Under Their Skin Read Online Free Page B

floor for the two adults, and one each on the second floor for Eryn, Nick, Ava, and Jackson.
    â€œPlay it cool,” Eryn whispered to Nick as they pulled up to the house in a U-Haul truck with their possessions from Mom’s house boxed up in the back. “Don’t act like the first thing you want to do is snoop on the other kids.”
    Nick shook his head and rolled his eyes at her, as if to say, Duh! Do you think I’m an idiot?
    But Eryn knew: The first thing both of them wanted to do was to snoop on the other kids.
    It’d been three months since Mom had announced she and Michael were getting married, and Eryn and Nick knew no more about Michael’s kids than they had the first day. Mom and Michael had taken all the kids to see the new house before they made an offer on it—but Michael’s kids had gone on a different day than Eryn andNick. Mom and Michael had gotten married on a cruise in the Caribbean and taken ten days for the honeymoon. This messed up the schedule of Eryn and Nick spending one week at Mom’s and one week at Dad’s—the very first time Eryn could remember that happening. Eryn thought the mess-up and the move could mean an overlap with Michael’s kids at the new house, but when she hinted at a longer time at Mom’s the next week, Dad had looked hurt.
    â€œEryn, we don’t have to even things up,” he said. “It’s been great having you and Nick around for ten days, not just a week. I’d love to have you live with me all the time, if I could.”
    â€œExcept the two of us always strive to be fair to everyone involved,” Mom had finished for him. “And what’s fair to the two of you—and Dad and me, and Michael and his kids—is to simply go back to our normal schedule, as usual.”
    So no overlap with Ava and Jackson, Eryn thought.
    Now Mom parked the U-Haul, and Eryn shoved open the door and started racing for the house.
    â€œEryn—take a box with you!” Mom called off after her. “We’re going to have to go back and forth enough times as it is, without you wasting trips!”
    Eryn let out an exasperated snort and spun around. Michael had come out to the curb and already had the back of the truck open. He handed her a box.
    â€œGlad you’re so eager to get into the house,” Michael said. “That’s a good sign for our future as a family, isn’t it?”
    â€œI guess,” Eryn said.
    Michael was tall and bald and had a very narrow face—had Mom picked him because he looked the opposite of Dad? Did Mom think Michael was better- looking?
    Eryn felt disloyal even thinking that.
    She carried her box up the driveway, but had to wait while Michael unlocked the front door.
    â€œYour bedroom’s the first one on the right, up the stairs,” Michael said.
    If it had been Mom telling her that, Eryn might have argued, What? We don’t even get to choose our own rooms? Or Did you let Michael’s kids choose first? That’s not fair! But since it was Michael, Eryn just said, “Okay.”
    Mom probably knew I wouldn’t argue if Michael delivered the news, Eryn thought darkly. She probably planned for him to be the one to tell us. I should tell Mom I know what she’s up to, and argue with her anyway!
    But Eryn might be just one staircase away from finally learning something about the mysterious stepsiblings she’d been wondering about for months. She wasn’t going to delay any more than she had to.
    She walked through the living room, where the green sofas from Mom’s house had been paired with orangey-tan end tables that must have come from Michael’s condo—they looked odd together, but maybe that was just because Eryn wasn’t used to the combination. She climbed the stairs and took her box into the first room on the right. It was slightly bigger than her old bedroom back at Mom’s. Her furniture was already here too,