Smiley and Sunshine

6.

The mini reunion relocated from the driveway to inside the house. Glen strolled alongside Austin already chatting his ear off, meanwhile Hayes' head remained on a swivel as she took in her surroundings. So far she was loving it- the basketball hoop, for starters. Then there were rocking chairs on the front deck which she couldn't wait to test out, and an American flag was waving with the wind on their front lawn. That reminded her of her father. While at the police station, Stephen wasn't able to add anything more details about their father besides his death. She'll have to get Glen to ask Austin about it.

She walked through the front door, nearly falling into Glen as she tripped over something.

Looking down to see what was there, her eyes went wide. "Wow, that's a lot of shoes." The words were out before Hayes could filter herself. Righting herself, she stared at the ginormous leaning pile of shoes conveniently located right next to a practically empty shoe bin.

"Oops careful there," Austin grimaced, "sorry, I could of sworn I cleaned that up. By the way, feel free to take your shoes off. There's no rule or anything about shoes in the house so whatever's most comfortable to you."

Neither kid made a move to kick off their shoes but the offer was appreciated. Out of past experiences, they didn't remove their shoes until they felt completely comfortable with their surroundings. You never knew when you needed to make a quick escape.

"Here, leave the bags for now, we can bring them upstairs in a bit," Austin ran a hand through his hair, a nervous tick. "Can I get food or drinks for anyone?"

"No thanks," Everyone declined, having eaten an hour ago.

"Where is everyone?" Glen questioned, eager to meet more of his brothers.

"Work and school. You'll meet Dakota first, he gets home around 4. Cole and Fran have practice after school so they'll be home at 6. We usually eat dinner sometime between 6:30 and 7. Hope you're in the mood for pasta and meatballs. It's the Monday night special."

"I'm always hungry." Glen stated, rubbing his stomach for emphasis.

"Sounds like you'll fit right in. What about you Hayes?" Austin smiled at her. "Do you also have an insatiable appetite like our brothers?"

Hayes shook her head no.

"She'll eat chicken tenders." Glen offered. "And pizza. And chocolate chip cookies." He continued to list Hayes' favorite foods until she smacked his arm, feeling the need to defend herself.

"Dakota's a picky eater, too." Austin laughed lightly. "You'll have to tell me what you like when we go food shopping this week."

"I'm not picky." Hayes automatically objected. She hated that word. It was a comment that the Bear often threw at her out of frustration when she wouldn't eat the food he concocted followed by lots of yelling and cursing and usually ended with Hayes hiding under her comforter for the rest of the night. But Hayes swears, she wasn't picky. It wasn't her fault he wasn't a good cook.

Realizing just then that she back-talked Austin, Hayes took a step back creating some distance between them, a little afraid of what he would do. The Bear did not like when they argued with him and had a bad habit of throwing things that were within arms' reach. TV remotes could really hurt if you didn't duck out of the way fast enough.

It was obvious that everyone noticed her movement making Hayes feel very uncomfortable, but no one verbally called her out on it. Glen caught her eye and they stared at each other, communicating their thoughts with their eyes. Growing up, people used to confuse them as twins because their minds were so in tune with each other. Plus they looked alike, other than Glen's recent growth spurt putting him 9 inches taller than her and counting. Feeling bad that he put Hayes on the spot, he mouthed an apology to her.