Chapter 2
Fox pushed through the front door of the diner.
Ethan held tight to his hand. He had explained to the little boy that they were meeting someone new for lunch.
Ethan danced around next to him looking through the diner.
He rarely met anyone he didn’t instantly take too.
Fox suspected Knox might be the first exception.
Dover was supposed to have been here too. She called him that morning asking him to go for her. She had been called back into the station. He wondered what could be so urgent on a Saturday that it required her to go in on her day off. She hadn’t had time to fill him in before ringing off.
He spotted Memphis and Knox as soon as he stepped inside.
Knox was hard to miss. They sat together in a booth toward the back.
Memphis waved at him. Fox looked down at Ethan.
Was this really a good plan? He knew nothing about these men.
Was he risking Ethan getting hurt? Ethan grinned back up at him.
“You’ll behave?” Fox asked. Ethan nodded vigorously at him. “Okay, then let’s go see what they want.” They wove through the diner to the booth. Fox waited for Ethan to climb on the seat and slide over. “Do you want a booster seat?” This time Ethan shook his head. Fox slid in next to him.
“Hi,” Ethan greeted the strangers.
“Hi back,” Memphis said with a smile.
“I’m Efan,” he announced. Standing so he could lean over the table, he stuck out his hand. Fox had been working with him on manners. He had taught Ethan to shake hands when introduced. Now, he just had to teach him how to pronounce his name.
“Very nice to meet you, Ethan. I’m Memphis,” Memphis said, shaking Ethan’s hand.
“I’m Efan,” he said, turning to Knox.
“Knox,” the big man said. His hand dwarfed Ethan’s hand.
“It rhymes with Fox,” Ethan said excitedly. “Fox and Knox,” he added, doing a little dance on the seat. Fox noticed the corners of Knox’s mouth twitch up.
“You’re very smart,” Memphis said with an easy grin. “How old are you, Ethan?”
“I’m four,” he announced proudly.
“Ethan, you need to sit down, please,” Fox said.
“Okay, Mr. Fox,” Ethan answered before plopping down in the seat.
“Mr. Fox?” Knox asked.
“I read him the children’s book. He’s called me that ever since.”
Both men looked at him with amusement on their faces.
Was there really a chance they could be his brothers?
He wished Dover had come. She was much better at reading people.
All he could tell was that there was no hostility or sadness directed at him.
Dover would be able to read exactly how they felt.
“Can I have pancakes?” Ethan asked. Fox hadn’t noticed the waitress standing next to him.
“You want pancakes for lunch?” he asked. Ethan nodded his head.
“That sounds good,” Knox answered before Fox could. “I’ll have the same. Bacon?” he asked, looking at Ethan.
“Yep,” Ethan responded. He beamed when Knox winked at him.
“I’ll just have the same,” Fox said, handing their menus to her.
“Far be it from me to rock the boat,” Memphis added.
“You’re not in a boat,” Ethan giggled. Memphis laughed with him. Ethan pulled his farm animals out of his backpack and set them on the table.
“So is he yours?” Knox asked as Memphis helped the boy set his farm up.
“He’s my girlfriend’s son,” Fox answered. “But he’s lived with me for a year. He feels like mine.” He tried to think of something more to say. This was unbearably awkward. Even if they were related to him, he didn’t know them.
“I have a daughter who’s almost Ethan’s age,” Memphis said. He was holding a cow in one hand and a goat in the other.
“She should come over,” Ethan exclaimed. “We could play together.”
“I bet she’d like that,” Memphis answered. “Maybe next time.”
“I have two,” Knox said. “Kids. I have two of them,” he added as if he had to explain. “A son and a daughter. They’re twins.”
“Like Fox and Aunt Dover?” Ethan asked.
“Yeah, but they’re still little. I don’t think they’d be much fun to play with yet,” Knox said.
“That’s okay,” Ethan assured him.
“I think that’s what threw us when we met you,” Knox continued. “We had information on your sister. We had no idea you even existed. Dover said the DNA match was most likely yours. Somehow, our guy followed the wrong twin.”
“Yeah, I was.” He paused to look at Ethan. “Umm.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Memphis said. “It’s not any of our business anyway.”
“It was a misunderstanding, but fortunately my records were sealed when I turned eighteen. Never did that again.” The food arrived sparing him from any more questions. He could tell Knox wanted to know more. The incident had certainly gotten his attention. There was no way he was sharing with them.
Fox put the farm animals back in the backpack and cut up Ethan’s pancakes.
He added syrup. Ethan, like always, argued for more.
Fox put just a touch more on his pancakes.
Just the act of winning the argument always seemed to appease Ethan.
The boy never seemed to care that he had maybe half a teaspoon added.
“Hey, sorry I’m late,” Dover said, walking up to the table.
“I thought you had a work thing,” Fox said.
“It’s all good.” She waved him off. “Hey there, little man. What’ve you got?”
“Pancakes,” Ethan said, his mouth full. Dover reached across the table and stole a piece of bacon off his plate. “Hey.”
“Here, you can have one of mine,” Fox said. “Remember to finish the bite in your mouth before speaking next time.”
