Find me in Stonebrook

Two

The smell of cinnamon and vanilla always hit hard when you walked into this house. Mom's cookies and by the humming coming from the kitchen, I'm guessing she's just getting them out the oven. They haven't heard the front door open and close, my suitcase dropping to the floor, shoes slipping onto the rack. Life in this house never changes.

"HELLO?"

"JUST A SECOND." Mom called from the kitchen and I ventured through into the sitting room, meeting her halfway. "I'm so sorry, I didn't hear the doorbel- TESS!" She squealed, bounding across the room and almost pulling us both to the floor. The towel she had in her hands falling to the floor. Definitely post dinner baking. The smell is covering her. Baking was our thing. Something we did weekly as I grew up and she'd openly admitted to doing when she missed me not being here.

"Hi Mom." Her arms tightened around the back of my neck and I closed my eyes, burying my face into her neck. She smelled like home. Nail polish and vanilla. The woods and books. Mom. She smelled like Mom always had. She pulled me back, holding onto my shoulders and looking at me, furrowing her forehead ever so slightly.

"You're early." I nodded. "You're supposed to be on vacation with Ben." Blink. "Tess-"

"Mom, I'm going out." Her eyes darted over my shoulder, back to me and back to the door behind us.

"Wait a damn minute. Come here." Mom let go of me, letting me turn around as Ethan groaned in the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. He was just 2 steps away. He'd almost gotten away with getting out of the house but hadn't quite gotten there.

"They're waitin- Tess?"

"Hey squirt." Ethan crossed his arms over his chest. He was way too big. In my head Ethan was still 10 like when I left. He was still a kid doing homework at the kitchen table and asking me for help I couldn't give because I didn't even know how I'd passed the same stuff. The kid I was looking at now wasn't Ethan. He was way taller than he had been in December when I'd last seen him. Broader shoulders, bigger arms.

"Can you stop calling me Squirt? Do I look like a baby turtle?"

"No, you're right. Maybe I should go back to calling you buddy."

"Squirts fine." He walked over slowly, matching my height as he got to me. "I'm calling you short arse though."

"We're the same height."

"Right now, yeah. Not for long though." I pulled him into a hug, whacking him around the back of his head. "OW!"

"Respect your elders."

"Mm. You sure are elder."

"Carry on and I know 10 ways to give you slow punctures on that precious little truck you've got out there. Getting a flat when you're out with some girl doesn't look great once, let alone 4 times." He stared as I smirked.

"Did you take the trash out Ethan?"

"Mom-" I snickered letting go of him. "I'll do it when I get home."

"No, you won't. You'll do it now." They stared each other down like if one of them blinked first a whole out war was about to start. It didn't. Ethan backed down before it could. Groaning and putting his head back on his shoulders and stomping into the kitchen. "You can sit down and tell me why the hell you're here a 10 days early and not on a white sand beach with a cocktail in your hand."

"There's nothing to tell Mom. I just wanted to come home."

"That's the biggest pile of shit I've ever heard. Sit." She turned following Ethan into the kitchen as he slammed cupboards. It immediately turned into a hushed argument, probably about what she seemed to think me being home meant, how he needed to behave himself and not make my time at home a nightmare. I'd rather it if he did.

I missed Ethan when I was back in New York. As long as it had been, every time he came up to see me we had the best time. I was weirdly close with him. I miss watching movies with him and arguing about who got the stupid toy in the bottom of the cereal box. Having a younger brother was a weird kind of no man's land. He was still stupid protective. When he first met Ben a few years back, when we first started dating, Ethan was just over 13. He puffed his chest and tried to be intimidating, threatening that if Ben ever hurt me he'd find a way to make his life difficult. He'd continued the 'I don't care about you' attitude with Ben ever since. But since I was older he knew there wasn't much point. He couldn't do anything.

Mom came back into the room, closing the kitchen door behind her and sinking into the sofa beside me, pulling until I was under her arms, head on her lap, her fingers running through my unbrushed hair.

"I've sent Ethan for ice cream. I only had chocolate and vanilla in. He'll be back in 10."

"I don't need ice cream mom, everything's fine. I just felt a little home sick so came home."

"You haven't been home sick in 7 years baby."

"I have, I just didn't do anything about it."

"So, where's Ben then?"

"Had some work thing so he couldn't come down." She raised her eyebrow. "What?"

"He's still in the Caribbean isn't he?"

"What? No."

"You're a terrible liar Tess. Always have been." I sighed. "Why have you left him there Tess?"

"I just needed some space Mom. Nothing serious. He's just always right here you know? Even when he's at work he's texting and calling. I come off stage and I've got texts about everything he did. A running tally of the crosswords he's finished. Asking me about a hint and then answering his own question. I come home and he's there and just wants to have a hold of me when I'm sweaty and achy and tired. We go to bed and he's there, I wake up and he's there, I have a shower and he's coming in to ask me what I think about the colour on his recent listing. I just need some space where Ben isn't right here." I held my hand in front of my face before collapsing my too heavy head back into her lap, laying both hands over my face. "Are men always this clingy or does it ease off?"

"I wish I could say babe. You're beating my records. They tend to run after they see the pregnancy test so I wouldn't know." I sighed. "Is everything okay with you two? Other than that?"

"Everything's fine." I nodded a little too confidently. "It's Ben."

"Hmm." She sighed.

"I promise Mom. Everything's fine." Everything's fine.