Bryce:

One of my absolute favorite things about living in Denver is that we get snow here often. We are of course at the end of February now and we have five inches of snow on the ground. I love snow and all of the activities that come along with it. Snowboarding, sledding, building snowmen, and my absolute favorite snowball fights.

When we were kids Beth and I would always make the best snowmen and snow women. We would spend all day outside playing in the snow. My parents practically had to drag us into the house when it got dark and colder. Hilda our housekeeper would always have a cup of hot chocolate and a plate of some kind of sweet treat waiting on us when we came in. It was nice to have someone who enjoyed playing out in the freezing cold with you.

Once we became teenagers we kind of drifted to our own hobbies. Beth went into soccer where as I got more interested in baseball. It was nice for us to have our own hobbies and friends. Twins share a lot, but Beth and I decided to part ways when it came to certain things. Even though we were twins we liked being individuals. In the end we always had each others back. Today, was one of those days where I needed Beth to have my back.

Beth, Timmy and I ran outside to play in the snow that had arrived overnight. The snow caused school to be cancelled for today. So us three decided to have a day full of activities out in the snow, like Beth and I used to do as kids. Over the years we've introduced Timmy to our silly traditions.

And he loves them all so far.

"Bubby you hit me!" Timmy screams. I had just thrown a snowball at him.

"That's the concept." I laugh.

"Bryce don't be too hard on him. He's eight." Beth scolds.

I roll my eyes, "Its fresh snow, Twin. I don't think it will do any real damage."

"That doesn't mean you can go all Hulk on us." Beth says.

"Yeah, Bryce." Timmy sticks his tongue out at me. I chuckle.

"Okay, let's get this game on!" Beth chants.

Pretty soon we are in an epic battle.

******

"Bubby you hit me in the eye!" Timmy cries.

Shit.

I quickly run over to him, crouching down to his height, "Timmy, are you okay?"

"My eye hurts." He cries.

"Bryce! I told you to be careful!" Beth yells.

"It was an accident." I defend. It really was an accident, I meant to hit him on the back but Timmy turned around at the last minute.

"Bryce, his eye is really red." Beth gasps.

"Oh no no no." I mutter.

"It really hurts, Bethy." Timmy says.

"Maybe we can put some ice on it?" I suggest.

Beth smacks me on the arm, "Ouch! What was that for?" I exclaim.

"Ice really? You hit him with snow. You know what snow is, don't you?" Beth glares.

"Of course I do." I say furrowing my brows.

"Bryce we have to do something." Beth runs a hand through her hair.

We suddenly hear a ringing, "Mom is calling." Beth says looking at her phone.

"Don't answer it." I shout.

"I wanna talk to mommy." Timmy pouts.

Beth answers the call, putting on speaker, "Hey mom."

"Hey sweetie. Is everything okay there?" Mom asks.

Beth and I exchange a look, "Yeah, mom, why wouldn't it be?" I ask.

"I was just checking. Anyways, I will be home in about an hour and your dad will be home in twenty minutes." Mom informs.

"Okay. Bye." I say and hang up.

"What are we gonna do? If they find out that you hit Timmy in the eye with a snowball they're going to ground you." Beth freaks out. "I think we need to take Timmy to the ER to make sure he's okay."

"Fine. But I'm not waiting for mom or dad to get home, I'll take him, you stall them." I suggest.

"How the hell can I do that? I'm pretty sure they're going to be asking where you and Timmy are." Beth argues.

"Ugh, just tell them we went out for a bro day. It will work. I took Timmy tons of places while you were in London." I say.

"Fine. But make it quick." Beth warns.

"It's an ER, I don't think I can do that." I say in a duh tone.

"Just get going." Beth tells us. "I got your back."

I pick up Timmy and basically run towards my truck.

****

"How much longer?" Timmy asks for the millionth time.

"I don't know, bud." I say.

Timmy sighs with impatience. "You know, me hitting you in the eye with that snowball was an accident, don't you?" I ask.

Timmy nods, "I know. I'm not mad. My eye hurts but I ain't mad."

I grin at him, "You're a great little brother." I ruffle his brown hair.

"You're a pretty great big brother." Timmy says smiling at me.

I see someone come of the double doors that lead to the ER rooms, he looks around for a bit then his eyes land on me. Dr.Shepherd.

He walks over to us, "Bryce, what are you doing here?" He asks.

"My brother got hurt, getting him checked out." I inform.

"What happened to him?" Dr.Shepherd asks.

"Bubby hit me with a snowball, right in the eye." Timmy rats me out.

"He did, did he?" Dr.Shepherd says. "I can take a look."

"Oh, that's nice but we can wait our turn." I decline.

"Bryce, I own the hospital. They aren't going to say anything." He tells me. "What's your name, little guy?" He turns his attention to my brother.

"Timmy. How do you know Bryce?" Timmy asks.

"I think you know my daughter, Kenzie." Dr.Shepherd says.

Timmy nods, "I like Kenzie, she plays Mario Kart with me!" Timmy smiles.

"Does she always try to win?" He asks Timmy.

