work to back it up. Social media following like whoa. Won a USA Fellowship a few years back with a chunky check attached to it.”
Fifty-thousand dollars, to be exact. I’d wanted to give it to my brothers as a way of repaying them for everything they’d done when taking me in, but of course they’d refused and insisted I use it to invest in my career. It had bought me lots of supplies including the easels and the canvases I was using now, with plenty left over for courses I wanted to take. I was considering a trip abroad to study, but I wasn’t ready to leave home yet. Not when I’d only just found one.
“Impressive.” Cameron pursed his lips and nodded at me. “I’d love to see your stuff sometime.”
“Yeah, when do we get a peek at what you’ve been working on for the show?” Matt kicked me under the table.
I scowled and slumped back in my chair. “Can we stop talking about me? What have you been doing lately, Matt? Hm?”
He grunted.
“Top secret,” Seb said annoyingly.
“Mm-hm. Just what I thought.” I grinned smugly and crossed my arms, vindicated. “We don’t all have to share our work all the time, do we?”
“Hmph. Very clever.” Matt narrowed his eyes at me, but a tiny grin twitched on the edge of his mouth. I was his favorite, and I could push his tolerance a little.
“Oh, but we have something to share! We gotta tell you!” Richie slapped the table like he just remembered something and motioned to Cameron. “We saved a falcon yesterday!”
“A falcon?” Seb and I asked at the same time, him skeptical and me excited.
“Yeah, a falcon. Exotic bird fanatic, kitchen fire, falcon freaked out and tried to get out through the attic. You know how it goes.”
“Regular day at work, huh?” I grinned, but something bit deep in my chest. My brothers would all be nodding because they did know how it went, while I could only imagine—I wasn’t on the front lines like them. I was just an artist.
“I had to go up there with the guy’s falconry glove on, praying it’s heat-safe which I’m sure it wasn’t, and calm this falcon down, get it on my arm, and get it out of there. Oh, man. All I could think was, what if this is how I go out? Trying to save a bird?” Cameron laughed.
“Did you save it?” Matt asked, his voice flat, completely unaffected by the story.
“Yeah, he did. He comes out of the smoking building with a fucking falcon on his arm looking like…” Richie started to trail off as his eyes glazed over, until he laughed at himself and waved off whatever he was going to say. “Like a super hero or something.”
Cameron met Richie’s eye and smiled, but Richie quickly looked away. Huh. I knew they were close friends, but now I wondered if there was more to it. Or if I was just reading into it.
“Ugh, I wish I got the animal call-outs you guys do.” Owen topped off his glass of iced tea. He was a paramedic, and all his work stories were too gross and gruesome, they always made me squirm.
Cameron scoffed. “Trust me, you don’t. Dog bites, cat scratches… Broken hearts when we can’t get them out in time. There should be an animal rescue service.”
“Oh, I almost forgot!” Seb clicked and pointed at me. “Derek and I are going to see the movie tonight, the one you told us about with the dalmatian and the Ferrari? You want to come?”
“Hell, yes!” I rubbed my hands together excitedly. It was an art house movie I’d been wanting to see for months and it barely had any screenings at cinemas near us.
“Sweet. Meet us downstairs at eight? Or do you want to come over for dinner first?”
I grimaced as my memory kicked in. I needed Domino, my little personal assistant, to stop me from double-booking like this, but he was passed out cold on the living room rug in a cuddle puddle with his sister Polly.
“Uh, not a good face,” Seb said, cautious.
“I already made plans for tonight.” I slumped my cheek into my palm and sighed.
“Cancel them!” He tapped the table excitedly.
I shook my head sadly. “Nah, I have to go to Ian’s tonight.”
A collective groan came from my three brothers, though Owen had the courtesy of covering his with a cough. They didn’t approve of Ian, never had. My seven brothers meant way more to me than