I jumped. A curly blond little boy had come bounding
into the pool. The person who trailed him surprised me even more.
Chapter Eight:
Unclothed
She was a tanned, bouncy, blonde beauty. Like a girl from those hair removal cream commercials:
long legs, cutoff shorts, strutting in heels—I was expecting her to break out into a song about
her short-shorts any minute. In the few seconds it took her to glide a few steps, the climate
around the pool went from warm and cozy to below freezing. I watched Carly’s smile turn
tortured. I watched Spider’s eyes circle to Carly, his face turn to ice; he lunged out of the
pool and met the blonde. I watched Rocco gawk dreamily at her. He was apparently in charge of
keeping the pool water from turning to snow.