"Yeah. She never lets Bryce and I win." Timmy pouts causing me to laugh.

Dr.Shepherd laughs, "Since you know my daughter, would you be okay with me checking out your eye?"

Timmy looks at me for assurance which I give him, "Okay." He answers.

"Good. Follow me." Dr.Shepherd instructs.

******

"Are you sure that he is fine?" I ask Dr.Shepherd.

"Yes. I flushed out his eye and made sure that there was no infection. I'm giving you these eye drops to put in his twice a day. They will help if he has any irritation. If his eye is still hurting after a week, make an appointment with the eye doctor." He explains.

"Do I get a sucker for being a good patient?" Timmy asks shyly.

"Hmm..I think you do." Dr.Shepherd says. He opens up a drawer in his desk, "Which one would you like?" He asks holding up three different colors.

Timmy of course goes for the orange sucker, orange is his favorite color. "Thank you Dr.Shepherd." Timmy smiles his green eyes light up with excitement.

"You're welcome." He says.

"We gotta get going, mom and dad are probably already home." I tell Timmy.

"Thanks again for seeing him. I know inspecting eyes isn't your occupation but its means a lot." I say.

"Not a problem." Dr.Shepherd smiles. I can't help but notice how similar he and Kenzie look. They both have the same blue eyes, skin tone, smile, the only difference is their hair. Kenzie has blonde hair and her dad has light brown hair. Kenzie told me that she and her dad also share gene for having to win things. They also share the soccer gene.

Timmy and I make our back home and right into the angry faces of my parents. I gulp, "Hey guys."

"Bryce Dalton! You hit Timmy in the eye with a snowball." Dad shouts.

"I'm sorry, it was an accident." I try to defend myself.

"Sweetie, are you okay?" Mom crouches down to Timmy.

"Uh huh. Bryce took me to the doctor where I got my eye flushed out and a sucker. But I ate the sucker, I have the stick though!" Timmy cheers and holds up the stick to show mom and dad.

"As long as he is okay. Did the doctor give any further instructions?" Dad asks.

"Yep. These eye drops, twice a day to stop any infection and irritation. Also Dr.Shepherd said if Timmy is having any pain after a week to take him to the eye doctor." I inform.

Dads eye brows furrow, "Dr.Shepherd?"

"Kenzie's dad." Beth says.

"He's nice, he let me choose my sucker! I chose orange!" Timmy giggles.

"See guys, he's fine." I wave it off which causes mom and dad to glare at me. "I'll just shut up now."

"Bryce, we are proud of you. You took him to the ER like any responsible adult would do. Accidents happen, son." Dad says patting me on the back.

Mom, dad, and Timmy leave the room. "I would say thanks for having my back but they found out." I say to Beth.

"Bryce, they wanted to know where you guys went. Apparently telling them that you were having a bro day wasn't good enough. I had to tell them. At least you didn't get grounded." Beth says.

"Yeah." I mumble.

"What's wrong with you? You've been in a mood for a few weeks now." Beth frowns.

"Nothing is wrong and I haven't been in a mood." I counter.

Beth scoffs, "Avery and Harry both have said that you were happier and more chill while I was away. Now that I'm back you're back to the way you were before I left. Are you pissed that I left or that I'm back?" Beth argues.

"Beth I am happy that you are back. This has nothing to do with you. There are just some things that happened and I don't want to talk about it." I explain only being half honest. I don't want to tell Beth that she is part of the reason that I'm not with Kenzie.

"So you aren't going to tell me what happened?" She asks, and I shake my head no. Beth sighs in frustration, "Fine. I will leave it alone." She says then walks up the stairs to her room.

I follow her up the stairs but go down the hall to my room and throw myself onto my bed.

When did life become so complicated? I miss the good ole days when I spent my days outside playing with Harry or Beth. Now it's all fucked up. Its not that I enjoy keeping what happened between Kenzie and I a secret from Beth. I just don't think she needs to know if nothing is ever going to come from it.

Beth once made me promise that I would never date one of her friends. I met Molly before Beth did so that didn't count. Beth and Molly became friends after Molly and I had already hooked up. After we ended things Molly left and she and Beth kept in touch via text. Beth would always tell me what Molly was up to, I would say I didn't care, because honestly I didn't. I was never sad or upset when we ended things. It was just a two month fling, nothing more, nothing less.

I was never one to break my promises, especially not to my own twin, but once Kenzie and I got to know each other that promise I made to Beth went flying out of the window. And truth be told I didn't care one bit. But now that promise has come back to bite me on the ass.

It's not like I haven't thought about telling Beth, I have. I don't know how she would take it. Or how Kenzie would take it. Kenzie doesn't have a lot of people in her life, Beth is a pretty important one and I would hate if she lost her because I couldn't keep my damn mouth shut. I can at least keep my and Kenzie's secret for Kenzie's, mine and Beth's sake.

I owe them that much.

***********************

A/N: another filler chapter. This time we got to see a little bit of the Dalton Family.

Up next: we got us a party. Wooo!!

Stay tuned...