Entering the house, I deposited the shopping on the dining table. Coral did well with keeping the kitchen stocked. She always managed to get it done whenever I (or Landon) forgot. I always reimbursed her for it, since we were such a big family. Before she came into the picture, the only shopping we did was for basic convenience, not cooking. We only needed things like milk, bread, and the likes. But since Coral introduced home cooking, and had somehow gotten us all involved, I had to admit it was cheaper than buying out all the time. And keeping things affordable was increasingly important now that circumstances had changed.

Rolling my shoulders as I waited for Coral and Landon to return, I frowned at how long they were taking. There couldn’t have been more than three or four bags left. Heading back to the front door, I saw the pair of them continuing their conversation with the girl outside. Coral too was like Landon, in the sense that she enjoyed making friends with the neighbours. She didn’t sleep with them like he did, but Landon was a different story. Eventually they said goodbye to their friend and brought the remainder of the bags into the house. The girl sent me a wave too and I shut the front door.

 

“Why the long face?” Landon flashed me a grin.

“Don’t you ever get tired of chatting up girls?” I glanced at him dryly.

“Did you even look at her, Phoenix?” Landon chuckled as he put the shopping down. “She’s too young for me. It wasn’t like that at all.”

“So that’s not the girl who keyed my car?”

“They look nothing alike!” Landon cried in disbelief.

I looked to Coral for confirmation.

“Yeah, they really don’t,” she agreed with Landon. “That was Maisie we were just talking to. You should really learn some names.”

“No need,” I muttered. What would I need to retain that information for?

“Well, I’ll remind you anyway,” Landon decided. “Maisie lives next door, Number 24. Izzy lives on the other side. Izzy was the one who keyed your car and she’s our age, twenty-two. Maisie is only seventeen. She’s from the North. She doesn’t look or sound anything like Izzy.”

I had zoned out from the moment he started telling me their names, not that Landon paid much attention to that. He chatted on about another handful of neighbours, at which point I’d started opening the bags and taking out their contents.

“How was your day?” I asked Coral, who was also unpacking the shopping.

“Really?” Landon shook his head at me as I cut him off.

Coral chuckled, “I had a day off actually. Slept most of the day then went to run a couple of errands.”

“And Walter’s at boxing?” I pushed the cans of baked beans aside to make more room on the counter.

“Walter’s asleep, I’m pretty sure,” she answered.

“He’s home?” I arched a brow.

“Mhm,” she nodded. “He’s been training a lot at this new club, so when he gets the chance to rest, I make sure he does.”

“Make him rest?” Landon smirked, playing with his lip ring. “Wonder how you achieve that...”

“Stop it, Landon,” she rolled her eyes, her cheeks warm.

“Yeah, stop that,” I sent him a look before moving away.

“How was your day?” Coral asked me.

I sighed, not liking the reminder.

“Still searching,” I mumbled.

“Ah,” she nodded. “I’m guessing no luck?”

“No.”

“Well,” Landon interjected. “There are lots of jobs around, like delivery driving, things like that. He just doesn’t fancy any of them.”

“Most of them require qualifications I don’t have,” I snapped.

Leaving school so young didn’t do me any favours when it came to finding a job. I couldn’t have done it any other way though. The triplets weren’t even ten years old yet when I had to take on the role of being their guardian, legally or not. There was no way I could have continued with school and taken care of everyone and everything at the same time.

Coral sensed the need for a topic change, and I was grateful when she did just that.

“So,” she leaned against the counter. “I got a lot of general stuff we were low on, but I wasn’t sure what we should have for dinner tonight. The choice is between roast chicken and pasta bake.”

“Winner winner, chicken dinner,” Landon gave her a thumbs up.

“Sure,” I answered when Coral looked to me.

“Let’s get started then,” she slapped her hands together.

“Dinner won’t be in another two hours,” Landon took a seat.

“Yeah, and roast chicken for a family that eats like you and your brothers do, would mean two chickens,” Coral countered with a playful smile. “That takes time to cook. Not to mention all the potatoes.”

“I hope you bought the frozen ones because I don’t fancy peeling a hundred tatties,” Landon chuckled back.

“Tatties?” Coral laughed.

“Maisie’s been rubbing off on me,” Landon shrugged.

“She’s not even Scottish, she’s from Yorkshire.”

“It’s North enough.”

“I don’t think she calls potatoes tatties, but okay.”

“I’m pretty sure she does – ”

Coral silenced Landon by dumping a large sack of uncooked potatoes on the table in front of him. Even I had to hide a smile when Landon’s jaw dropped.

“Are you serious?” he gaped at her.

“Let’s get peeling,” she grinned.

“No, no, no,” Landon shook his head, a smile breaking across his own face. “Walter and Eli can’t sleep their way out of this.”

“That’s true,” Coral agreed. “Walter has slept long enough, and Eli needs to get out of his room.”

“Yeah, I don’t think he’s asleep,” Landon said.

We all knew Eli wasn’t sleeping. He just spent nearly every minute in his room these days, and had been doing so since the move. I thought over a month would be enough time to get over his breakup with Hayley, but if anything, Eli had gotten worse.

“He doesn’t listen to me,” Landon sighed, lowering his gaze.

“He doesn’t listen to anyone,” I pointed out. “But that doesn’t mean he’s going to get to carry on doing things his way. It’s…self-destructive.”

And all over a girl.

I turned to leave the kitchen, only pausing when Landon called out to me.

“Just…just be easy on him, okay?” Landon caught my eyes.

I didn’t need to respond. I knew how to deal with my brother.