Garden of Sins

9. What are we going to do now, Caden?

Carter

It is five o’clock in the morning. Alayna is totally knocked out in the guest room. Not even an earthquake could wake her up. Caden and I are sitting on the Hollywood swing on the porch, as so often, smoking.

He hands me the joint. “Honestly? Really? She thought you were you,” he asks.

“What’d I say, BRO! She just looked at me with her Bambi eyes and said Carter.” I do it carefully so that Caden understands the gravity of the situation, looking over my shoulder at him.

“Shit, she’s more perceptive than I thought,” Caden mumbles.

“Hey, did you tell her she’s yours?” I ask and raise a meaningful eyebrow.

His face becomes expressionless as always when he hides something from me or he gets particularly emotional. Aha. “Yes, that’s what you say during sex. Your ass is mine, your pussy is mine. I’ll fuck your mouth and so on. You know.” He waves his hand around.

I nod in agreement, but still skeptical. “Yeah, something like that.”

“Yeah and then what happened?” he asks and takes the joint again before inhaling deeply.

“Then I just fucked her even harder!” I say, confused. What else could I have done? Stop and shout YES?

“You are so stupid, Carter! If she already suspects, why did you fuck her even harder?” Caden asks shaking his head.

“I don’t know, I felt so free for a moment, bro. I thought I could do what I want with her because I believed she knew who I was.” Okay, I admit, for a minute, the thought of being Carter and not Caden was simply too inviting.

“And then what?” he asks with a frown and takes another hit.

“Then she turned around and sat down by the tree and said CARTER again?” I imitate her voice in a stupid way. “Then she asked me where we met, what was the name of my first cat, and what you said to me during sex.”

Caden raises his eyebrows. “And you knew?” He really thinks I’m stupid because I don’t have the high IQ he has.

“You are mine! It wasn’t that hard to guess with the way you were acting tonight!” I grab the joint and take a hit, but it’s out, so I set it aside. “But then she apologized and I said, That’s okay, baby, and messed with her hair. So, if she talks to you tomorrow about it, you can have great makeup sex with her once.” I’m a fucking genius.

“Cool.” Normally, Caden isn’t so uptight, but today, we smoked and drank an unspeakable amount and he’s still uptight.

“What are we going to do?” I ask.

“We’ll keep it going. It’s only now that it’s truly getting interesting. Don’t be so hard on her, otherwise, she’ll notice something,” he stresses emphatically.

“You just be harder on her. She’s hot when she’s submissive and kittenish.” I’m now waving my hand in the air too.

“She’s that anyway, bro.” Caden throws one arm over the backrest.

“Screw you, Caden.” We get it. You’re the pussy-whisperer! We take a sip from our beers. Suddenly, a door slams and ominous footsteps resound through the garden before bare feet stop in front of us. We know these feet well. Also the boxer shorts and the tattooed upper body and even more so, the face foaming with rage. Fuck.

“DAD!” I shout tensely. “You want a hit?” I hand him the dead joint. “All you need is a lighter and three hits,” I say, like this dad doesn’t know shit.

“No, put that shit away, you toad, and look at me, both of you!” We obey because it’s healthier to do what he says when Dad takes that tone. His undefinable eyes flash.

“Hey, wait a minute, what are you still doing up, Dad?” Caden asks with a furrowed forehead, totally suicidal. I look at him wide-eyed in admiration because he is so brave.

“You two! Stop it now!” Dad yells at us.

“What?” I ask, bewildered. I’m so confused. “Sitting here? Talking? Being? Breathing? We just wanted to enjoy the summer night and watch the sunrise. Look how beautiful it is, Dad.” I point to the rising sun.

“Two brothers. One girl. Not a good combination!” Huh?

“What? What are you talking about?” I reply calmly. “It never happened.” It’s happened seven times now.

Caden’s stoically silent.

“Because I can tell my sons apart and know exactly who was in the attic yesterday and who was under the tree just now.” Uh-oh...

We both swallow. I look at Caden to make him say something. He always does something like that. I slap him, he talks. That’s how we work. And I will need him by my side for the rest of my life, otherwise, I won’t get anything done.

“Let us have a little fun, Dad,” Caden says in perfect lawyerly tones and receives a slap to the back of the head from our father, which is a real banger. I flinched. Wrong answer.

“Don’t get all wiseass on me. It’s not fun. It can destroy a family and I won’t let you destroy my family!” Dad hisses.

“We’ll stop when she starts falling in love and all that shit! That’s what we always do,” I say calmly and Dad shakes his head as if he’s wondering what the hell he created. I would ask myself the same thing if I were him. That’s why I don’t want kids. They are incredibly exhausting and do shit.

“It’s too late for that. She is already in love. With him.” Dad points to Caden, that little old FBI analyst. Yeah, I noticed that too and exploited it even more.

“She doesn’t even know it’s him and me. She thinks it’s just Caden,” I reply to Dad now.

“Really? Carter?” Dad asks with raised eyebrows.

I look at Caden again. He’s drinking a thought beer.

“I’m talking from personal experience,” Dad now says. “Carter, just find your own, you don’t have to share everything even if your mother taught you to.” Yeah, I guess we took it literally. We’re just good sons.

“What do you mean you’re talking from personal experience?” My brother doesn’t like not knowing things. It drives him crazy.

“Ask Uncle Riley,” Dad growls. When I realize what he means, vomit briefly threatens to come up. Mom and my uncle? God, no, please!

“Ewww! That’s disgusting! Uncle Riley stole your wife?” I ask disbelievingly.

Dad rolls his eyes and looks at me like I’m retarded. “You moron, I’m with her.” Okay, then the other way around. That makes me want to puke even more.

“Mom used to date Uncle Riley?” I gasp in disgust.

“Yep.” Dad doesn’t seem disgusted.

“And then what?” I ask with a frown and relight the joint.

“I screwed her!” Dad takes it from me and takes a hit himself. It’s truly disturbing. I mean, what he says and what he does are equally disturbing.

“And then what?” I continue drilling.

“Then she fell in love with me. In any case, to this day, Riley and I are not on very good terms. Do you want that?” He looks seriously at each of us.

Please.

Nothing and nobody can come between me and my brother.

“Dad, we’re best bros.” I throw my arm around Caden’s shoulder and he smiles drunkenly. “We already shared space in Mom’s tummy, that is something entirely different.”

“This can go very wrong for you two. And it will go wrong,” Dad prophesies, that fortuneteller.

“Let me worry about that, Dad. I’ve got it under control,” Caden says with a sigh of relief. Yes, he always has everything under control, my brother.

Dad snorts. “When it comes to feelings, you can lose control quickly, especially when you’re as explosive and impulsive as you both are. You come from my balls, I know what I’m talking about, okay? Just trust me for once in your life.”