“Isn’t Mikey your cousin?”
With an impatient gesture and a heavy sigh, Jonathan said, “Her mother married our father’s cousin. We’re not related. I’m going to need you to keep up here.”
“Wait. Reese is your father’s cousin? Then why do you call him Uncle Reese?” Braxton asked, frowning.
“Because we like to confuse people. Now, focus,” Jonathan said as he focused his attention back on Sebastian and gestured for him to get on with it.
When Sebastian sat there, glaring at his brother, Jonathan added, “We could always guess.”
“And I could always tell Mom that a bear dragged you off into the woods,” Sebastian bit out.
“Come on, it’s not like everybody doesn’t already know,” Cole said, chuckling.
“This is true,” Jonathan murmured only to frown when their tent flaps were suddenly shoved open and Mikey came in, dropping her bag and shoes by the door before dragging her sleeping bag behind her and grumbling as she made her way over to Sebastian’s side only pausing long enough to step over Jonathan. Once she was there, she dropped her sleeping bag down, kicked it to straighten it out, and with one last muttered grumble that sounded suspiciously like, “Stupid boybands,” she laid down, folded her arm over her eyes and slowly sighed.
“You do realize that this is the boys’ tent, right?” Braxton pointed out.
“And you do realize that all the girls are talking about is makeup, boys, and boybands, right?” Mikey shot back, not bothering to move her arm.
When Braxton opened his mouth to say something else, she cut him off with, “And you’re welcome to take my place,” as she blindly gestured toward the opening in the tent.
“And we were just talking about girls before you came in,” Jonathan pointed out, teasingly.
Without opening her eyes, she gestured for them to continue with a mumbled, “I don’t care.”
“So, you wouldn’t care if Sebastian was talking about another girl?” Cole asked, making Sebastian narrow his eyes on his cousin as he realized that he really didn’t have a choice.
He was going to have to beat the crap out of him, too.
“Not even a little bit,” Mikey mumbled around a yawn, sounding bored and making him frown.
“Why’s that?” Braxton asked as Sebastian glared down at his best friend.
“Because I’m his favorite,” Mikey said with a shrug that had Sebastian grinning hugely.
That is, until she stole his pillow.
Then he was glaring at her as he tried to take it back.
“God, some people are just so rude,” Mikey said with a sad shake of her head when he finally managed to steal it back and she was forced to roll over onto her side and steal Jonathan’s pillow.
“Oh, come on!” his brother whined, but Mikey simply ignored him as she once again settled in for the night.
“That’s much better,” Mikey murmured with a satisfied sigh only to follow that up with, “I’m starving,” a few minutes later with a groan.
“How can you be hungry? It was like a never-ending buffet,” Braxton asked, looking confused probably because of the insane amount of food that they had available all day.
Opening her eyes, she leveled a glare on his brother and cousin. “Because they,” Mikey said only to pause to point a damning finger at Jonathan and Cole, “kept taking turns stealing my food all day!”
“It was delicious,” Cole said with a satisfied sigh.
“It really was,” Jonathan seconded with a dreamy sigh that had her eyes narrowing dangerously on them.
“We are no longer speaking, sir,” Mikey said, nodding slowly as she shoved the sleeping bag open, grumbled, glared, and crawled back toward the tent opening, pausing only to knee Jonathan in the side and making him laugh before she grabbed her shoes, grumbled, and crawled out of the tent without another word.
“Where is she going?” Braxton asked, frowning after Mikey.
Grinning hugely, Jonathan and Cole shoved their sleeping bags aside and scrambled to follow after her as Sebastian shoved his sleeping bag open with a resigned sigh and muttered, “Pat’s.”