Read Stepbrother Backstage (The Hawthorne Brothers Book 3) for Free Online Page B

tallest, with
willowy limbs and the bright blonde hair we all had when we were small. The
only feature we all still have in common is the color of our eyes—light blue
with flecks of gold throughout. This is also the only tangible thing any of us
have inherited from our mother.
    But they say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, so
maybe the four of us are more alike than we seem, deep down. On the surface of
things, however, I don’t think you could put together a more disparate family
of women if you tried.
    “Hi Maddie,” I call across the lawn, striding over to greet
my big sister, “Did you get lost or something? The day ’ s half gone. ”
    “Probably just dragged her feet all the way here,” Sophie
says and I step up onto the deck, “Not that I blame you.”
    “Uh-huh,” Maddie says, not at all convinced. My two older
sisters have always butted heads, but getting into it within five minutes of
being in the same place must be some kind of record. I feel a twinge of
preemptive exhaustion at the task of keeping peace between them for the next
couple of weeks. Somehow, it’s always come down to me to keep the women in my
family from ripping each others’ throats out. And something tells me this trip
isn’t going to be a particularly easy one to referee.
    “Some place, right?” I observe diplomatically of the lake
house, “I can ’ t believe we get to stay here.”
    “The question is how do we get to stay here,” Maddie
cuts in, hands on her hips. “I know we ’ ve never
necessarily been hurting for money, but this seems a little exorbitant for four
people. Don ’ t you think?”
    Crap. She has no idea about John Hawthorne either. Or his
three strapping young sons. She’s going to lose her shit when she realizes what
Mom’s been hiding from her. Sophie grins wickedly as she comes to the same
conclusions.
    “Oh, it ’ s not just four of us,” she
says to Maddie, riding high on schadenfreude.
    “What do you mean?” Maddie asks, looking back and forth
between us.
    “You don ’ t know?” I ask tentatively.
Surely Mom didn’t forget to tell all of us even the most basic details
about our stay here? Then again, this is our mom we’re talking about…
    “Of course she doesn ’ t,” Sophie
replies, “Mom didn ’ t say anything about it to us.”
    “Guys. What is it I don ’ t know?” Maddie
demands of us.
    “ Ask Mom, ” Sophie shrugs, “I ’ m sure she ’ ll explain everything.”
    Looking on as our mother appears on the porch and breaks the
news about John to Maddie is like watching a car wreck in slow motion. It’s
gruesome, and unsightly… and I can’t look away for a minute. Sure, I was
surprised to find out that Robin had been shacked up with John out here all
these months, and Sophie was less than pleased, but Maddie looks positively
gutted. She was closer to my dad than any of us, and held him up not only as a
great father but as a role model. Maddie had every intention of following in
his footsteps as an English professor, until he died. She was so destroyed by
losing him that devoting her life to literature, the way he did, was just too
painful a prospect. Whereas Mom’s affairs are annoyances to me, to Maddie
they’re affronts to Dad’s very memory.
    On that note, I guess the pleasant leg of this vacation is
officially over.
    My heart breaks for Maddie as she’s introduced to John
Hawthorne. The poor girl was completely blindsided by this house-sharing
arrangement. And her distress is only amplified when she finds out that we’ll
be sharing the lake house with John’s three sons as well. I’m actually
surprised by how hard she seems to be taking all of this. I get being annoyed,
but my oldest sister looks to be on the verge of tears by the time Sophie
steers her out to the backyard for some fresh air and a pep talk.
    Something else must be going onwith
Maddie back in Seattle. To be honest, I know next to nothing about her life out
there. I know she works for a