CHAPTER THREE
Colt
Karlie’s a funny one. She’s curvy and cute, with no idea of how tempting she looks.
I remember the first time we saw her. My dad had asked us to come straight home after school.
“Shit,” said Cain. “What does that guy want now?”
“Who knows?” I shrugged dismissively. “We have practice anyways.”
I was referring to the Saratoga Eagles football team. Cain and I are star players, I’m quarterback and Cain is our best receiver. It’s fucking awesome to be us on a Friday night.
But later that evening, a surprise met us as soon as we opened the door.
“Colt, Cain,” called my dad from the drawing room. “Over here.”
Now before you say “WTF is a drawing room,” let me explain. Jerry left our mom when we were kids, leaving her to raise us by herself, and it was rough. One day he went off to work, business as usual … and he didn’t come home. Not that night, not the night after, and not for fifteen years.
But he rolled into town a couple months ago, CEO of some conglomerate. Turns out his company was acquired by a bigger one, which was acquired by a bigger one, which was acquired by some huge behemoth with Jerry as its head. He’s rich as Midas now, with a giant ego to boot, always trying to show off or show someone up.
So yeah, Jerry’s got billions and he bought an estate when he sailed back into town. Waverly is huge with ten bedrooms and ten baths, which is a little extravagant. After all, who needs ten bathrooms? It’s just the three of us in the house … if you don’t count the twenty people on staff.
“Hey hey hey!” boomed Jerry’s voice upon seeing us in the doorway. “Come in boys!”
I hated when he acted jovial, it was so fake. But we dropped our heavy equipment bags with thumps, uncaring where they landed. I hope they scuffed the wood floors, tore up his fancy carpets.
There was a woman with him, thin and blonde, with an adoring smile directed at my dad.
“Boys, let me introduce you,” he said. “This is Karla, my fiancée.”
Cain and I looked at each other. WTF? Who was this chick?
But it was true. The woman held out her hand to us, her dainty wrist limp, the nails long and red, a giant diamond on her finger.
“Hello Colt, hello Cain,” she said, her voice dripping like honey. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard sooo much about you.”
My brother and I shared a glance, puzzled.
“Oh yeah?” drawled Cain, “Where from?”
I nodded. Where from indeed?
Karla giggled, shooting my dad a cheeky glance.
“From work of course! I am … I mean, I was your dad’s secretary. I’ve been working for Jerry for six months and baby, it was so good, so smooth, we just had to make it permanent, didn’t we?”
My stomach dropped, I literally felt sick seeing this. This was disgusting, my dad was a lech, banging his secretary. Was she pregnant? Was that why Jerry was putting a ring on it?
But even worse, it brought back memories because this how Cain and I came into existence. Once upon a time, our mom Barbara had been Jerry’s assistant, when he had no money and she was practically working for free. And look how that had turned out.
So I was fucking pissed, about to stalk out, ignore the couple completely when another woman stepped out of the shadows from behind the simpering pair. She’d been standing to the right, so still, so silent, that Cain and I hadn’t noticed her, her big eyes watchful, her expression somber.
“Oh right,” laughed Jerry, “how could I forget? This is Karla’s daughter Karlie, your new stepsister.”
Was this some joke? Karla and Karlie? Really? Were we being pranked?
But the girl was completely different from her mom. Curvy with auburn hair, she had giant Double D’s and a luscious ass, shown off in a purple cocktail dress. Damn but she looked good in that outfit, creamy thighs peeking out beneath the hem, long legs that glimmered, and wow, that ass. Kind of like dessert, ready to be eaten by a male animal ... or two male animals in this case.
But Karlie wasn’t shaken by our stares. She looked back at us like she knew us already, her brown eyes luminous, observing everything.
“Hi,” she said quietly. “I’m starting at XM tomorrow, senior transfer.”
“Oh yeah?” I drawled. “That’s harsh, coming in the middle of senior year.”