“Okay,” Ethan agreed, his mouth still full of pancakes. Fox laughed. He really was crazy about this kid.
“So what is really happening at work?” he asked, turning toward his sister.
“I told you it’s fine.” She stopped chewing to scowl at him. “I promise. Just some paperwork problem.”
“You know it’s considered rude to whisper, right?” Memphis said. “This seems somehow worse.”
“What are you talking about?” Dover tried playing clueless. Fox knew these two men were too perceptive for that.
“Do you think you’re the only ones to inherit some sort of something extra?” Knox said.
“What color is he?”
“I can’t quite tell. He’s always sort of shimmering between orange and red. Like a fire. The other one, though, just hovers between blue and yellow.”
“Seriously?” Knox growled.
“I’m going to clean Ethan up. Then we’re headed to pet some animals.” Fox stood. Ethan scooted out of the booth behind him.
“Are you coming, Aunt Dover? Can Aunt Bailey come too?” Ethan asked.
“Maybe later, squirt. I need to talk to Memphis and Knox first,” she answered.
“Okay, bye,” he said with a wave at the table.
“Fox,” Dover called after him.
“I know,” he answered, walking toward the bathrooms, Ethan in tow.
“One of these days he’s going to get in trouble hanging around with Bailey Sullivan,” Dover said. “Do you know how I know?”
Both Knox and Memphis shook their heads.
“Because every time he gets around her, he glows pink.” They looked back at her with confusion. “You see, he’s made the mistake of falling in love with his girlfriend’s sister.”
“And you know this because he glows pink?” Memphis asked.
“Right. Does that make sense?” she said.
“No,” Knox responded. “Let’s pretend I’m an idiot, and you have to spell it out for me.”
Dover chose not to comment on that. She knew better than to think either one of these men was an idiot.
She debated how much she wanted to share with them.
The DNA test she studied last night looked legitimate.
That didn’t mean she bought into the idea of a bunch of extra siblings roaming the earth.
She was still debating when Knox turned to search the diner.
Not finding whatever he was looking for, he faced her.
Holding his hands together, he rubbed them in a circular motion.
She jumped when he moved them apart to show her a small fireball dancing in his hand.
He quickly closed his hand over it before anyone else noticed.
“Your turn,” he said to Memphis.
“How am I supposed to do that?” Memphis responded. Knox just stared at him. “Fine. Move,” he added. Knox moved out of the booth and let Memphis up. “Watch where I was sitting. I’m not doing this for long.” He looked around the diner for a minute until he spotted the sign for the restrooms.
Dover sat looking at his empty seat after he disappeared inside the men’s room. Suddenly, the seat wasn’t empty. Memphis, or a facsimile of him, sat looking back at her.
Then, just as quickly as he appeared, he faded away. The cocky ass even had the tenacity to grin at her as he did it. She couldn’t help it if her mouth hung open like a fish. It was remarkable. Memphis returned to his seat moments later.
“We’ve shown you ours. Time to show us yours,” Knox said.
She debated for a few more minutes before giving in. She just prayed this didn’t blow up in her face. Or worse, in Fox’s face. He had much more to lose than she did.
“Fine,” she said with a sigh. “Telepathy isn’t the only thing we can do.” She stopped.
“I get it,” Memphis said. “If what I can do reaches the wrong people, it would be very bad for me too. I promise you can trust us.”
“I can see emotions,” she said in a rush. She split a look between both men. Neither one seemed that surprised. She guessed after being able to transport yourself holographically or forming fire with your hands, nothing else much surprised them.
“It shows up through colors. There’s a sort of glow that emanates from each person,” she said. “For example, Knox shimmers between red and orange. It normally means he’s either angry, excited, or horny.”
The men looked at each other and then shrugged.
“Sounds about right,” Knox said.
“My guess is,” she said, shaking her head. “Knox’s ability to produce fire messes with my ability to pinpoint his exact mood.
“No, you got it pretty close,” Memphis said. “What about me?”
“You’re usually blue like Fox. There’s a contented calmness in both of you. He only turns pink when he’s near Bailey. Even on his worst days with Brooke, he never loses his temper. Which brings me to his thing.”
“It differs from you?” Memphis asked.
“Yeah. Fox is more powerful than I am. He can actually control emotions.”
“How does he do that?” Knox said.
“We’re not sure. It began about the time he turned thirteen. Mine started the year before.”
“That makes sense,” Memphis agreed. “We’ve discovered that most of our gifts manifested themselves around puberty. Most of us learned how to control them soon after. Flint is still trying to rein his in.”
“I’ve never learned how to shut mine off. It’s why I wear sunglasses most of the time. They help diffuse the colors.” Dover picked at Fox’s half-eaten food. She didn’t understand how any of this mattered in the end. Fine, they obviously were all connected. But what did it mean?
“So if Fox is so hung up on this Bailey person, why doesn’t he just dump Brooke for her?” Knox finally asked.
“That’s a complicated question,” she answered. “How much time do you have?”
“I guess until my plane leaves on Monday,” Memphis answered. “Knox has even longer if necessary.”
“Then settle in, this might take a while.”