“Yeah, you couldn’t stay at your old school for the last six months?” added Cain, looking at Karla.
But our new stepmom brushed it off with a wave of her hand.
“Oh, Jerry and I are so eager to get married, it doesn’t matter does it Karlie?” she said. “Your old friends are just an hour away, you can still see them.”
Karlie didn’t answer, instead gazing out the window with a faraway look in her eyes. Damn, she was beautiful. The flush on her cheek was hot, and the way her chin was set told me something. Yeah, Karla had probably forced her daughter to transfer, she was so eager to get her paws on Jerry’s money.
“No worries,” said my brother smoothly, “You’ll like it here. You doing any extracurriculars?”
And the little girl looked at him swiftly, turning thoughtful, intelligent eyes to my twin.
“I’m into photography,” she said slowly. “I’m hoping to join the yearbook staff, maybe get to know some folks by doing shoots.”
That was interesting, but before we could comment my dad interrupted.
“Will you be covering the sports section?” boomed Jerry. “Because Colt and Cain are hotshots on the football team, you’re going to need a fast shutter to catch them in action,” he hee-hawed, chuckling at his own joke.
Karla giggled like a groupie, and I tried not to grimace. It was painful to see the blonde kissing his ass, practically fondling his balls with those long, red talons.
But my brother kept going.
“Who are your favorite photographers?” he asked casually.
I wasn’t expecting her to know anyone, photography is a casual hobby for most people, but Karlie took a moment and answered carefully.
“Well, I like Arthur Morris and David Muench,” she said. “I think the depth of their images coupled with insightful captions makes for an interesting read. Maybe you’ve heard of them?”
I chuckled inside. Little did she know, but Cain and I are amateur photographers as well, we’re into shooting with old-school cameras and posting our work to Instagram.
And it’s kinda cool, really. We’re often at the beach, catching the waves, surfing and taking pictures of the sea and our surroundings. The swells are awesome, and if you get the right filter, it’s almost surreal. We’re hoping to get one of our shots into the Patagonia catalogue some day.
But in the meantime, the girl had piqued our interest.
“Sure, we’ve heard of them,” I drawled. “In fact, I saw Morris’s latest spread in National Geographic. Pretty awesome, loved the sharp-edged images of stalactites and stalagmites at Carlsbad Caverns.”
It was turn for Karlie to stare at us curiously.
“Oh you saw that cover?” she asked, cocking her head in the cutest of ways. “I thought he over-exposed it a little, but I guess it’s open to interpretation.”
“It was a little overdone,” I agreed, nodding my head, “but it brings out the fluorescents. He couldn’t have captured those with a regular filter.”
Growing respect dawned in her eyes, and she nodded.
“I’ve never thought of it that way, but I’ll take another look,” she said. “Do you use a stop-flash?”
But my dad interrupted, intent on controlling the conversation.
“So will you be covering sports?” Jerry boomed. “Because I can get you a press pass to shoot from the sidelines.”
My brother snorted under his breath, Jerry was needlessly pompous, offering press passes to a high school game. And Cain’s guffaw wasn’t lost on Karlie either. She shot a swift look at us before replying, “Mr. McKesson, I’ll talk to the yearbook staff tomorrow and see if they need someone to cover the sports section. If so, I’ll definitely take you up on that press pass.”
“You let me know,” said Jerry in that bombastic voice again, winking like a cowboy. “Daddy McKesson has it all covered. In the meantime, why don’t we break to the dining room? I’ve worked up an appetite from all this talk,” he said, swinging a big paw around Karla’s waist, unsubtly groping her ass.
“Eeee!” squealed Karla. “Jerry, you’re so funny!” she said breathily, wiggling her hips and giving him coy look. “Come on kids, let’s have our first family dinner.”
And the three of us shared a glance before trailing them out. Hopefully our parents wouldn’t embarrass us any further, but even if they did, I was already feeling hungry ….